Tucson Roadrunners Road Ahead: A Gem of a Road Trip

Upcoming Games (All Times MST)

Friday, February 7 @ San Jose Barracuda at 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 8 @ San Jose Barracuda at 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday, February 11 @ Bakersfield Condors at 7:30 p.m.

Roadrunners Record Through 41 Games: 19-19-2-1, 41 points, 8th in the Pacific Division

The Gem Show Trip:

With All-Star Break concluded, the Tucson Roadrunners now start the always anticipated “Gem Show Trip,” a trip the team goes on every season in the beginning of February while the Annual Gem Show commences at the Tucson Arena. This one, coming as a season-high seven-game trip, spans 14 days from January 5 to January 19. Tucson is set to take on the San Jose Barracuda, Bakersfield Condors, Ontario Reign, Henderson Silver Knights and Coachella Valley Firebirds. Tucson has a combined record of 7-5-1-1 against its next five opponents; with the exception of not playing San Jose yet this season that will change on Friday and Saturday. The Roadrunners have had the most success against Bakersfield (2-0-0-0), Coachella Valley (2-1-0-0) and Henderson (3-2-1-0); acquiring winning records against all three teams. The Roadrunners went 3-1-1-0 in the Gem Show Trip last season: including a 3-2 victory over Bakersfield and 4-3 shootout victory versus Coachella Valley in single-game matchups.

The New Guy On The Block:

On Monday, the Utah Hockey Club acquired forward Samuel Walker from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for future considerations. Walker, a Minnesota Native himself, has 104 points with 43 goals and 61 assists for 104 points in 156 career games all with the Iowa Wild of the AHL. Walker adds experienced presents for a young Roadrunner lineup, putting up back-to-back 40+ point seasons in the first two years of his AHL career. This season, Walker has two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 30 games with a plus/minus of +3. In addition, Walker led the Wild in all scoring last season with 45 points with 31 of those as assists. He later signed a one-year two-way contract with the Minnesota Wild and will become a free agent after the 2024-25 season. Read more about the acquisition of Sammy Walker HERE.

The Iowa Wild host the Milwaukee Admirals at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa (10/23/2024) (Tim Garland / Iowa WIld Photographer)

Teach Me How To Dougie:

Roadrunners 6-foot-9 forward Curtis Douglas has provided offense for the Roadrunners in the recent stretch. In his last eight games he’s notched four points (1 goal, 3 assists) including a two-game assist streak both coming in the crucial third period. The seven-game road trip coming up for Tucson is significant because out of Douglas’ 10 total points this season, six of them have come on the road with two goals and four assists. In addition, Douglas is in a three-way tie for the team lead in fights at five with defenseman Montana Onyebuchi and forward Hunter Drew. Overall, the Roadrunners finished the month of January with nine total fights which is the most in a single month of the season; with Drew getting involved in three of them.

Outside Looking In:

The Roadrunners find themselves out of the final playoff spot with its current eight-game losing slide but only three points outside of the Bakersfield Condors for the seventh seed. Fortunately, the Roadrunners have not seen a losing streak this high since the 2022-23 season, in which the team did not win its final seven games of the regular season but made the postseason with a 30-33-8-1 record. However, the Pacific Division has gotten much better over the last season and a half; with seven of the 10 teams gaining winning percentages of 5.49 or better in the 2023-24 season in comparison to just four of the 10 teams with a .549 winning percentage or better from 2022-23. Just over halfway through this season, five of the 10 total teams have .600 or better winning percentages while sixth-place Abbotsford (.571) and seventh-place Bakersfield (.550) each have over a .549 winning percentage.


We Are Live:
Tucson Roadrunners Happy Hour airs every Tuesday at 5 p.m. on FOX Sports 1450AM and the iHeartRadio app, with a podcast version also available after each episode on the iHeartRadio app and Apple Podcast. This past week, “Voice of the Roadrunners” Jonathon Schaffer and Co-Host Kim Cota-Robles are joined by Roadrunners defenseman Maveric Lamoureux and forward Ryan McGregor from the Season Ticket Member Signing Event. Listen live each week HERE and the podcast version after HERE.