The Coachella Valley Firebirds celebrated their first trip to Tucson with a win over the Roadrunners.
The expansion Firebirds beat the Roadrunners 4-1 on Friday night at Tucson Arena.
“Obviously we can’t play a team like that when you play 10 hard minutes and expect to win,” said Roadrunners head coach Steve Potvin. “That’s a team that we’re going to need a full 60 minutes and it’s unfortunate we had a lot of penalties tonight, we didn’t manage the puck well enough and as a result we lost the game.”
Tucson (6-3-0-0) hosts the Firebirds (6-3-0-0) again in Saturday night in the first TV game of the year at 7 p.m. The game will air on CW Tucson channel 8/58.
About five minutes in, the Roadrunners had a two-man advantage but didn’t score.
“I didn’t think we had a bad start, the first 10 minutes was good,” said Roadrunners center Jean-Sebastien Dea. “I think it could’ve been a different game if we would’ve scored on that 5-on-3 but it’s part of the game, after that we didn’t play our best, we had a good 10 minutes in the third but it wasn’t good enough."
Coachella Valley forward Austin Poganski scored the first goal with 6:18 left in the first period. Then a little over a minute later, Firebirds forward Max McCormick scored on a power play. He also had an assist on the first goal.
The Firebirds improved to 4-1-0-0 in true road games while Tucson dropped to 2-1-0-0 in home games.
CV outshot Tucson 38-21. The Firebirds were 1 for 5 on the power play while Tucson was 0 for 4.
At 7:52 in the second, Coachella Valley forward Ville Petman scored on a delayed penalty.
Midway through the third Dea scored, assisted by forward Milos Kelemen and defenseman Victor Soderstrom. Dea is now tied for most goals for the Roadrunners with forward Laurent Dauphin, who has joined the Coyotes.
“Great play by Milos, worked hard in the corner, I was just trying to find the area there and then the puck went in,” Dea said.
Forward Michael Carcone leads Tucson with 12 points, while Dea is second with nine.
Attendance was 3,471 for Faith and Family Night. The groups took photos on the ice afterwards.
“I thought there was a good amount of energy out there for the crowd tonight,” Potvin said. “I thought it was — actually they’re still boisterous right now — and I expect a bigger crowd even tomorrow so it was fun to be in front of our fans, we appreciate the cheers and support and we’re gonna need them tomorrow night.”
Coachella Valley sealed it with an empty net goal with about two minutes left by forward Jesper Froden.
Going into the game the Firebirds led the league in goals with 4.125 per game.
Friday’s matchup started a six-game homestand for the Roadrunners, tied for their longest of the season.
“It’s nice, it’s always good for guys to be around their family and being in front of our fans and stuff,” Dea said. “So we’ll try to be better for them tomorrow for sure.”
Slap shots
- Saturday is Military Appreciation Night for the Roadrunners, who will wear camo sweaters with stars and stripes. They will auction the jerseys off after the game to benefit VetTix, a non-profit organization that helps send veterans and their families to sporting and entertainment events.
- Five sailors from the USS Tucson attended the game. A contingent from the submarine also went to the UA men’s basketball game on Monday. They are frequent visitors to Roadrunner games when in town.
- Coachella Valley assistant Jessica Campbell is the AHL’s first female assistant coach. Campbell was an assistant for Germany at the 2022 IIHF Men’s World Championship, the first woman coach at the World Championship. She played for Canada, Cornell University and for the Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.
