They’re the team that’s had the Tucson Roadrunners’ number more than any other this season, and they just happen to be the team Tucson plays more than any other, too.
The upstart Colorado Eagles (21-17-3-1) continued their supremacy this season over the Roadrunners (23-14-3-1) with a 3-1 victory Friday night at Tucson Arena.
With the eighth of 12 meetings coming Saturday — the teams see each other on the schedule more than either plays any other American Hockey League club — Colorado now holds a 5-2 advantage of the Roadrunners on the year and has tightened the logjam in the AHL’s Pacific Division Standings in the process.
“I think there was a period of time in tonight’s game where we were too cute. We tried to do things too fancy,” Tucson coach Jay Varady said. “We tried to play through the middle of the ice which isn’t really our game.
"I think we have to play a simple north game, where we’re shooting the puck — where we’re finding the ways to get the puck to the net — and I don’t think we did a good enough job of that tonight.”
Colorado goaltender Spencer Martin, who had one of the wackiest two-game stretches a goalie might see in his or her entire career last week, was on point again for the Eagles, stopping 31 of 32 Tucson shots Friday.
It was a week ago to the day Martin turned away all 68 shots he faced in a 4-0 shutout of Ontario, only to face another 51 shots the very next night. In two games against Tucson this season — Friday as well as a Dec. 12 shutout at Tucson Arena — Martin has stopped 53 of 54 Roadrunner attempts on goal.
“I think with the role I’ve been given this year, the way that hockey works, you know there’s a time that you might come where you get an opportunity to play consecutive games, and I thrive on that,” Martin said of becoming the Eagles’ go-to goaltender since All-Star Pavel Francouz went down with an injury two weeks back.
Martin said it wasn’t something Colorado did, per se, that pushed Tucson into shooting it practically half as many times as Ontario a week earlier. It’s all part of the way the Roadrunners play, he noted.
“I think it was more just playing teams that were different styles. Ontario was throwing pucks on net, but they’re throwing it from the outside. (Tucson) is looking more to make the extra pass, and make tough, quality chances,” Martin said.
“Both those styles work, and if we can play really well, win the first game, and make them adjust away from their game, that would be great. … They can throw more on net, but they’re looking for the extra pass which can be deadly.”
Varady said that in addition to shots, Tucson also needs to “get to the dirty areas more” if it wants to turn the tide Saturday when these teams face off again at 7:05 p.m.
“We’ve got to get to the blue paint. We’ve got find screens. We’ve got to find rebounds,” Varady said. “The game is not complicated. If the goalie is hot, you’ve got to take away his eyes.
"You’ve got to find rebounds. We were able to bank one in once, that was our one from the night. We should learn from that, grow from that, try and get there more, and just put the puck there more.”
That one Tucson was able to bank in, as Varady put it, tied the game at 1-1 with about two minutes to play in the second period. Cam Dineen brought the puck along the boards to the left of Martin, then threw it toward the goal, only to have it bounce off forward Helewka — Dineed thought it went off Helewka’s stomach — and into the goal.
“Most goals nowadays are scored with traffic in front — tips, screens, whatever it is — just because goalies are so good now it’s hard to beat them one-on-one,” Dineen said. “I think that’s our gameplan (Saturday): Get a lot of pucks to the net and create a lot of havoc in the crease.”
Helewka’s goal was his team-high 13th on the season for Tucson.
But in addition to a first-period goal from Jean-Christophe Beaudin, Colorado re-took the lead just past a minute into the third period when Mark Alt blasted one past Tucson goaltender Adin Hill, who stopped 27 of 29 shots in his fourth straight start, but third consecutive loss.
The Eagles capped the scoring with an empty net goal from Martin Kaut in the final minute of play.
The loss shakes things up even further in the AHL’s Pacific Division. Tucson, which just two weeks ago had the third-best record in the AHL and was barely a game or so out of first in what is arguably the league’s toughest division, now sits in fourth in the Pacific in points behind first-place San Jose, then Bakersfield, then San Diego.
The Eagles are fifth, just three points back of Tucson for the fourth and final playoff spot out of the seven-team division.
