Anything the Tucson Roadrunners would do Friday night in Tucson Arena, the Stockton Heat thought they could do better.
They thought wrong.
In what played out as a 65-minute-plus matchup of “can you top this?” between the Roadrunners (9-7-1-0) and first-place Heat (14-2-2-1), Tucson battled back from a two-goal second period deficit to defeat arguably the team with the AHL’s second-best overall record, 5-4, in a shootout.
“We hung in there. We found a way,” Tucson head coach Jay Varady said of the victory for the Roadrunners in their first of seven games over the next 14 days heading into the weeklong holiday break.
Tucson scored twice in four shootout attempts, with Matias Maccelli beat Stockton goaltender Adam Werner to open up the breakaway competition. Terry Broadhurst scored on Tucson’s fourth attempt while Roadrunners’ goaltender Ivan Prosvetov stopped three of four Stockton breakaways to secure the victory for the home team.
Stockton has lost just five times this season. That includes two in regulation, two in overtime, and this one in a shootout. Tucson also handed the Heat one of the overtime defeats — that coming in a 1-0 Roadrunners’ victory on opening night.
While the Heat came in winners of three straight and four of five outings, Tucson has now picked up two victory points in five of their last six games. The Roadrunners are in fourth in the Pacific Division standings, mere percentage points behind the Henderson Silver Knights for third.
Prosvetov stopped 47 of 51 shots on goal against to earn first star honors. He admitted it’s not often four goals get past a goalie and he’s still the game’s top star. But on Friday, it was clearly deserved.
“I actually came off the ice and they grabbed me to go back,” he said. “I’m like, maybe third star, you know? Yeah, it was a lot of shots. But they gave me the first (star)? I was kind of surprised.”
With roughly 30 seconds to play in the second period, not long after Tucson tied the game at four apiece in an otherwise seesaw battle, Prosvetov made arguably the save of his young season. With players from both teams tying up the puck deep in the Roadrunners’ zone, it found its way free and eventually ended up on the stick of Stockton’s Martin Popisil. Prosvetov might have committed himself slightly too soon, hitting the ice before sprawling across the crease. Popisil waited, then with Prosvetov practically on his stomach, took his shot.
But instead of the score being 5-4 Stockton, the puck was in Prosvetov’s glove snatched out of mid-air.
“Key saves in key moments,” Varady said of his netminder. “I thought he made really big saves when we needed him the most.”
Prosvetov would go on to stop multiple breakaway attempts in a scoreless third period en route to 15 saves in the final frame. Prosvetov stopped two in overtime before allowing just one goal on four Heat skaters in the post-OT shootout.
“I went down pretty early on that shot, but he was pretty close. I was trying to seal the ice the best that I can,” Prosvetov said, adding that the atmosphere, especially in the arena’s south end where he was in net for the first and third period’s was especially rowdy Friday. “He made a good move. I have to give him credit. But you know, I have to get my luck, too, sometimes.”
Blake Speers, who had been without a point through Tucson’s first 16 games, scored his first of the season 3:16 into the first period. Tucson would hold the lead for roughly nine minutes before Stockton’s Jakob Pelletier, the AHL’s second-leading overall point producer this season, scored his first of two on the night. Less than two minutes later, Stockton had the lead on a goal by Matthew Phillips.
In the second, after Tucson’s Matias Maccelli scored his team high seventh goal of the season four minutes in, Stockton did the double-dip again. Pelletier connected 1:18 after Maccelli’s goal before Phillips notched his second 2:02 later, giving the Heat that 4-2 lead.
But Tucson wasn’t done.
Travis Barron and Victor Sodorstrom joined Speers in scoring their first goals of the season Friday. Barron’s goal came 11:05 into the middle frame, with Soderstrom tying the game at four with less than three to play in that second period.
“Something that we’ve shown, especially over the course of the last 10 games or so, is that we’ve got a serious amount of character in that locker room,” Speers said of Tucson’s resiliency. “For them to get it to 4-2, and for us to not let it slip away and get out of hand and then climb back. … It kind of shows what we have building in that locker room right now.”
Saturday’s rematch will be broadcast on KWBA-TV, which is channels 8 or 58 depending on the carrier. Radio play-by-play voice Adrian Denny will be on the call, which is slated as a simulcast on 1450-AM.
