Game #46: Tucson Roadrunners (1) vs Ontario Reign (8)
Game #46: Tucson Roadrunners vs Ontario Reign
SOG: TUC (24) – ONT (28)
PP: TUC (0/2) – ONT (1/4)
ONTARIO SCORING: Fransisco Pinelli (5), Steven Santini (1,2,3), Samuel Fagemo (21), Akil Thomas (16), Tyler Madden (10), Wyatte Wylie (2)
TUCSON SCORING: Josh Doan (20)
Forward Josh Doan scored his 20th goal of the year for Tucson in the third period of Friday night’s contest against the Ontario Reign to breakup the Ontario shutout. Doan, an Arizona native, leads the Roadrunners in points with 32 (20 goals, 12 assists) in just his second professional season, and first full professional season. Doan played in 14 games for the Roadrunners last season after being a 2021 draft pick of the Coyotes and playing collegiate hockey at Arizona State University.
DON’T OVERLOOK IT
BACK IN BLACK (KACHINA) – It was a beautiful, sunny February day in Arizona, a day that makes you understand why so many people escape the cold winters to live in Tucson. But it was a beautiful, sunny day because Defensemen Cam Crotty and Forward Ben McCartney returned to the Roadrunners lineup, not the weather. Cam Crotty missed 13 games and hasn’t played since early January. Ben McCartney missed six games and hasn’t played since late January. In both of their returns they picked up an assist on the lone Roadrunners goal of the evening.
LOOK AT THIS
Tucson Roadrunners defenseman and Assistant Captain Cam Crotty smiles before a draw in the Tucson Roadrunners matchup with the Ontario Reign on Friday night from the Tucson Arena. Crotty assisted Josh Doan on the team’s lone goal on the night in Crotty’s first game back since January 6th. Cam Crotty, a 2017 draft pick of the Arizona Coyotes, is in his fourth season with the Tucson Roadrunners and has six assists and a goal this season.
THEY SAID IT
“We just have to be better from the beginning. Getting out of the gates hotter and baring down on our chances early. Crots (Cam Crotty) is so reliable for everyone and settles everyone down and into the game. He made a play on my goal that not a lot of people can make.”
Forward Josh Doan after Tucson’s 8-1 loss on Friday night.
THE RUNDOWN
It was a slow start for the Roadrunners as they returned home for the first time in the month of February after going 3-1-1-0 on the Gem Show Road Trip. Their opponent, the Ontario Reign, came out early and often as they scored four goals in the first period. All four goals were even-strength, two of which were scored just 29 seconds apart. Under a minute in the second period, it would be Ontario lighting the lamp and extending their lead to five. It wasn’t until the sixth goal of the game, a shorthanded goal for the Reign, that the wind was taken out of the Tucson Roadrunners sails.
With a 6-0 lead heading into the final frame Jared Moe, recently added from the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads, would enter in net for the Roadrunners and make his AHL debut. Ontario would score a power-play goal to take a seven-goal lead 2:41 into the third. Josh Doan, Tucson’s leading scorer, would give some life to the Tucson Arena at the 6:37 mark scoring his 20th goal of the season and breaking up the Ontario shutout. Doan was assisted by Cam Crotty and Ben McCartney on the play. Cam Crotty was back in the lineup for the first time in 14 games for the Roadrunners.
