A night after the Tucson Roadrunners squandered a two-goal, third-period lead to the Henderson Silver Knights, the Roadrunners regrouped to display of one of their best defensive performances of the 2021-22 season.
Even still, all the Roadrunners had to show for that effort Wednesday night in Tucson Arena was a 3-0 loss to a Henderson team surging up the American Hockey League’s Pacific Division standings.
Despite holding Henderson to one goal and limiting the Silver Knights to just 21 shots through roughly the game’s first 52 minutes, the Roadrunners were done in by two Henderson markers just 1:41 apart down the stretch.
Even with being shut out, and Tucson suffering its third straight loss after previously winning five of six outings, Roadrunners’ head coach Jay Varady wasn’t disappointed with his team’s effort or the ability of the Roadrunners (9-9-2-0) to match up with the Silver Knights (11-7-1-1).
“Five-on-five, we played a good game. That’s the type of game we’re looking for,” Varady said. “I thought we did a good job defensively. I thought we had lots of scoring chances throughout the game.
“We weren’t able to convert in key times,” he added.
To Varady’s point, Henderson’s first two goals of the night came on the power play. The first was 44 seconds into the second period by Pavel Dorofeyev; the second came just shy of eight minutes left in the third by Jack Dugan. Henderson’s final goal was less than two minutes later, again from Dorofeyev – this time at even strength.
Tucson forward Lewis Zerter-Gossage, who had one of the Roadrunners’ best scoring chances early on when he went nearly one-on-one with Henderson goaltender Logan Thompson, said it’s just “the reality of the game” when a team plays well but can’t muster anything against a hot goaltender.
“It’s funny. It’s a long game, and one goal can swing a result entirely,” Zerter-Gossage said. “In this game, we just weren’t able to score. He’s a good goalie. We had good chances.”
Thompson, the AHL’s reigning goaltender of the year, stopped all 36 Tucson shots he faced to outduel Roadrunners’ netminder Zane McIntyre. The win marked Thompson’s second shutout of the season.
“We pushed. We had chances,” Varady said. “I thought their goaltender was outstanding tonight.”
McIntyre, making his third start for Tucson, was almost as good during those first 52 minutes.
In his first start since Nov.27 – McIntyre became the first Tucson goaltender not named Ivan Prosvetov to start a game in net this month – he stopped 20 of the first 21 shots he faced before finishing 23 of 26.
Tucson now regroups as it hits the road for a three-game trek beginning Saturday in Southern California against the Ontario Reign at 7 p.m. After that lone matchup – that’s the first time all season the Roadrunners won’t see a team twice in two or three nights – Tucson makes its first trip north of the border this season to visit the Abbotsford Canucks on Dec. 22-23.
The Roadrunners next return to Tucson Arena on New Year’s Eve for a 6 p.m. faceoff with the San Diego Gulls.
