A barrage of goals helped the Tucson Roadrunners say goodbye to their losing streak.
The Roadrunners scored scored seven unanswered goals Tuesday night to beat visiting Coachella Valley 7-2 and snap a five-game skid.
The Roadrunners (11-7-4-0) rolled at Tucson Arena to pick up their first- ever victory over the expansion Firebirds.
“Honestly it’s good to have a win like that,” said Tucson head coach Steve Potvin. “In the last four games I think the outcome could have been easily the same for us, really I’m happy the boys played a 60-minute game.”
The Roadrunners had been 0-2-3-0 in their last five, including three straight overtime losses.
Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone scored in the second period and twice in the third to get the hat trick. Two of those were power-play goals.
“They don’t come too often so whenever you get a night or an opportunity to cap off a hat trick it’s a nice feeling,” Carcone said.
Tucson set a Roadrunners record with five power-play goals and had a season high in total goals.
“We got a little bit of a slow start, but I think it just shows the mental toughness,” said Tucson forward Nathan Smith. “Our team’s not gonna quit, we came back, we scored seven unanswered and we had a couple power plays and I think it’s huge to take advantage of those.”
The Roadrunners host the Firebirds (12-5-3-0) again on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. to close out the home stand.
The Roadrunners were 5 for 9 on the power play while CV was 0 for 4.
“Setting a franchise record on the power play is always refreshing, I did it for seven years and I’m not jealous one bit,” Potvin said. “It was nice the PK did their job as well, it’s good to see the special teams get rewarded tonight.”
Tucson outshot Coachella Valley 30-17.
The third period featured 16 penalties and eight fighting penalties, plus two for instigating.
“They’re a great team and obviously they’re a little frustrated tonight and kudos to them for sticking up for themselves and we’re gonna try and do the same thing,” Carcone said. “So we’re not gonna back down from anybody.”
Coachella Valley opened the scoring 1:17 into the game when right wing Eddie Wittchow lit the lamp. Then at 6:48 in the first center Ville Petman made it 2-0.
Smith got Tucson on the board with a power play 14:35 into the first. Center Jean-Sebastien Dea and forward Laurent Dauphin got the assists.
Then a little under two minutes later, forward Hudson Elynuik tied it up for the Roadrunners.
Halfway through the second period, forward Ben McCartney scored a power play goal for Tucson, sandwiched between Carcone’s first goal and his other two scores.
Forward Laurent Dauphin scored Tucson’s seventh goal as 10 Roadrunners had points, led by Carcone’s four.
Slap shots
- Firebirds goalie and former ASU star Joey Daccord had a rough outing on the UA’s home ice. On Nov. 12 in his first game at the Tucson Arena he gave up three goals in the first 12 minutes. “He’s an old teammate so I know his weaknesses — but don’t tell him that (laughs),” Carcone said. “But no, he’s a great goalie, great friend of mine, a couple lucky bounces off the post and was fortunate they went my way.”
- Seven goals is the most goals Coachella Valley has ever given up.
- Tucson defenseman Victor Soderstrom and forward Adam Cracknell are day-to-day.
- The series final is Kid’s Free Wednesday. Kids that are 12 and under with a paid adult can get free tickets from the box office.
