Roadrunners defenseman Doyle Somerby had a plan to deal with his former teammates when the Iowa Wild came to town on Tuesday: See them, then stay silent until the series is done.
“One thing that’s kinda written in the hockey rules is, 'Once game day comes around, there’s no friends,’” Somerby said. “I’m used to playing hard against those guys and they know it’s a job so obviously it’s a little strange seeing some buddies but at the same time, the harder you play the better things are going to be and they want to beat you as bad as I want to beat them, actually, it kinda almost brings out better energy in you.”
The Wild were unfriendly to the Roadrunners on Tuesday night, scoring six unanswered goals on the way to a 6-1 win at Tucson Arena. The Roadrunners fell to 20-32-2-1.
Iowa outshot Tucson 42-27.
“Not what we wanted,” said Tucson head coach Jay Varady. “That’s not the result we wanted, that’s not the effort we wanted; no good.”
About halfway through the first Tucson left wing Ben McCartney scored the game’s first goal on a power play, assisted by defenseman Victor Soderstrom and left wing Terry Broadhurst. McCartney has scored goals in four of the Roadrunners’ last five games.
Kyle Rau had a had trick for Iowa, which improved to 26-7-4-4.
The Wild’s win came after they split a two game series in Iowa in November with Somerby playing for the Minnesota affiliate. The Coyotes' organization reacquired Somerby in January.
"I was super excited" to return to Arizona, Somerby said. "Obviously, there’s a pretty big turnover with how many guys from last year’s team are up with the Coyotes and how many guys went other places but the coaching staff was pretty close to similar with Jay coming back down and I love this city, playing in the TCC and I like the group of guys that were still remaining."
He played for the Wild in 14 games.
“Doyle’s been a good addition for us,” Varady said. “He gives us an older presence back there. Obviously an old team, a team he played with for a period of time and he did a good job tonight.”
Varady said they wanted to trade for Somerby for his experience more than anything.
“It’s unique, scenarios change as seasons go on and there’s a scenario where we knew we need to get a little older and we were able to reacquire him,” Varady said.
The New York Islanders drafted Somerby, a Massachusetts native, in 2012. When he got to the AHL, he played for the Cleveland Monsters in three seasons.
After playing for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays for 17 games last season, the Roadrunners picked him up the first time.
“They treat us very well,” Somerby said about the Coyotes/Roadrunners organization. “The culture here’s a really good culture and they’ve made sure to keep it the same thing even with all the turnover.”
