Up against a monumental early deficit Saturday night, the Tucson Roadrunners played the rest of the way like their season depended on it.
In a manner of speaking, it did.
Trailing the visiting Colorado Eagles by four goals just eight minutes into Saturday’s contest in Tucson Arena, the Roadrunners chipped away, tying the game at 4-4 after two periods, and again at 5-5 with barely three minutes to play in regulation.
But despite overtime looking imminent, a goal by Colorado’s Jacob MacDonald with just five seconds left in the third period gave the Eagles the 6-5 victory, and put the final dagger in the Roadrunners’ ever-dim hope for an American Hockey League postseason berth.
“Yeah, that hurts,” Tucson coach Jay Varady said. “I really thought we had great effort tonight. And that’s one thing that we’ve been asking these guys is to compete every night, and I thought our team competed.
“We had a face off in our zone, 37 seconds left. And somehow before it’s all over, it’s in the back of our net,” Varady added.
On Friday, it was the Roadrunners (21-36-5-1) who carried the momentum of a goal scored in the game’s first minute against the Eagles (37-21-4-3) to an eventual victory. Saturday, Colorado flipped that script, with Martin Kaut beating Tucson goaltender Ivan Prosvetov for an early power play goal just 50 seconds in. Over the next handful of minutes, Jayson Megna and Dylan Sikura would score to chase Prosvetov to the bench, before Shane Bowers made got one past Roadrunners replacement netminder Josef Kořenář to make it 4-0.
But Kořenář would stand tall the rest of the way, stopping 23 of the next 24 shots he faced, as Tucson dug its way back into the game.
“Joe played really well. He kept us in it. He played pretty exceptional. I mean, huge saves out there to keep us in it,” said Tucson forward Ben McCartney, who would record his second hat trick of the season Saturday.
Added Varady: “Josef came in and he gave us a chance.”
Still within the first half of the opening period, McCartney scored for Tucson just two minutes after Bowers to cut the deficit to 4-1. In the second period, a Hudson Fasching breakaway marker, followed by McCartney scoring again, and then a top-shelf blast from the point by Andrew Nielsen all came barely four minutes apart near the end of the middle period. That sent the game to the second intermission at four apiece.
Kiefer Sherwood would give Colorado the lead at 5-4 six minutes into he third, but McCartney’s third goal – a pseudo-breakaway where he punched the puck past Colorado goaltender Justus Annunen one handed while being dragged down by a pair of Eagles defenders as he approached the crease – tied it back up at 5 just outside three minutes to play.
“I can’t take credit for it at all. My linemates tonight, (Fasching and Jan Jenik), they played real well,” McCartney said. “The puck was following me around tonight. But at the end of the day we want that win.”
Jenik and fellow Roadrunner Terry Broadhurst finished with three assists each, while a Fasching assist on McCartney’s third goal gave the Roadrunners’ captain a two-point night. Victory Soderstrom, Ty Emberson and Blake Speers each had an assist for Tucson.
Former Roadrunner defenseman Jordan Gross carded two more assists Saturday for Colorado, giving him five over the two-game series. Gross leads all AHL defenseman with 64 points this season.
McCartney, who had a hat trick in his first game of the season back on Oct. 23, nearly bookended his first full professional campaign with another. Tucson has just five games left after Saturday, including two more at home to close out the season on Thursday, April 28 and Friday, April 29.
On Saturday, though, barely a minute of real time before the Tucson Arena crowed of more than 5,000 rained their caps down on the ice following McCartney’s third goal, the Ontario Reign defeated the San Diego Gulls for the third time in four days, this time by a score of 5-2. San Diego entered the night in seventh place in the AHL’s Pacific Division, with Tucson in eighth and holding onto postseason hopes by barely a thread.
Another San Diego loss, coupled with a Tucson win, and the Roadrunners would still be alive. But even though the Gulls carded their fifth consecutive loss overall, the Roadrunners’ loss still clinched San Diego the final playoff position out of the AHL’s Pacific Division.
“Tonight was definitely a fun hockey game,” said Broadhurst, whose three-point night gives him 11 in his last 10 games. “A little bit of a roller coaster of emotions. But being down by a few early and battling back like that was huge. Credit to the guys for playing with their hearts all the way through.”
Acknowledging that Tucson’s playoff chances are officially gone after Saturday’s defeat, Broadhurst echoed sentiments shared by his teammates over the last week: The Roadrunners, both as a team and individually, have plenty to play for over the club’s last five games.
“We’re playing for each other,” Broadhurst said. “Not only do you want to represent yourself well and play as hard as you can, you also want to play for your teammates.
“So that’s what we’ll do,” he added. We’ll play for each other. We’ll play for Tucson.”
