Game #5 – Roadrunners At Barracuda

/in /by

Game #5 –Tucson Roadrunners at San Jose Barracuda

7:00 p.m. MST, Tech CU Arena, San Jose, California

WATCH LIVE HERE

LISTEN LIVE HERE

Tucson Roadrunners Current Roster:  CLICK HERE

Referees: Jared Cummins (2) Mike Dietrich (15)

Linespersons: Niko Diehr (31) Andrew Noris (83)

The Roadrunners head out on the road after their 2-0 home stand to take on the San Jose Barracuda in a two-game set at the new Tech CU Arena. Tucson enters the series tied for third in the AHL’s Pacific Division at 3-1-0-0, while the Barracuda are coming off their first loss of the season, a 2-1 defeat against the Ontario Reign at home on Wednesday to fall to second place at 4-1-0-0. Friday’s game will mark the start of the Roadrunners first multi-city road trip of the season, as they’ll travel to Calgary to face the Wranglers next week.

Three Things
1) The Roadrunners have won the first meeting of the season with the San Jose Sharks AHL affiliate in each of the last three seasons, all as the designated away team. Tucson took last year’s season series opener at the SAP Center on January 12, 2022, by a score of 4-3 backed by a three-goal third period. The year before, the Roadrunners opened the 2020-2021 campaign on February 7, 2021, with a 2-1 overtime victory against the Barracuda, with current defenseman Cam Dineen burying the game-winner. In the first meeting of 2019-2020, the Roadrunners were down 2-0 before scoring four consecutive goals to win by a score of 5-3 on November 3, 2019. Over the last five seasons, Tucson has a record of 6-4-1-2 against the Barracuda on the road and a 12-6-2-2 record overall against San Jose.

2) Through four games this season, the Roadrunners are averaging a power-play goal per-game while also possessing the third-highest penalty-kill percentage in the AHL’s Pacific Division at 83.3%. Both Tucson and San Jose have taken 18 trips to the man-advantage this year, with the Roadrunners power-play unit coming away twice as effective (22.2%) than San Jose’s (11.1%). In addition, Tucson is currently tied for the fewest times shorthanded in the Pacific Division at 18, while the Barracuda have gone on the penalty-kill 24 times, tied for second-most in the division. Despite the number of times shorthanded, San Jose is the only team in the AHL to not allow an opposing power-play goal this season.

3) Two players to watch ahead of the weekend set with the Barracuda are reigning AHL Player of the Week Laurent Dauphin and Roadrunners starting goaltender Ivan Prosvetov. Dauphin has not faced the Barracuda since the 2018-2019 season but has nine points (3g 6a) in 12 games against San Jose as a member of the Roadrunners dating back to 2016-2017. Prosvetov enters the weekend having won each of his first two starts of the season for the fourth-straight campaign since joining the Roadrunners in 2019. His current goals allowed average of 1.95 is tenth overall in the AHL among qualified goalies, and fifth among backstops that have appeared in three games or more. Prosvetov is halfway to his best start to a season of 4-0-0, which he achieved in 2020-2021 with back-to-back wins against the Barracuda to open the year.

What’s The Word?

“That was a great weekend, winning your first two games at home is great for the fans and great for our confidence. Let’s keep it rolling.”

Roadrunners forward Travis Barron on entering the weekend with San Jose on a two-game win streak after a series sweep of the Bakersfield Condors at the Tucson Arena.

Number to Know
7 – The number of Roadrunners skaters entering the weekend series against San Jose on point streaks of two games or more. Leading the way are Ronald Knot (1g 2a), Mike Carcone (1g, 5a) and Jean-Sebastien Dea (2g 2a) with scoring streaks of three games dating back to October 15 in Henderson. Cam Dineen (1g 2a), Jan Jenik (2a), Adam Cracknell (1g 2a), and Laurent Dauphin (4g 1a) all tallied points in each of the Roadrunners wins against Bakersfield last weekend to secure scoring streaks of two games.

We’re Doing It Live
Tonight’s game will be broadcast live on AHLtv, as well as on the radio on FOX Sports 1450AM and the iHeartRadio app. Coverage will start at 6:45 p.m. with Roadrunners Warm-Up hosted by Jimmy Peebles, before “Voice of the Roadrunners” Adrian Denny has all the action from the Tech CU Arena.