1-on-1 with Travis Barron

Roadrunners Forward Travis Barron joined Adrian Denny, Kim Cota-Robles, and Arizona Daily Star Sports Editor Brett Fera this week following his hat trick Saturday night for Roadrunners Happy Hour. Catch Happy Hour every Tuesday at 5 p.m. on Fox Sports 1450 AM and the complete conversation in the Roadrunners Happy Hour Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.

Listen to “Barron's Hat Full Of Tricks” on Spreaker.

Q: Awesome weekend this weekend! That pass from John Leonard looked like it was drawn up during a timeout.

Just a heads up play by John and very unselfish as well. You’re going down to an empty net and for him to pull up and look for the pass is pretty impressive stuff. So kudos to him, great play and I happily put it in.

Q: When was the last time you scored a hat trick? What does it feel like?

It’s been a couple of years. It’s not very common especially for a player in my role, and when they come it’s a great day. It’s just one of those things you can’t predict. You’re just in the right place at the right time and your linemates are making good plays. It feels nice to be honest. Like I said, they don’t come very often, and you just have to enjoy it when they do

Q: It is impressive that you guys can battle through all of these one-goal games with such a young group. You’ve had eight 3-2 games.

It’s not easy to do, it’s funny because these games, they’re going by so fast and they all seem to blend in. Like I said, you have to be levelheaded and I think our coaches do a great job of being on top of that and keeping us locked in at all times; whether things are going well or things are going downhill. It’s crucial to win those (close) games early and learn how to win. We’ve got a couple of young guys and they’re adjusting to pro and for them to learn how to win those hard games, in those hard situations It’s going to go a long way.

Q: I heard you guys liked putting on the kachinas for the first time this year over the weekend. They’re coming to Colorado with us too.

Those are nice. They are are our favorite jerseys that we’ve seen in a long time and we look good and we played well, so we’ve got to wear them more often.

Q: You mentioned pre-scouting in an interview recently. What is pre-scouting for those that don’t know?

It’s film that we go over to dig in on our opponent so we’re ready to go; so we know what is coming and we know how they play. Our coaches do a good job of going throughout the week to get us ready for the games. On Thursday, if we play Friday, we’ll have a long meeting on their game and then on Friday we’ll have a couple of little meetings. It just gives us an idea of how they play and how we should adjust accordingly to how they play.

Q: The Roadrunners have already had a few call-ups and injuries to deal with this season, how do you feel this team is going to grow and keep being competitive in this league?

I think it starts with the group of guys that we have of off the ice. We have a really good group of humans who care about each other on and off of the ice; and we’re all on the same plan. We’re off to a great start. It is a long year and I hope we continue to go on this trend of getting better; it seems like weekly (we do) and it’s just the humans that we have. It’s such a special group to be a part of.  Everybody is friends, everybody has each other’s backs and we all have fun doing it. I think that’s an important piece.

Q: Did you get to keep any of the hats?

I got a puck. So that one’s going to be on the wall forever.