Many of the 1,150 or so in attendance at Tucson Arena Friday night were still filing through the gates. The hot dogs weren’t yet fully warmed, and the Zamboni engines still in cool-down mode after their last pre-game laps around the ice.
Even the mini donuts — a steal at $6 a bag on the arena’s west-side concourse — were barely pulled from the conveyor belt for their heavenly dousing of cinnamon and sugar.
That’s how early the Tucson Roadrunners fell behind Friday night to the San Diego Gulls in what ended up a wild 8-6 San Diego win in front of a reduced-capacity sellout crowd on the night the Roadrunners would celebrate their five years in Southern Arizona.
For the third time in four outings, and fourth in their last seven, the Roadrunners (8-13-1-0) gave up a goal within the first 2 1/2 minutes of the game. That forced a team that’s struggled offensively most of the 2021 American Hockey League season to play yet again from behind.
As it turns out, offense wouldn’t be an issue for either team, but battling from a big deficit would for Tucson.
San Diego’s Andrew Agozzino beat Tucson goaltender Connor LaCouvee 2:23 into the game to set the early tone for the Gulls (17-11-0-0).
Roadrunners’ forward Michael Carcone would answer less than two minutes later, kicking off what would amount to his own record-setting performance, before San Diego then forced the floodgates open, pouring in five first-period goals to lead 5-2 after one.
“You know, when you look back there are some things that we can definitely clean up, but we need some timely saves. That’s the nature of the beast in this game,” said Potvin, who pulled LaCouvee midway through the first in favor of Chris Nell, only to go back to LaCouvee in goal to start the second period. “Sometimes you’re going to give up on a detail here or there, and things happen.
“There’s 50-50 pucks we think we’re going to win, and sometimes we start fading back, they get the next possession and it ends up in the back of our net,” Potvin added. “So, there’s a point in time we’ve just got to get some timely saves to let us get the lead.”
Carcone, who came in with four goals on the season, doubled that total on Friday night alone. He followed up that early goal with three more – all in the third period – as Tucson fought to get back within striking distance. His four goals are a new Roadrunners’ franchise record for a single game, besting the previous record of three, which has happened eight times.
“That’s obviously nice when you get those bounces, and you have a night like that,” Carcone said of his third career AHL hat trick. “But it feels better when you get a win. Unfortunately, we gave up too many odd-man rushes and we let eight in the net.”
Carcone was loaned to Tucson by the NHL’s Nashville Predators this season after the Predators’ AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, elected not to play amid the pandemic. Each of Carcone’s career hat tricks have come with a different AHL organization – the first in the 2019 Calder Cup playoffs with the Toronto Marlies, the second last spring with the Belleville Senators, and then Friday night’s showing in Tucson.
“Listen, he’s been getting an enormous amount of scoring chances. I’ve got to get him credit,” Potvin said of Carcone. “This week he took advantage of practice. He was shooting the puck through the net.”
Forward Kevin Roy’s four assists marked another bright spot for Tucson, which tied a season-high with six goals of its own. Roy’s 23 points in 22 games — good for sixth league-wide after Friday’s AHL matchups.
Defensemen Kyle Capobianco scored Tucson’s second power play goal of the night, while Tyler Steenbergen carded an assist, his third point in the last two games after just two in the Roadrunners’ first 20 outings. Cameron Hebig rounded out Tucson’s scoring in the third period with Cameron Crotty carding the assist.
For San Diego, which earned its eighth win in its last nine outings, Agozzino opened the scoring with that early goal, and, after Tucson cut the lead to 5-3 just a minute into the second period, Agozzino would pot two more in the second period to complete his own hat trick. Brendan Guhle and Matt Lorito added a pair each, and Trevor Zegras scored once. Jacob Perreault had three assists and Vinni Lettieri a pair.
San Diego goaltender Lukas Dostal stopped 44 of Tucson’s season-high 52 shots on goal. That latter number was three shy of the Roadrunners’ all-time single-game record for shots on net. LaCouvee, in his split appearance, saved 23 of the 29 shots he faced, while Nell turned away 3 of 5 in his brief relief sting.
The Roadrunners have now lost six of their last seven, having earned points in only five of their last 18 games.
The 14 combined goals from both teams is also new record for games including the Roadrunners.
Friday night’s anniversary celebration included the Roadrunners wearing special desert sand, crimson and purple jerseys adorned with the club’s fifth-anniversary logo.
The logo includes an outline of the state of Arizona and the years “2016” and “2021 bookending a centered Roadrunner logo. In-arena video tributes included messages from past Roadrunners and current Arizona Coyotes Conor Garland, recent-NHL-call-up Michael Bunting, and goaltender Adin Hill. Additional well wishes came from Coyotes’ all-time great Shane Doan, and former Tucson head coach Jay Varady, now a Coyotes’ assistant coach.
Replays of memorable Roadrunners’ moments were also shown, including the AHL’s announcement of awarding the franchise to Tucson. Also shown: clips from the night former captain Craig Cunningham’s No. 14 jersey was retired, the team’s come-from-behind 6-5 win in its first-ever home game at Tucson Arena and the first white-out held in Tucson – signifying the Roadrunners’ first home playoff game in 2018.
Prior to Carcone’s record-setting night, the last Tucson hat trick came on Dec. 20, 2019 against Ontario off the stick of forward Hudson Fasching. Coincidentally, Friday marked Fasching’s first game with the Roadrunners this season. Fasching, tied for third in Roadrunners’ career goals, was assigned to Tucson after splitting time this season between the Coyotes and the NHL club’s taxi squad.
Tucson and San Diego face off again Saturday at 7 p.m. in Tucson Arena in the back end of the two-game set.
