December 15, 2024 • 50 mins
Oice of the Roadrunners Jonathon Schaffer and Arizona Daily Star's James Kelly recapped Tucson's sweep over the Henderson Silver Knights: including the 2024-25 Teddy Bear Toss. They review Captain Austin Poganski's Teddy Bear Toss goal that Johnny predicted and hear from Poganski, Artem Duda, Matthew Villalta, Andrew Agozzino and Steve Potvin. They preview the next two games of the homestand before the team heads to Canada.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you want more Roadrunners, We've got more Roadrunners.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is the Tucson Roadrunners Insider podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
What's up, everybody?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to this week's edition of the Tucson Roadrunners Insider Podcast.
Jonathan Schaeffer here with Arizona Daily Stars James Kelly. I've
got my water, I've gotten my tea. It's Sunday. We're
feeling good. Great sweep over the Henderson Silver Nights, successful
(00:30):
Teddy Bear Toss night as well. James, what a great
weekend it was for the Roadrunners. Tough series against the Wranglers.
We had a very very hard practice week. Guys just
kind of went back to the early stages of, you know,
just what we need to work on and kind of
reset this past week at practice. Showed this weekend two
really hard fought games with a Silver Knights, who I
(00:53):
thought also played two really good games, but the Roadrunners
obviously just a better team at both of them. Matthew
Bilaltz a stellar weekend, as we're accustomed to starting both games.
We have a lot of interviews to hear from as well.
We have a goal prediction that I hit for the
Teddy Bear Toss. Lots of guys playing great hockey right now,
(01:14):
and yeah, boys are feeling good and it's a quick
turn on once again James. Tomorrow we play the San
Diego Goals to start off a two game series in
three days Monday and Wednesday, so something we're not particularly
used to.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
That's gonna kind of feel.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
More like a playoff series, if you, if you would
call it, because in playoff series, we're used to playing
a game often in another game.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So yeah, homestand continues for the Roadrunners.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
San Diego points in their last five games are hot
right now. They're eyeing that seventh place spot that the
Roadrunners are playing on right now in the Pacific Division.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
But we're feeling good twelve and ten going into the
next series.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, it's a really good obviously really good weekend for
the Runners to get all the points, but it's also
a good weekend the sense that I talk to Steve
after the game on Saturday, he wasn't really that into
how they did on Friday, even though they they they
got the win and they controlled the game for rest
of the game. So it's a game that it's a
(02:12):
series where they got the full points that they got
to shut out for Matt, Maddy got a shut out,
and then they also and then in the case of
the Friday game, they have stuff to work on some
talk about even though they did get the win and
it was pretty you know, I don't say comfortable, but
you know it was it was a strong win.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Matthew Bolalta his second shutout in his last five starts,
had a shut out against the San Diego Goals on
the November thirtieth. I think since then the goals have
been on the hot streak since that loss to the
road Runners, So they're gonna be looking to respond for
the game tomorrow. But yeah, and it's interesting to see
(02:50):
who is in net because Vilalta has started two games
in a row with one off day. Obviously, you know,
always talking to Volaldz and any coaches or any player,
of how much Volotta starts these games, he always wants
to play hockey, right, like all these guys want to
play as much as possible. So currieous to see what
Steve Povin and co elect to do. You have Dylan Wells,
(03:12):
who hasn't started since November twenty seventh, and that overtime
victory against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. But considering that the
Roadrunners just have a short string of games within the
next few days, would it be shocked if we sell
Welles in Net tomorrow primarily because also when the Roadrunners
swept the Calgary Ranguans in those two games, Vlalta played
(03:33):
two games in a row. Started two days later against
the Firebirds. That's when his game just, you know, it
wasn't there for everybody, but about Matthew Volalta kind of
got sheld in that game and we decided to go
with Dylan Wells the next matchup. So not sure if
Steve Pavin will go with Matthew Balalta again tomorrow for
the third straight start, or go with Dylan Wells. But again,
(03:55):
really nice to see Matthew Volalta really start to find
his game as a reason, I mean if you take off,
you know, maybe the Saturday night game versus the Calgary
Wranglers and then that game I guess the Coachella Valley
Firebirds in which Velozza still played good on that Saturday
matchup in that loss versus the Wranglers last week. Uh,
he's been playing great hockey as a recent The wins
(04:17):
are starting to come for him.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Yeah, it's and not only did he get the good
stats and get the get another shut out, but he
also made what they talk about, what they always talk
about when they talk about Maddie. He was he was
making big saves, saves that really get the get the
crowd going, obviously, get the get his teammates going. Saves
that There's a couple of saves that you know where
I sit in the press boxes between you, you and Michael
(04:41):
and then between the the the and the other side
is the other teams announcer, and he was just amazing
some of the saves Maddy was making. So it was
really great, great outing that he had one on Saturday
or yeah, Saturday.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, James, you you hear both broadcasters.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
You hear me screaming on my two year left on
my side, and then you hear the opponents broadcaster to
your right, because Adrian and I used to be in
that middle booth sided the switch sides now on that left,
so you get that nice middle section with all of
our equipment as well right beside you.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
So yeah, you're definitely in the mix of it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But yeah, great series overall for Matthew Wlalta getting two
victories in the series only allowing two goals, made twenty
six of twenty eight on Friday Night's matchup, made thirty
three saves and all on the Saturday night and again
Henderson played two really good games.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Friday Night.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
They scored first, they had a five on three power play,
they were drawing, they were making the road runs drop
power plays. We killed out that huge five on three,
four total minutes of power play time for the Silver Nights.
We did ty Friday's game until you know, maybe around
the quarterway through the second period when Delivatory tight things up,
(05:58):
and then that's when we got the game winner from
Ben McCartney. All the way not until the third period,
and then got the empty netter, and then Henderson scored back,
so we're like, oh, okay, they're so fighting, and then
that's when he gores Sokolo. I've got the extra empty
net for the Roadrunners to get that two hundredth point
(06:19):
of his AHL career. I remember on the Friday night game,
once McCartney got the empty netter, I thought maybe we
had sealed the deal, and I was scared. I was like,
oh god it, I just jinxed us. But yeah, that
was a good win for the Roadrunners. Again, congratsi Igor
on getting his two hundredth point in his American Hockey
League career. But yeah, going back to Henderson, I thought
they played two really good games. And I had a
(06:41):
good conversation with Brett Krackeritz, our video coordinator, our video
assistant coordinator, and you know, we're just talking about, you know, what,
what can we expect to see from Henderson? And you know,
he said they are talented team. Obviously the record isn't
what they show. You know, maybe their defensive goal attending
is a bit of a struggle. And I had a
(07:03):
good idea of just like every one of these teams
has great offense, there's so much young talent in every team,
especially if this gauntlet of a Pacific Division. I mean
you have the San Diego Goals, who are now you know,
on a hot streak right now in their eighth place
in the division, right behind the seventh place spot. So
and then you have teams like Bakersfield who's had good
stretches as over the years.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
They're struggling this year.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
But I think the big thing when it comes to
any team in the AHL, you can score as many
goals as you want, but if you can't play defense.
If you don't have goaltending, you're not gonna win games.
And unfortunately, I think Henderson's just one of those teams
this year. But again, they played two really good games,
even out shooting the Roadrunners by a big margin on
(07:47):
the Saturday night and then Matthew Bilalta, I mean, you know,
if he doesn't make a lot of those saves, that
game could have been a lot different. We only won
three to nothing. Of course, the offense, you know, came
up big with two power play goals as well, but
Maddie was the primary star. He was the first star
of the night, and uh, you earned that win for Tucson.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah, that was the weird thing about Saturday with well,
really kind of two weird games, especially on Friday. But
the weird thing on Saturday is that they outshot Henderson,
out shot two soon by fourteen, and then they lost
by three goals. And so after the game, Brad brought
up the question of like, well, you know, I had
to get more shots off. You don't even though you
want so. And the one hand, it's kind of like, oh,
(08:28):
they're kind of efficient, you know, kind of fishing and
scoring on their shots. But on the other hand, you
do want to we were out the goal and get
all the shots up. But looking back to Friday, that
was a really weird game too, because I was I
wasn't able to go to that game because I was
covering a high school game for the for the newspaper,
and I was looking at it. I was, I was
watching on my phone, watching the not the watching it,
but watching the game center page, the stats and the
(08:51):
and what what's going on during the game, and so
it really looked like a goalies dodol for most of it.
And then I look and I look and see at
the end I was. I came back and I checked,
and sudden it was four to two. I was like, well,
that's nuts. And it was another one of those games
where they gave up that early goal. But other than that,
up until that point where Ben McCartney got that empty
(09:13):
net goal, it really looked like boom, the road runs
were done. And you were you were right to say
that it looked like it was done because just the
way they're completely shutting down the in terms of scoring,
at least I'm shutting down Henderson, it just looked like
a other than that goal in that first minute. It
looked like Runners really shut them down, and then they
come back and score Henderson Za can score, so it's
(09:36):
a really well game.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, it looked like a done deal for Tucson. Luckily
I didn't speak too soon on that Friday game. Reverends
Clean Clean win on Saturday. Again, Matthew Balalta shutting down
the door in both games, getting a shout out on Saturday,
making it thirty three saves on thirty three shots. Volalta
now this season six and eight record with a three
point eleven goals against savage and eight nine to nine
(10:00):
save percentage. He's been playing really great hockey as a
recent uh you know, stat's uh stats wise got a
little bloated just from those maybe those games against the
Calgary Wranglers last weekend and that game in which the
River has lost to the Silver. Our partners watched to
the Coachella Valley Firebirds eight to two, where Matthew Willota
was pulled in two periods after allowing six goals. So
(10:22):
you know, the stats still aren't showing h what he's
been doing for Tucson this year. But again, it's nice
that he's gotten two shutouts in his last five games
and Uh, he's slowly and uh maturely getting back up
to speed. Jackson Staubers still with the Utah Hockey Club.
Uh he started two games with them, one of them
also coming with a shutouts. So Stabur and Vilalta three
(10:44):
shutouts between the two in the last seven starts. And uh,
you know it's still uh still not a full update
on Connor ingrim me epo. From what I'm hearing, he's
starting to skate. He's uh slowly maturely getting backed up
to speed. So uh we could potentially be seeing Stopbur
come back soon. Uh with the way Matthew Vlalta is
(11:05):
playing right now, the road runs are gonna get too hot.
Goaltenders coming soon. When when Stopper returns to Tucson.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
So when Starbar got called up, I mean it was
an emergency call up, so obviously you think that's not
gonna be for that long. But he's really making his
case to to to stay up there longer, even even
with Connor getting healthier.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
No, he he is.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And it's just uh, you know, not saying you know
Stober is automatically coming back here because you know he
belongs in this league. It's just because when it comes
to the goaltending, it's hard to keep three goalies on
a team. And you know, Sam can say for Dylan
Wells too. As much as we we want him to
be here in Tucson, you know, when when a guy
gets healthy again, you kind of have to shift potentially
(11:48):
everybody back, and you want Stober to play games. He's
only played two because obviously Themelka is the starter for
Utah right now. So uh, you know, for Stopper's purposes,
he want him to play games. And when he you know,
if and when he comes back the two soon, then
him and Vil also will definitely start splitting up those
games again. I'll give Maddie some more rest, He'll give
(12:09):
Stopbord the the reps he needs because he was he
was playing.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
He's been playing great this whole season.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I mean with the road Runners five and two record
with a let me get the stats right in front
of me, so I'm accurate two board two night goals
against Savage with a five and two record, and you know,
with the Utah Hockey Club this season, he has started
two games for them, one of them coming with that
twenty nine save shutout against the Vegas Golden Knights. For
(12:37):
the first shutout in Utah Hockey Club history. And yeah,
he's been great overall. You can say that he has
a seven to two record in his twenty four to
twenty five pro season with the Utah Hockey Club one
goals against Savage in the nine sixty two Saper Center.
So Stopberd has been playing great. He has been playing
a lot of games as of late. So again, when if,
(12:58):
and when Ingram's ready to go, Stopper could potentially be
back here in Tucson, and we'll see uh Valalta and
Stopper go two and two potentially in these upcoming you know,
just down the stretch for the Roadrunners. All right, James,
let's get to our interviews. We have a lot of
them for you folks tonight. Let's start out with the
first one, since we're talking about a Matthew Bolalta first
(13:22):
Star interview with Brad Kerner. Played it on the broadcast,
but in case you folks folks missed it, Brad Kerner
caught up with Matthew Walalta after the win for the
Roadrunners for our first Star interview.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Hettie, congratulations on your second shut out of the season.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
How good does it feel to get that at home, yeah,
thank you. Obviously it's super special in front of our
great fans here, and it's always a pleasure coming out
and playing in front of all you guys. So you know,
we try to put on a good show and it
was a fun night and you know, Teddy Bear Toss
was awesome, so shout out to you guys.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
How good does it feel to get that win on
Teddy Bear Toss?
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Yeah, it's obviously it's a big night.
Speaker 7 (14:01):
It's a unique night.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
It's only a night that happens once years, so I
think it's just exciting for everybody. And you know, from
the boys here on the ice to everybody, it's, uh,
it's a group efforts, so it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Then how good does it feel to get that sweep
at home here?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah, it's huge. You know, anytime you're on home ice,
you want to come in and the big games. So
you know, we gotta win as many games as we
can out home, and you know, this weekend's it's a
good start and uh, you know we got you know,
always things to work on, but you know a lot
of positives.
Speaker 7 (14:37):
Awesome, thank you.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, James, it's another stretch for the Roadrunners with four
games in six days. Runners are playing better when they
have these scrunches of games.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
We saw that three and one home stand versus the
Gotel Valley Firebirds and Calgary Wranglers. We saw another four
in six games stretch in which we sweat the biggest
ro Condors. And it's but the next series with the
Abbotsford Canucks that was back in October, and now the
next one happening right now swept Anders and Silver Nights,
and now we have two games against the San Diego Goals.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Yeah, it's another it's a busy schedule as they try
and cram in a bunch of games for the Christmas break.
I mean, you have the we talked about the San
Diego series coming up, and weird interesting if we're listening,
to make sure to note that it's the split up series,
like you said. But then you have the It ends
on Wednesday, and then they have a quick turnaround to
play in Abbitsford on Friday and Saturday. So that's another
(15:32):
thing to talk about that not only is a quick
turnaround for this series, but a quick turnaround for next series.
So it's a really really interesting close out schedule to
close out the close out the calendar year.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah. At that's actually a really good point too, James.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, Monday Wednesday game and then Thursdays to travel Day,
and then we have two games in Abbotsford and then
everyone goes on their holiday breaks. So again we I
think a lot of guys know that this is a
big stretch for us right now. You talk to a
couple of players throughout this weekend, and the guys just
don't want to be five hundred anymore. They feel like
(16:08):
every time they get over five hundred, they lose a
couple of games and then drop back to five hundred.
And you know, it's something that we don't want to
bring up to them of their record, but you know,
the guys are very well rare that they need to
get on a run to get you know, maybe four
five games over five hundred and then maybe you know,
just consistently win from that point. And I always say
(16:29):
stay five hundred as long as possible. You know, usually
they say that in baseball, but you can say the
same in hockey too, And then all of a sudden
you go on some run and now you're six or
seven games over five hundred, and you've played really good hockey,
and that's what the Roadrunners are in right now.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Two games over five hundred.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, that's the We talked a lot about their being
around five hundred or trying to get five hundred, trying
to get the separation for me and that five hundred.
We've talked about the lot, but I haven't brought it
up to the players because I didn't expect them to
be talking about that, and I expect to going them
to be focusing on each game, you know, the kind
of the saying they're gonna go to focus one game
in time, blah blah blah. But they did actually bring
(17:08):
it up last night that they it was important series
for them to get get away from mean five hundred.
Now they're two games over five hundred and most of that.
You tweeted out that they're won like seven or last
ten or whatever.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, James, we're seven and three in our last ten games.
Also in that ten game stretch, we have ten power
play goals, which has been huge for the Roadrunners. Ten
for thirty two total on the power play for Tucson
in the last ten games. Uh So that's been working
and the PK has been working. We've been staying out
of the box. It's it's just been very great play
for Tucson as a recent.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Yeah, the special teams have been amazing. I mean we
talked of lost how good the power play has been.
I looked it up last night for the story I
wrote about, as you know, him being such a force
on the power play. But they were third I think
currently as going into the games on Sunday night, they're
third in the league in power play percent so you know,
they're really good in the power play. And he talked
(18:03):
about how good they were on the on the PK too.
It really shut down Henderson, especially when they had the
five on that extended five on three period, so our
five and three you know, stretch. So it's just been
really impressive the power play, the event, special teams event.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, entire special teams.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
I even talked to Steve on pregame just how we've
been able to stay out of the penalty box as
of late. We haven't drawn, we didn't drive more than
three power plays in the two games versus Henderson had
the three in a row in that first period on Friday,
didn't have a single penalty kill opportunity for the rest
of the night, and then on Saturday night. We killed
(18:42):
off just too. That was all that was needed to
you know, win the game for the Roadrunners. And I
get that shut out for Matthew Vilalta. But yeah, Andrew
Ragazino has been quite on the tail for the Roadrunners
as of recent eighteen points in twenty games this season
with seven goals and eleven assists. He second on the
team now in goals in multiple point game on Saturday
(19:04):
with a goal and an assist two points on Saturday,
both coming on the power play for the Roadrunners as well.
He's now second on the team in total power play points.
And man, just what an acquisition Andrew Ragazino has been
for the Roadrunners this season. He's just been so consistent
with the scoring and that's what he's done throughout his
(19:24):
entire career. Just playing his seven hundred and fiftieth game
of his career just a few games ago. He's now
at seven hundred and fifty six with five hundred and
ninety eight total points, so two points away from six
hundred in his career.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
So that's the next milestone. Watch.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Yeah, he's I remember when they signed him. He was
he led San Diego in points last year and you know,
that was obviously impressive, you know, to do that, and
he was like fifth i think in the league in
power play goals, so that there's that aspect of his game,
but also obviously the leadership part where you know, he's
an alternate captain this year. And I didn't realize at
the time. I was going through and looking at the
(20:03):
old story that the Utah Hockey Club had put out
when they signed him over the summer, but I didn't
realize that he had been at that At that point,
he had been captain or assistant or alternate captain for
eight eight years I think it was at a ten
or eight years at nine I think it was. So
now nine years out of ten he's been captain or
(20:23):
an alternate captain. So that's that's pretty pretty impressive.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, he's quite the leader for any team that he
plays on. And to think, and I think we've said
this before, to think that we have him for for
two seasons. You know, we signed him to a two
year contract for the for the two way uh you know,
usually we see one one deals, you know, in this league.
So really happy to have him here. Great seeing him
again since working with him at San Jose He's always
(20:48):
been a great guy. I don't know if you Sabby,
he was holding his daughter at that first star when
he was named the second star of the night, or
at least I believe it was one of his kids.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
So that was awesome to see as well.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And yeah, kudos to Andrew Gazino for once again having
a really really good weekend for the road Runners. Three
points in his last two games and on a nice
three game stretch as well. Three points in his last
three games with four total with one goal and three assists,
multiple point game on Saturday with two power play points
(21:22):
as well, and now he was right behind Igor socle
up with total power play points on the team. Let's
hear from Andrew Agazino as well. You asked him about
the series and playing his former team San Diego up
next big.
Speaker 8 (21:36):
I think we're trying to, you know, get away from
that five hundred mark sho take advantage on home ice.
So we got two in a weekend is huge for us,
and with.
Speaker 7 (21:45):
San Diego coming up. What was it like playing San Diego?
Speaker 8 (21:48):
You know, they're a better team than their record shows.
I think they they played pretty hard, you know that
being said, every every team plays hard, and we gotta
you know, take care of home mice.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Like I said, so James, you are always always down
there with the guys as well, getting your interviews. Next
one upcoming Steve Povin always asking him the usual what
did you think of the series? And Patsy had a
lot to say about the series on the sweep versus
the Silver Knights series.
Speaker 9 (22:17):
Well, listen, it's a hard fuss series. It's hard to
win two games in a row. I really like the
way our guys came out today. You know, I thought
we were a little bit more on our toes. I
thought our second period wasn't as good. But what I
liked about our second period is that we were able
to build energy from you know, the tough period that
we had. We put ourselves in there and Maddy made
(22:37):
some big saves, but we were able to get calm
and you know, under pressure. I thought it was it
was good you were able to build momentum off there.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Again, you know, they weren't great starts. You know, Saturday
was a better start, but Friday was not a good
start by any means, you know, being down one to
nothing early on, having to kill out that five on
three PK with the four straight men and it's of
total PK time.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Out of everything that happened in that.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
First period on Friday, it really could have gone really
south for Tucson, and I think since that moment, the
road Runs just took control of the entire series. Yes,
Henderson did, you know, have more of the puck possession
on the Saturday night game, but Rivers overall just played
more of the clean game and they did what they
had to do to get the sweep on Henderson.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Yes, you know, getting to be concerned giving up goals
on those early goals, so it was like first mint
or second minute goals so often. But other than that,
they really showed a lot of poise. You know, they
did get out shot pretty sure. They got that shot.
I mean, you go back and find that. But they
did get out shot pretty sure in that first period.
And it wasn't until later that they really kind of
(23:45):
took over that game. But they were really poised and
really really faced off you know what Henderson was bringing
and did well with that. And let me see. Yeah,
so they got a shot thirteen to five in the
first period on Friday, and then they turned it around
and then the second period, they outshot Henderson sixteen to
seven and then nine to eight in the third period
(24:07):
to end up with the thirty to twenty eight margin
for shots and shots hung goal in the in the
Friday night game. But that that to me is two
kind of different type of games where you have that
poise and you have that kind of a you know,
back and forth kind of goalies duel, kind of like
a pitcher's duel in that first game, and then other
(24:28):
than the very end of the game, last couple of
minutes when it was three goals, and then you have
the different game where they have the shootout and they.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
Score a lot more offensively sweard throughout the game.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
On Saturday, Yeah, I thought Henderson's two goalies A kir
Smid and Lin Bob. I forgot for his name, but
Lin Bob. I thought they both played up really good games.
Henderson's goalies did what they had to do to try
to win those games for the Silver Nights. But again,
Matthew Bolalta, just having him be able to start both
(25:01):
games each night is always so crucial for the Roadrunners.
Another player who's been playing great as of late, James,
I think it's you know, Flun a little bit under
the radar, maybe because he's a rookie, you know, playing
in his first professional season. Just with the career that
he has had leading up to this point. Is ardam
Duda two assists on Friday Night's victory, one assist on Saturday.
(25:26):
He's been playing phenomenal for the Roadrunners as of recent
as well, ten total points now of his young season,
second on the team in the points amongst defenseman Robbie
Russo thirteen on the year, all coming with assists. Artam
Dudah with the ten points on the year with one
goal and nine assists. Is nine assists are also tied
(25:48):
with Akuratu for third on the team as well, so
three points over the series suite versus the Anderson Silver Knights,
and he's had a couple now of multiple point games
are part in of point streaks this season, and that
multiple point game on Friday was his first of his
American Hockey League career. But started off on a multiple
(26:10):
game point streak with the first two games of the
season October eleventh and October twelfth, both against the Colorado Eagles.
Then on November fifteenth and the sixteenth against the Silver Knights,
had two assists in a row. So dude has been
a kind of the enemy of the Silver Knights so
far this season. Then in that in that three and
(26:30):
one home stand, he had an assist against the Wranglers
on the twenty third of November, and then the twenty
sixth of November, I had an assist against the Coachella
Valley Firebirds. And now another two game point streak for
himself in this Henderson Silver Knights series.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
And he's been good for the Roadrunners as of late.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And he's one of those guys that you're you're really
starting to see develop in his first year in North
American pro hockey.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Yeah, that's was about to say, so impressively able to
do this, and he's so new to North America. You know,
a lot of the guys that come that come over
from from Europe are actually they do play in juniors
or something or or you know, something like that. But
he only played those handful of games for the Toronto
for the school university in Toronto when he was able
to play and say hockey and also new to professional
(27:22):
game because he did play a few games for Cisco
on Moscow, but for their senior team, but not not
a lot, and so this is really his first full
regular stint in the pros and and coming to a
new country, new content. You know, it's really impressied. So
to see him on play like that and grow and
develop and and be boys like that.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, And I think the craziest thing is James. He's
only twenty years old. He's he's he's a kid. Uh
you know, it's like I'm three years older than him,
and I feel like this guy has gone through so
much in his career already.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
He's he's he takes a game like a veteran every day.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
You know, he's more of a quiet guy, but once
you get to talk to him, he's he's a great
you know, he's great to talk to. Kim and I
grabbed him for our holiday season ticket member party for
our special Happy Hour show that'll be premiering on Christmas
Eve when that time comes next week. But yeah, yeah,
great to talk to. You know, he's just a fit,
he's very professional. Uh, tis game every day. But he's
(28:23):
slowly and immaturely developing into a main staple for the
Roadrunners this season. And you know, we didn't see a
lot of scoring from the blue line last year. The
blue line was still phenomenal in playing defense and giving
Matthew Blalta and Dylan Wells, you know, as easy as
games as possible by I think the one thing was,
(28:44):
do you know there wasn't a lot of scoring from
the blue line. And sometimes that's okay because again, if
you have the forwards and you have the mindset, you
can win games without your blue line scoring. But I
think this year it's definitely been a lot of defense
providing a lot of scoring for US. Obviously, Robbie Russo
thirteen assists in twenty two games. That's a really good
(29:05):
line for defenseman. Arn A Dude as I just mentioned,
one goal and nine assists this season. Maxi Zuber one goal,
five assists. Kevin Connaught in three goals and three assists
technically leads the Roadrunners in goals with three. We saw
Leyden Moore and Dilibertori get some action this weekend. Lana
Moore played a really good game. Montenan Yo Bucci has
(29:25):
been really aggressive on the rush as of recently as well,
just you know, just hasn't found the back of the
nets in those chances. He does have a goal this year, however,
I now we saw Hudson Wilson make his American Hockey
League debut because Kevin Kanana got reassigned to US got
stuck in San Francisco because of tornadoes, so Hudson Wilson
was put on to play because Dilbatori was feeling ill
(29:48):
and even saw Hudson Wilson now have a pretty good
game for the Roadrunners. But I've really liked the aggressiveness
that our blue line has had throughout this season, you know,
just taking the chance is when they had towards the nets,
and it's been in a big providing of offense for Tucson.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Yeah, obviously you want a defense went in your defense
win or focused on defense, but we have to so
many two way players like that. It really kind of
stretches the stretches the game and stretches eyes and makes
it tougher to frond the opponents. And that's interesting thing
about Canton coming back for because he was called up
because of the was it was the Mavericks injury that
he was.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Called up from Bartuso. Bortuso got hurt. Yeah, Bartuso got hurt. Uh,
Cana was called up an emergency basis. Didn't really see no,
when he was gonna come back. Uh, but then he
was reassigned to us on the game day. They're trying
to get him here in time. Uh, and he just
couldn't make it.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah, So that's Kandan comes back because they Utah claimed
Dakota Murmurs off of Waivers. And it was funny when
I when I saw that, when they tweeted that out
their their PR department, I was like, Oh, that's that's
that's interesting. I remember that's feeling name for some reason.
Speaker 7 (30:58):
Why is it? Why is his name familiar? I was thinking,
and you.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Know, I don't have sometimes kind of my memories maybe
not so great, you know, but I forgot I'm Karconi's
name of a couple weeks ago whatever.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
But I was like, oh, wait, duh, that's right. He was.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
He was one of the original Roadrunners and he's a
captain in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. So it's it's good
to see him coming back and helping out the run
owners again by filling out that on that spot in
the blue line for Utah. And then I'm bringing Cotton
back to the Roadrunners.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Well, James, yeah, you do have a really good memory.
I'm sometimes forgetting a lot of this stuff. But again
this supposed to before I was with the organization as well,
so obviously some names pop up and I'm like they
played for us, So yeah, good, good memory there, James.
Good to have Kevin Cannaton back, but also nice to
Jessee Hudson Wilson get his first action in the American
Hockey League as well. Let's hear from Ardam Dude on
(31:48):
the series versus the Silver Knights, on his play and
on his play as recently as well with the big
sweep for the Roadrunners.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Uh.
Speaker 10 (31:57):
Yeah, we we had top games against Calgary and we
we got and yeah, I think it's a very good
step for us to go to the next games. So yeah,
I think that WIMS is crucial for us.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
So James, Uh, I think one of the biggest obviously
things of the weekend was the Teddy Bear toss goal.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
It was scored by our Roadrunners captain Austin mcganski, and uh.
I again, I don't like the boast, but I'm gonna
boast because it's not every day you predict the Teddy
Bear toss goal. You we said or I've said throughout
this uh this past week on our Insider podcast episode
last week Happy Hour pregame with Kim Koto Robaz. Literally
(32:47):
seconds before it happened, I was calling Austin mcgansky Teddy
Bear toss goal and he was able to score from
the assists from Ardham Dudah. It was a really quick play,
but it was four and four for the Roadrunners. Assimc
gansky just kind of tipped it into the net with
art of Dudah's hard just pin dot passed his stick,
Beganski falling over it, gets the goal and flung the
(33:09):
Teddy Bears onto the eyes and it was just a
great Teddy Bear toss knight for Tucson.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yeah, it's not only you should boast because it's not
only a good prediction, accurate prediction, you know, and really
tough prediction to make because you know, obviously, you know,
last last week I went with with Doan because you know,
he'd been scoring a lot, and that's kind of like
the safe bet, you know, that's what I thought it
would be the best way to go against Henderson. But uh,
it's a double double accurate position of prediction because you
(33:37):
also brought him up, brought up your prediction when right
before he scored when they were getting ready for the
for the draw. Right before that, before he scored, they're
showing the crowd and he You're like, oh, yeah, I
think Austin's gonna score, gonna score that Teddy Bear test goal,
and and he did.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
It was funny because once he scored the goal, I
was like, oh my gosh, like I predicted that, that's
crazy going going in. And then I texted my former colleague,
list Child, who works with Flow Sports. Texted her, Hey,
you have to you gotta clip this or look at
that our Teddy Bear toss goal. I predicted our captain
(34:13):
this whole week and I said it again literally seconds
before it happened.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
You got to post it, and she did.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
So if you want to check out the clip, go
to really any social channel for Flow Sports. Even you
can go to my Instagram on our Twitter as well.
But yeah, it was a great moment. Kudos to the captain,
Austin mcganski. Michael Goodrich, our radio producer, actually made a
funny little clip of it after we Pagansie scored that goal,
(34:38):
kind of edited a little thing together because after we
scored the goal, I just started saying, you gotta clip that.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
You gotta clip that.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
So yeah, in case you folks who came to the
game missed the broadcast version, here's the goal right now
and a little snippet Michael put together for us for
our show.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
This so winning on that first Teddy Bear goal for
the road Runners. I'm predicting all. He's on the ice
right now taking the next draw. Bourn four coming up
for the Roadrunners and Silver Knights. Real solk over to
Tuna who fires.
Speaker 11 (35:10):
The goal Runners setting the Teddy Bears onto the eyes
put it mcgansky.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Austin mcgansky sends the Bears on to the ice for
twuson and it is raining, stumped animals.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Chat chat, did you clip that?
Speaker 7 (35:27):
I'm kind of a new streamer, but did you clip that? Chat?
Did you clip that?
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Chat? You gotta clip that.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
You have to clip that one, I said Austin mcgansky
right before he scores the goal, the big one for
the road Runners.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
It's a one nothing lead for Tucson. Chat. Did you
clip that?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Austin mcgansky's going the first goal for the Teddy Bear
toss for the Roadrunners.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
It was a great It was a great goal.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
James uh again falling down getting that stick hit on
the pass from Ardam Duda and he sent the Bears flying.
Speaker 7 (35:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
And then the other funny thing about it was that
you said that when he made the call here, wait
a minute, did he score? When I'm right, because you
were just thinking about because I was thinking about that
is like yeah, because you're just thinking about his name,
and then he scores afterwards, so he's gonna be kind
of confusing here, like, wait, is that right?
Speaker 7 (36:11):
No?
Speaker 4 (36:11):
I got to check, you know. So that's kind of funny.
Oftentimes when I see a see go, I I do
kind of check. I look at the replay or I
look at one of the Usually I would do I
would watch the broadcast on my computer something, but I've
been bringing it less this year. But I look over
at Michael's computer and see like, oh, well wait, did
that just happen? But that totally, that's totally one of
those cases where're like, oh, yeah, you got to check
(36:32):
because it just feels like really really wild.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, And it's all the on the reactions of the players,
right because you know it was such a quick play too.
But who knows if maybe that puck just went straight
through Peganski and the Henderson de Vender into the net
and then all of a sudden, m Dudo gets the
Teddy Bear Tosco, which I think would have been hilarious
because I don't think Ardam Dude has ever parted. I
ever seen a Teddy Bear toss, you know, playing in Europe,
(36:57):
and I don't know if the school he went to
play in Toronto did a Teddy Bear toss either, but
that would have been funny. You know, scores the first
one and you know, seeing it for the first time ever.
But yeah, it was such a quick play and kind
of had to wait for a sec to see the reactions.
And uh, once I saw Pagansky get up, I saw
the sea on his chest and realize like, oh my gosh,
(37:18):
you actually just did it. You know, obviously you don't
want to you don't want to call it too soon,
but uh, seeing the action of Paganski and you know,
you kind of did see that puck redirect off his
stick and into the net for the goal. But great
job by Pogo, great job by everyone on the play,
and just an overall phenomenal nights for the Roadrunners. On Saturday,
Brad also ran out there to grab Puganski right after
(37:40):
the Teddy Bear toss goal, played it on our broadcast.
But we're gonna play for you once again, folks here
on this week's show.
Speaker 6 (37:45):
Congratulations on scoring the Teddy Bear toss goal.
Speaker 8 (37:48):
How does it feel a score that goal out?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
Yelway's here about those games and no one scores the
teddy bear goal in this god no goal scorer. So
to get it early in the first year, it's it's big,
and it's big for a team to get going here and.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Lead this week. Awesome. How do you guys build momentum
off that?
Speaker 6 (38:04):
Yeah, always get these bears cleaned up. It's obviously for
a good cause. It's it's awesome to sale the fancier
a Teddy Bears and Christmas time it's a doll bo
gimming and hopefull we can get some of their energy
with throwing the bears and put us out this very
song of nursing game.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Awesome, Thank you if you heard that.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I think I heard it finally because Brad said Matthew
Balta swung by and said like two to lute, I
think or something when he was interviewing Paganskna. I believe
I just heard it right there. But yeah, great job
by Austin. Also you caught up with him after the
game for postgame as well, as you always say what
do you think of the series?
Speaker 11 (38:40):
Started the game, and it's to come out like we
did yesterday and get a big win and then to
repeat that again today. It wasn't easy, but I thought
we kind of battled through kind of a rough second
period and we were able to get the win and
that's that's all that matters. So we're really excited about that.
And we'll turn the page and you get ready for
San Diego.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah, it's another quick turn page.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
As we said, James, san Diego tomorrow once again on Wednesday,
and another quick turnaround for a series versus the Abbotsford Canucks.
But yeah, kudos once again to Austin Biganski scoring that
Teddy Bear Toss goal and sending the Bears onto the
ice for the Roadrunners. Big prediction coming from me. Let's
see if I can hit it next year when we
come to the time. But yeah, it's you know, it
(39:23):
sucks that it's over, but the lead up to the
Teddy Bear Toss is just always so fun and yeah,
it's just that time of year now. Where Teddy Bear
Toss games are starting to become over. We'll focus now
on the new year.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Yeah, it's fun with Also, you guys added the guys
didn't do the build a bear thing last year, did.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
You No, we did not. That was new cool.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah, so that's cool. I like that edition. It was
funnier walking by there. I went during the first intermission.
I went with my sister and my nephew to go
check out the breezeway and check out what the tables were.
Speaker 7 (39:54):
And we're walking by and she's like, Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
That's from the broadcaster because your teddy bear had a
little suit like the right of the game.
Speaker 7 (40:00):
So that's cool. So that that was cool. The build
a Bear thing, it was also cool.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
They had a bunch of They decorated the press box
with a bunch of bears too, So that was fun
that that was That was a new thing. And the
other thing that he on that Austin brought up was
a good point that you definitely want to score that
scored the Teddy Bear Toss game because I went to
a u A game. You have a Teddy Bear Toss
game when they when they didn't score and they lost,
like it was they lost like four to zero, and
(40:25):
it was like, well, zero two zero. But it was
really weird because we're like, wait, the game ended, We're like,
what do we do?
Speaker 7 (40:31):
Do we just throw it?
Speaker 4 (40:32):
And some people started throwing it. We're like, yeah, so
I guess you throw it. So it wasn't it wasn't
as fun obviously because they lost, but it wasn't fun
because it was separated, like some people threw it and
we're like, do you throw it yet? Are we allowed
to throw it? You know when when you throw it?
You know, So that that was kind of awkward. So
that was that was a.
Speaker 7 (40:48):
Good point that he brought up that I'd even think about.
So so that was a good point.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
And the other thing I was going to talk about
the Teddy Beard Toss is how quickly they cleaned it up,
because I think the tennis was a little bit less
than was last year. Maybe I don't know, but they
were really quick about cleaning it up. And that was
something that like when I asked Steve about the before
the game and in the advance for the story for
(41:12):
the table beer Toss, He's like, well, you know, it's
one of the things when that happens. You got to
be prepared for, you know, the delay, and the guys
are mature, so they know what to do and they
know to handle. They helped the they helped the people
pick them up and everything. But he did bring that up,
the delay, but it was so quick that I was like, wow,
that was really quick. It was like a couple of
minutes or maybe five minutes or something. And the the
(41:33):
Henderson announcer he brought that up too, He's like, well,
they're really really efficient with how quickly they cleaned it up.
Well uly, not cleaned up, but collect them, collect the bears,
I should say.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Yeah, it was really quick.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
And I felt bad because I had Chase Clements come
on with me because I thought we were going to
have about maybe eight to ten minutes of air time
to you know, just to kill and all of a sudden,
he's on the air with me for like three minutes
and I'm like, oh, those are like the last bit
of the Bears, Like that's it. Well, thanks for coming on, Chase,
and then instantly got back to work. So yeah, and
(42:05):
I was saying on the broadcast too, it was kind
of the perfect moment to score a Teddy Bear Toss
goal seven minutes into the first period, near the middle
mark of that first period as well, because if you
score early, there might be fans who haven't made the
game yet didn't get to be involved in the Teddy
Bear Toss. Especially with the parade of lights going on
in downtown two so on, traffic might have been a
little bad on Saturday night. I mean, you score late
(42:28):
in a period, then the guys go straight into intermission
and you know, I'm not sure how much of the
help they can be if they have to go straight
to the locker room. So it was a perfect moment
to score the Teddy Bear Toss goal, especially it being
the first one for the road Runners. It was a
nice job by the rally Runners and the players too
to quickly get the bears off the ice, because as
(42:49):
much as the Teddy Bear Toss is awesome and you
won as many bears as possible, you want to get
them off the eyes so that you can keep the
momentum on your side after scoring your first goal.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Yeah, it was so so crowded last night, not only
the Teddy Bear Toss game. You had the street fair
few blocks, I few for the city blocks over at
fourth Avenue and then you had the there was like
a winter form more or something over the see other
parts of the CCC.
Speaker 7 (43:13):
So it was there was this huge.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
Line to get into what where I park and is
the garage behind not behind, but you have to the
west of the TCC. So normally I think most people
in the media like, like, I know you park over there,
park in the garage right next to the TCC. I
park at a newer garage over by the music hall,
and that was like so full. I had parked on
the fourth floor and that's usually really weird. And then
(43:35):
there was a huge line to get into to get
into there, and it was like it was wow, there's
so many people. So that was a good thing to
score a little bit later with also you messing the
Festival of the Parade lights thing, so that that was
a good thing to score a little later but not
too too late and close to the close to inner mission.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, James, it was a It was a good spot
for the road runs to score that Teddy Bear toss
and overall a really really fun week. Actually going back
to the build a Bear, let's see, I have actually
have the numbers of how much my bear went for
My bear went for seventy nine bucks at the auction,
and then we sold another one for a hundred, and
(44:13):
then another one for one hundred and five. I don't
know which of because it was me, Kevin Connaughton, and
Andre Gazina who all built bears, so I didn't expect
mine to go for as much as it connect Kevin
Connaughten's and Andrew Gazino's. But it was actually a one
of the fans of the Roadrunners. David Rodriguez, who bought
(44:34):
the bear, posted on his story mentioning me of the
Broadcast Bear. That's what I named the bear, because I
don't know. I was thinking of Teddy Bear, but then
Broadcast Bear.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
It was a it was a bit of a bland name,
but I thought it went well. Bought it, and he
told me that he's gonna build. They're gonna bid a
little broadcast booth for the bear, so I'm actually really
looking forward to seeing that. So thank you David Rodriguez
for buying my bear, and I can't wait to see
its little broadcast booth. You know very soon that his
(45:06):
kids will be building, so looking forward to seeing that
as well. James, Let's close things out here with one
of our favorite editions that we started off last year.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Brad Kerner.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
He's been doing a lot of work with the interviews
as of Lake kind of had a rotation of them
this season. Eliana Deibert has done a great job when
she's doing the interviews. Brad Kerner has done a bulk
of it as a Lathe Chase Klemens is going to
be doing it tomorrow because Brad has finals as he
is still going to college. So we've had a rotation
of all of our interviews. But one of the last
(45:37):
things we'd like to do is I have a question.
Brad asked Steve pop In that question after Saturday's victory
of the Teddy Bear toss game, and.
Speaker 7 (45:46):
Actually two last questions.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Wait for this all right, So based on Teddy Bear Toss,
I figure it out, Well, if you had a pet bear,
what kind of bear would you have?
Speaker 9 (45:56):
If I had a pet bear, what kind of the
bear would I have? But I think I think a
grizzly bear. Right, it's gotta be one of the coolest bears.
Speaker 7 (46:05):
Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 9 (46:08):
I think I'd name it Teddy just because we watched
Teddy the other day.
Speaker 10 (46:11):
It was on TV.
Speaker 9 (46:12):
So we have about nine TV's in our room right
now in our locker I heard, so we're watching some
Teddy awesome. Appreciate it, Thanks Brad, Thanks James.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yeah, I heard the I've seen that locker room. I've
seen that coaches room. They have a ton of TVs
in there. Uh. So, guys were in the spirit of
Teddy Bear toss. Uh you know, what do you say
watching Teddy? Is that a movie? Were they watching ted
ted the Comedy one?
Speaker 7 (46:39):
Or Yeah? I thought he meant like the movie ted Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
I was thinking ted So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Maybe I might have to ask him, well what he
meant by Was he watching a movie called Teddy? Or
was the movie Ted the Comedy made by Seth mcfarloll. James,
great show, It was a great week overall. Oh yeah,
I was gonna recap the week, and then I got
distracted by Build a Bear. Yeah. Started at BUILDE Bear,
made those with Andrag Zino and Kevin Connaughton, and then
(47:05):
the guys and I took a couple of community trips
throughout the week as well. We visited Children's Diamond Medical
Center to paint some sticks with the kids, also had
them signed as well.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
I had a couple of trips to.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
The holiday ice outside of the Tucson Arena. Also had
their season ticket member holiday party at the Tucson Arena
allow on that Tuesday night as well. And then close
things off with the Teddy Bear Toss here. Two games
upcoming and we're off to Abbotsford and then the holiday
break and then we have those really long trips coming
(47:43):
up in January. So folks enjoy while the Roadrunners are
still here because we have a long trip coming up
very soon. We have an ornament giveaway on Wednesday, and
our next big prom night is going to be Star
Wars Night versus.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
The Call Ride of Eagles on October twenty eighth.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
So get your tickets for all the upcoming games at
tuson roadrunners dot com, slash tickets, or at ticketmaster dot com. James,
thanks for joining me once again. Always great having you
on Roadrunners. Two games over five hundred twelve and ten
going up now against the hot San Diego goals. We
will close things out here, win lights, tou.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Zone, Gotta see the lines to two soon, gotta pat
gotta see the lines to two song coming back. We
(48:47):
just win, My little little city candidles we to get
but to the song. My heart is a yearing like Bronzon.
Speaker 7 (48:56):
My wheels are in.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Can't we be there with her in the cattlinas the
lights of Touc sun shining, and her Hello Belona, We Neversona,
the desert reaching the sky. You gotta see the lions
(49:33):
of Tucson and I got him back.
Speaker 10 (49:35):
We get a new mom.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
Gotta see the lions of Tucson coming back.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
We get a new ball.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Gotta see the lights are too soon back?
Speaker 10 (49:53):
Won't get the moon.
Speaker 7 (49:54):
Gotta see the lights too soon coming back?
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Will you get a bon
Speaker 10 (50:03):
Away a
When you want more Roadrunners, We've got more Roadrunners.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is the Tucson Roadrunners Insider podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
What's up, everybody?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to this week's edition of the Tucson Roadrunners Insider Podcast.
Jonathan Schaeffer here with Arizona Daily Stars James Kelly. I've
got my water, I've gotten my tea. It's Sunday. We're
feeling good. Great sweep over the Henderson Silver Nights, successful
(00:30):
Teddy Bear Toss night as well. James, what a great
weekend it was for the Roadrunners. Tough series against the Wranglers.
We had a very very hard practice week. Guys just
kind of went back to the early stages of, you know,
just what we need to work on and kind of
reset this past week at practice. Showed this weekend two
really hard fought games with a Silver Knights, who I
(00:53):
thought also played two really good games, but the Roadrunners
obviously just a better team at both of them. Matthew
Bilaltz a stellar weekend, as we're accustomed to starting both games.
We have a lot of interviews to hear from as well.
We have a goal prediction that I hit for the
Teddy Bear Toss. Lots of guys playing great hockey right now,
(01:14):
and yeah, boys are feeling good and it's a quick
turn on once again James. Tomorrow we play the San
Diego Goals to start off a two game series in
three days Monday and Wednesday, so something we're not particularly
used to.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
That's gonna kind of feel.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
More like a playoff series, if you, if you would
call it, because in playoff series, we're used to playing
a game often in another game.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So yeah, homestand continues for the Roadrunners.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
San Diego points in their last five games are hot
right now. They're eyeing that seventh place spot that the
Roadrunners are playing on right now in the Pacific Division.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
But we're feeling good twelve and ten going into the
next series.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, it's a really good obviously really good weekend for
the Runners to get all the points, but it's also
a good weekend the sense that I talk to Steve
after the game on Saturday, he wasn't really that into
how they did on Friday, even though they they they
got the win and they controlled the game for rest
of the game. So it's a game that it's a
(02:12):
series where they got the full points that they got
to shut out for Matt, Maddy got a shut out,
and then they also and then in the case of
the Friday game, they have stuff to work on some
talk about even though they did get the win and
it was pretty you know, I don't say comfortable, but
you know it was it was a strong win.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Matthew Bolalta his second shutout in his last five starts,
had a shut out against the San Diego Goals on
the November thirtieth. I think since then the goals have
been on the hot streak since that loss to the
road Runners, So they're gonna be looking to respond for
the game tomorrow. But yeah, and it's interesting to see
(02:50):
who is in net because Vilalta has started two games
in a row with one off day. Obviously, you know,
always talking to Volaldz and any coaches or any player,
of how much Volotta starts these games, he always wants
to play hockey, right, like all these guys want to
play as much as possible. So currieous to see what
Steve Povin and co elect to do. You have Dylan Wells,
(03:12):
who hasn't started since November twenty seventh, and that overtime
victory against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. But considering that the
Roadrunners just have a short string of games within the
next few days, would it be shocked if we sell
Welles in Net tomorrow primarily because also when the Roadrunners
swept the Calgary Ranguans in those two games, Vlalta played
(03:33):
two games in a row. Started two days later against
the Firebirds. That's when his game just, you know, it
wasn't there for everybody, but about Matthew Volalta kind of
got sheld in that game and we decided to go
with Dylan Wells the next matchup. So not sure if
Steve Pavin will go with Matthew Balalta again tomorrow for
the third straight start, or go with Dylan Wells. But again,
(03:55):
really nice to see Matthew Volalta really start to find
his game as a reason, I mean if you take off,
you know, maybe the Saturday night game versus the Calgary
Wranglers and then that game I guess the Coachella Valley
Firebirds in which Velozza still played good on that Saturday
matchup in that loss versus the Wranglers last week. Uh,
he's been playing great hockey as a recent The wins
(04:17):
are starting to come for him.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Yeah, it's and not only did he get the good
stats and get the get another shut out, but he
also made what they talk about, what they always talk
about when they talk about Maddie. He was he was
making big saves, saves that really get the get the
crowd going, obviously, get the get his teammates going. Saves
that There's a couple of saves that you know where
I sit in the press boxes between you, you and Michael
(04:41):
and then between the the the and the other side
is the other teams announcer, and he was just amazing
some of the saves Maddy was making. So it was
really great, great outing that he had one on Saturday
or yeah, Saturday.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, James, you you hear both broadcasters.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
You hear me screaming on my two year left on
my side, and then you hear the opponents broadcaster to
your right, because Adrian and I used to be in
that middle booth sided the switch sides now on that left,
so you get that nice middle section with all of
our equipment as well right beside you.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
So yeah, you're definitely in the mix of it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But yeah, great series overall for Matthew Wlalta getting two
victories in the series only allowing two goals, made twenty
six of twenty eight on Friday Night's matchup, made thirty
three saves and all on the Saturday night and again
Henderson played two really good games.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Friday Night.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
They scored first, they had a five on three power play,
they were drawing, they were making the road runs drop
power plays. We killed out that huge five on three,
four total minutes of power play time for the Silver Nights.
We did ty Friday's game until you know, maybe around
the quarterway through the second period when Delivatory tight things up,
(05:58):
and then that's when we got the game winner from
Ben McCartney. All the way not until the third period,
and then got the empty netter, and then Henderson scored back,
so we're like, oh, okay, they're so fighting, and then
that's when he gores Sokolo. I've got the extra empty
net for the Roadrunners to get that two hundredth point
(06:19):
of his AHL career. I remember on the Friday night game,
once McCartney got the empty netter, I thought maybe we
had sealed the deal, and I was scared. I was like,
oh god it, I just jinxed us. But yeah, that
was a good win for the Roadrunners. Again, congratsi Igor
on getting his two hundredth point in his American Hockey
League career. But yeah, going back to Henderson, I thought
they played two really good games. And I had a
(06:41):
good conversation with Brett Krackeritz, our video coordinator, our video
assistant coordinator, and you know, we're just talking about, you know, what,
what can we expect to see from Henderson? And you know,
he said they are talented team. Obviously the record isn't
what they show. You know, maybe their defensive goal attending
is a bit of a struggle. And I had a
(07:03):
good idea of just like every one of these teams
has great offense, there's so much young talent in every team,
especially if this gauntlet of a Pacific Division. I mean
you have the San Diego Goals, who are now you know,
on a hot streak right now in their eighth place
in the division, right behind the seventh place spot. So
and then you have teams like Bakersfield who's had good
stretches as over the years.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
They're struggling this year.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
But I think the big thing when it comes to
any team in the AHL, you can score as many
goals as you want, but if you can't play defense.
If you don't have goaltending, you're not gonna win games.
And unfortunately, I think Henderson's just one of those teams
this year. But again, they played two really good games,
even out shooting the Roadrunners by a big margin on
(07:47):
the Saturday night and then Matthew Bilalta, I mean, you know,
if he doesn't make a lot of those saves, that
game could have been a lot different. We only won
three to nothing. Of course, the offense, you know, came
up big with two power play goals as well, but
Maddie was the primary star. He was the first star
of the night, and uh, you earned that win for Tucson.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah, that was the weird thing about Saturday with well,
really kind of two weird games, especially on Friday. But
the weird thing on Saturday is that they outshot Henderson,
out shot two soon by fourteen, and then they lost
by three goals. And so after the game, Brad brought
up the question of like, well, you know, I had
to get more shots off. You don't even though you
want so. And the one hand, it's kind of like, oh,
(08:28):
they're kind of efficient, you know, kind of fishing and
scoring on their shots. But on the other hand, you
do want to we were out the goal and get
all the shots up. But looking back to Friday, that
was a really weird game too, because I was I
wasn't able to go to that game because I was
covering a high school game for the for the newspaper,
and I was looking at it. I was, I was
watching on my phone, watching the not the watching it,
but watching the game center page, the stats and the
(08:51):
and what what's going on during the game, and so
it really looked like a goalies dodol for most of it.
And then I look and I look and see at
the end I was. I came back and I checked,
and sudden it was four to two. I was like, well,
that's nuts. And it was another one of those games
where they gave up that early goal. But other than that,
up until that point where Ben McCartney got that empty
(09:13):
net goal, it really looked like boom, the road runs
were done. And you were you were right to say
that it looked like it was done because just the
way they're completely shutting down the in terms of scoring,
at least I'm shutting down Henderson, it just looked like
a other than that goal in that first minute. It
looked like Runners really shut them down, and then they
come back and score Henderson Za can score, so it's
(09:36):
a really well game.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, it looked like a done deal for Tucson. Luckily
I didn't speak too soon on that Friday game. Reverends
Clean Clean win on Saturday. Again, Matthew Balalta shutting down
the door in both games, getting a shout out on Saturday,
making it thirty three saves on thirty three shots. Volalta
now this season six and eight record with a three
point eleven goals against savage and eight nine to nine
(10:00):
save percentage. He's been playing really great hockey as a
recent uh you know, stat's uh stats wise got a
little bloated just from those maybe those games against the
Calgary Wranglers last weekend and that game in which the
River has lost to the Silver. Our partners watched to
the Coachella Valley Firebirds eight to two, where Matthew Willota
was pulled in two periods after allowing six goals. So
(10:22):
you know, the stats still aren't showing h what he's
been doing for Tucson this year. But again, it's nice
that he's gotten two shutouts in his last five games
and Uh, he's slowly and uh maturely getting back up
to speed. Jackson Staubers still with the Utah Hockey Club.
Uh he started two games with them, one of them
also coming with a shutouts. So Stabur and Vilalta three
(10:44):
shutouts between the two in the last seven starts. And uh,
you know it's still uh still not a full update
on Connor ingrim me epo. From what I'm hearing, he's
starting to skate. He's uh slowly maturely getting backed up
to speed. So uh we could potentially be seeing Stopbur
come back soon. Uh with the way Matthew Vlalta is
(11:05):
playing right now, the road runs are gonna get too hot.
Goaltenders coming soon. When when Stopper returns to Tucson.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
So when Starbar got called up, I mean it was
an emergency call up, so obviously you think that's not
gonna be for that long. But he's really making his
case to to to stay up there longer, even even
with Connor getting healthier.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
No, he he is.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And it's just uh, you know, not saying you know
Stober is automatically coming back here because you know he
belongs in this league. It's just because when it comes
to the goaltending, it's hard to keep three goalies on
a team. And you know, Sam can say for Dylan
Wells too. As much as we we want him to
be here in Tucson, you know, when when a guy
gets healthy again, you kind of have to shift potentially
(11:48):
everybody back, and you want Stober to play games. He's
only played two because obviously Themelka is the starter for
Utah right now. So uh, you know, for Stopper's purposes,
he want him to play games. And when he you know,
if and when he comes back the two soon, then
him and Vil also will definitely start splitting up those
games again. I'll give Maddie some more rest, He'll give
(12:09):
Stopbord the the reps he needs because he was he
was playing.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
He's been playing great this whole season.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I mean with the road Runners five and two record
with a let me get the stats right in front
of me, so I'm accurate two board two night goals
against Savage with a five and two record, and you know,
with the Utah Hockey Club this season, he has started
two games for them, one of them coming with that
twenty nine save shutout against the Vegas Golden Knights. For
(12:37):
the first shutout in Utah Hockey Club history. And yeah,
he's been great overall. You can say that he has
a seven to two record in his twenty four to
twenty five pro season with the Utah Hockey Club one
goals against Savage in the nine sixty two Saper Center.
So Stopberd has been playing great. He has been playing
a lot of games as of late. So again, when if,
(12:58):
and when Ingram's ready to go, Stopper could potentially be
back here in Tucson, and we'll see uh Valalta and
Stopper go two and two potentially in these upcoming you know,
just down the stretch for the Roadrunners. All right, James,
let's get to our interviews. We have a lot of
them for you folks tonight. Let's start out with the
first one, since we're talking about a Matthew Bolalta first
(13:22):
Star interview with Brad Kerner. Played it on the broadcast,
but in case you folks folks missed it, Brad Kerner
caught up with Matthew Walalta after the win for the
Roadrunners for our first Star interview.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Hettie, congratulations on your second shut out of the season.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
How good does it feel to get that at home, yeah,
thank you. Obviously it's super special in front of our
great fans here, and it's always a pleasure coming out
and playing in front of all you guys. So you know,
we try to put on a good show and it
was a fun night and you know, Teddy Bear Toss
was awesome, so shout out to you guys.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
How good does it feel to get that win on
Teddy Bear Toss?
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Yeah, it's obviously it's a big night.
Speaker 7 (14:01):
It's a unique night.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
It's only a night that happens once years, so I
think it's just exciting for everybody. And you know, from
the boys here on the ice to everybody, it's, uh,
it's a group efforts, so it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Then how good does it feel to get that sweep
at home here?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah, it's huge. You know, anytime you're on home ice,
you want to come in and the big games. So
you know, we gotta win as many games as we
can out home, and you know, this weekend's it's a
good start and uh, you know we got you know,
always things to work on, but you know a lot
of positives.
Speaker 7 (14:37):
Awesome, thank you.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, James, it's another stretch for the Roadrunners with four
games in six days. Runners are playing better when they
have these scrunches of games.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
We saw that three and one home stand versus the
Gotel Valley Firebirds and Calgary Wranglers. We saw another four
in six games stretch in which we sweat the biggest
ro Condors. And it's but the next series with the
Abbotsford Canucks that was back in October, and now the
next one happening right now swept Anders and Silver Nights,
and now we have two games against the San Diego Goals.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Yeah, it's another it's a busy schedule as they try
and cram in a bunch of games for the Christmas break.
I mean, you have the we talked about the San
Diego series coming up, and weird interesting if we're listening,
to make sure to note that it's the split up series,
like you said. But then you have the It ends
on Wednesday, and then they have a quick turnaround to
play in Abbitsford on Friday and Saturday. So that's another
(15:32):
thing to talk about that not only is a quick
turnaround for this series, but a quick turnaround for next series.
So it's a really really interesting close out schedule to
close out the close out the calendar year.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah. At that's actually a really good point too, James.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, Monday Wednesday game and then Thursdays to travel Day,
and then we have two games in Abbotsford and then
everyone goes on their holiday breaks. So again we I
think a lot of guys know that this is a
big stretch for us right now. You talk to a
couple of players throughout this weekend, and the guys just
don't want to be five hundred anymore. They feel like
(16:08):
every time they get over five hundred, they lose a
couple of games and then drop back to five hundred.
And you know, it's something that we don't want to
bring up to them of their record, but you know,
the guys are very well rare that they need to
get on a run to get you know, maybe four
five games over five hundred and then maybe you know,
just consistently win from that point. And I always say
(16:29):
stay five hundred as long as possible. You know, usually
they say that in baseball, but you can say the
same in hockey too, And then all of a sudden
you go on some run and now you're six or
seven games over five hundred, and you've played really good hockey,
and that's what the Roadrunners are in right now.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Two games over five hundred.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, that's the We talked a lot about their being
around five hundred or trying to get five hundred, trying
to get the separation for me and that five hundred.
We've talked about the lot, but I haven't brought it
up to the players because I didn't expect them to
be talking about that, and I expect to going them
to be focusing on each game, you know, the kind
of the saying they're gonna go to focus one game
in time, blah blah blah. But they did actually bring
(17:08):
it up last night that they it was important series
for them to get get away from mean five hundred.
Now they're two games over five hundred and most of that.
You tweeted out that they're won like seven or last
ten or whatever.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, James, we're seven and three in our last ten games.
Also in that ten game stretch, we have ten power
play goals, which has been huge for the Roadrunners. Ten
for thirty two total on the power play for Tucson
in the last ten games. Uh So that's been working
and the PK has been working. We've been staying out
of the box. It's it's just been very great play
for Tucson as a recent.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Yeah, the special teams have been amazing. I mean we
talked of lost how good the power play has been.
I looked it up last night for the story I
wrote about, as you know, him being such a force
on the power play. But they were third I think
currently as going into the games on Sunday night, they're
third in the league in power play percent so you know,
they're really good in the power play. And he talked
(18:03):
about how good they were on the on the PK too.
It really shut down Henderson, especially when they had the
five on that extended five on three period, so our
five and three you know, stretch. So it's just been
really impressive the power play, the event, special teams event.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, entire special teams.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
I even talked to Steve on pregame just how we've
been able to stay out of the penalty box as
of late. We haven't drawn, we didn't drive more than
three power plays in the two games versus Henderson had
the three in a row in that first period on Friday,
didn't have a single penalty kill opportunity for the rest
of the night, and then on Saturday night. We killed
(18:42):
off just too. That was all that was needed to
you know, win the game for the Roadrunners. And I
get that shut out for Matthew Vilalta. But yeah, Andrew
Ragazino has been quite on the tail for the Roadrunners
as of recent eighteen points in twenty games this season
with seven goals and eleven assists. He second on the
team now in goals in multiple point game on Saturday
(19:04):
with a goal and an assist two points on Saturday,
both coming on the power play for the Roadrunners as well.
He's now second on the team in total power play points.
And man, just what an acquisition Andrew Ragazino has been
for the Roadrunners this season. He's just been so consistent
with the scoring and that's what he's done throughout his
(19:24):
entire career. Just playing his seven hundred and fiftieth game
of his career just a few games ago. He's now
at seven hundred and fifty six with five hundred and
ninety eight total points, so two points away from six
hundred in his career.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
So that's the next milestone. Watch.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Yeah, he's I remember when they signed him. He was
he led San Diego in points last year and you know,
that was obviously impressive, you know, to do that, and
he was like fifth i think in the league in
power play goals, so that there's that aspect of his game,
but also obviously the leadership part where you know, he's
an alternate captain this year. And I didn't realize at
the time. I was going through and looking at the
(20:03):
old story that the Utah Hockey Club had put out
when they signed him over the summer, but I didn't
realize that he had been at that At that point,
he had been captain or assistant or alternate captain for
eight eight years I think it was at a ten
or eight years at nine I think it was. So
now nine years out of ten he's been captain or
(20:23):
an alternate captain. So that's that's pretty pretty impressive.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, he's quite the leader for any team that he
plays on. And to think, and I think we've said
this before, to think that we have him for for
two seasons. You know, we signed him to a two
year contract for the for the two way uh you know,
usually we see one one deals, you know, in this league.
So really happy to have him here. Great seeing him
again since working with him at San Jose He's always
(20:48):
been a great guy. I don't know if you Sabby,
he was holding his daughter at that first star when
he was named the second star of the night, or
at least I believe it was one of his kids.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
So that was awesome to see as well.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And yeah, kudos to Andrew Gazino for once again having
a really really good weekend for the road Runners. Three
points in his last two games and on a nice
three game stretch as well. Three points in his last
three games with four total with one goal and three assists,
multiple point game on Saturday with two power play points
(21:22):
as well, and now he was right behind Igor socle
up with total power play points on the team. Let's
hear from Andrew Agazino as well. You asked him about
the series and playing his former team San Diego up
next big.
Speaker 8 (21:36):
I think we're trying to, you know, get away from
that five hundred mark sho take advantage on home ice.
So we got two in a weekend is huge for us,
and with.
Speaker 7 (21:45):
San Diego coming up. What was it like playing San Diego?
Speaker 8 (21:48):
You know, they're a better team than their record shows.
I think they they played pretty hard, you know that
being said, every every team plays hard, and we gotta
you know, take care of home mice.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Like I said, so James, you are always always down
there with the guys as well, getting your interviews. Next
one upcoming Steve Povin always asking him the usual what
did you think of the series? And Patsy had a
lot to say about the series on the sweep versus
the Silver Knights series.
Speaker 9 (22:17):
Well, listen, it's a hard fuss series. It's hard to
win two games in a row. I really like the
way our guys came out today. You know, I thought
we were a little bit more on our toes. I
thought our second period wasn't as good. But what I
liked about our second period is that we were able
to build energy from you know, the tough period that
we had. We put ourselves in there and Maddy made
(22:37):
some big saves, but we were able to get calm
and you know, under pressure. I thought it was it
was good you were able to build momentum off there.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Again, you know, they weren't great starts. You know, Saturday
was a better start, but Friday was not a good
start by any means, you know, being down one to
nothing early on, having to kill out that five on
three PK with the four straight men and it's of
total PK time.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Out of everything that happened in that.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
First period on Friday, it really could have gone really
south for Tucson, and I think since that moment, the
road Runs just took control of the entire series. Yes,
Henderson did, you know, have more of the puck possession
on the Saturday night game, but Rivers overall just played
more of the clean game and they did what they
had to do to get the sweep on Henderson.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Yes, you know, getting to be concerned giving up goals
on those early goals, so it was like first mint
or second minute goals so often. But other than that,
they really showed a lot of poise. You know, they
did get out shot pretty sure. They got that shot.
I mean, you go back and find that. But they
did get out shot pretty sure in that first period.
And it wasn't until later that they really kind of
(23:45):
took over that game. But they were really poised and
really really faced off you know what Henderson was bringing
and did well with that. And let me see. Yeah,
so they got a shot thirteen to five in the
first period on Friday, and then they turned it around
and then the second period, they outshot Henderson sixteen to
seven and then nine to eight in the third period
(24:07):
to end up with the thirty to twenty eight margin
for shots and shots hung goal in the in the
Friday night game. But that that to me is two
kind of different type of games where you have that
poise and you have that kind of a you know,
back and forth kind of goalies duel, kind of like
a pitcher's duel in that first game, and then other
(24:28):
than the very end of the game, last couple of
minutes when it was three goals, and then you have
the different game where they have the shootout and they.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
Score a lot more offensively sweard throughout the game.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
On Saturday, Yeah, I thought Henderson's two goalies A kir
Smid and Lin Bob. I forgot for his name, but
Lin Bob. I thought they both played up really good games.
Henderson's goalies did what they had to do to try
to win those games for the Silver Nights. But again,
Matthew Bolalta, just having him be able to start both
(25:01):
games each night is always so crucial for the Roadrunners.
Another player who's been playing great as of late, James,
I think it's you know, Flun a little bit under
the radar, maybe because he's a rookie, you know, playing
in his first professional season. Just with the career that
he has had leading up to this point. Is ardam
Duda two assists on Friday Night's victory, one assist on Saturday.
(25:26):
He's been playing phenomenal for the Roadrunners as of recent
as well, ten total points now of his young season,
second on the team in the points amongst defenseman Robbie
Russo thirteen on the year, all coming with assists. Artam
Dudah with the ten points on the year with one
goal and nine assists. Is nine assists are also tied
(25:48):
with Akuratu for third on the team as well, so
three points over the series suite versus the Anderson Silver Knights,
and he's had a couple now of multiple point games
are part in of point streaks this season, and that
multiple point game on Friday was his first of his
American Hockey League career. But started off on a multiple
(26:10):
game point streak with the first two games of the
season October eleventh and October twelfth, both against the Colorado Eagles.
Then on November fifteenth and the sixteenth against the Silver Knights,
had two assists in a row. So dude has been
a kind of the enemy of the Silver Knights so
far this season. Then in that in that three and
(26:30):
one home stand, he had an assist against the Wranglers
on the twenty third of November, and then the twenty
sixth of November, I had an assist against the Coachella
Valley Firebirds. And now another two game point streak for
himself in this Henderson Silver Knights series.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
And he's been good for the Roadrunners as of late.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And he's one of those guys that you're you're really
starting to see develop in his first year in North
American pro hockey.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Yeah, that's was about to say, so impressively able to
do this, and he's so new to North America. You know,
a lot of the guys that come that come over
from from Europe are actually they do play in juniors
or something or or you know, something like that. But
he only played those handful of games for the Toronto
for the school university in Toronto when he was able
to play and say hockey and also new to professional
(27:22):
game because he did play a few games for Cisco
on Moscow, but for their senior team, but not not
a lot, and so this is really his first full
regular stint in the pros and and coming to a
new country, new content. You know, it's really impressied. So
to see him on play like that and grow and
develop and and be boys like that.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, And I think the craziest thing is James. He's
only twenty years old. He's he's he's a kid. Uh
you know, it's like I'm three years older than him,
and I feel like this guy has gone through so
much in his career already.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
He's he's he takes a game like a veteran every day.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
You know, he's more of a quiet guy, but once
you get to talk to him, he's he's a great
you know, he's great to talk to. Kim and I
grabbed him for our holiday season ticket member party for
our special Happy Hour show that'll be premiering on Christmas
Eve when that time comes next week. But yeah, yeah,
great to talk to. You know, he's just a fit,
he's very professional. Uh, tis game every day. But he's
(28:23):
slowly and immaturely developing into a main staple for the
Roadrunners this season. And you know, we didn't see a
lot of scoring from the blue line last year. The
blue line was still phenomenal in playing defense and giving
Matthew Blalta and Dylan Wells, you know, as easy as
games as possible by I think the one thing was,
(28:44):
do you know there wasn't a lot of scoring from
the blue line. And sometimes that's okay because again, if
you have the forwards and you have the mindset, you
can win games without your blue line scoring. But I
think this year it's definitely been a lot of defense
providing a lot of scoring for US. Obviously, Robbie Russo
thirteen assists in twenty two games. That's a really good
(29:05):
line for defenseman. Arn A Dude as I just mentioned,
one goal and nine assists this season. Maxi Zuber one goal,
five assists. Kevin Connaught in three goals and three assists
technically leads the Roadrunners in goals with three. We saw
Leyden Moore and Dilibertori get some action this weekend. Lana
Moore played a really good game. Montenan Yo Bucci has
(29:25):
been really aggressive on the rush as of recently as well,
just you know, just hasn't found the back of the
nets in those chances. He does have a goal this year, however,
I now we saw Hudson Wilson make his American Hockey
League debut because Kevin Kanana got reassigned to US got
stuck in San Francisco because of tornadoes, so Hudson Wilson
was put on to play because Dilbatori was feeling ill
(29:48):
and even saw Hudson Wilson now have a pretty good
game for the Roadrunners. But I've really liked the aggressiveness
that our blue line has had throughout this season, you know,
just taking the chance is when they had towards the nets,
and it's been in a big providing of offense for Tucson.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Yeah, obviously you want a defense went in your defense
win or focused on defense, but we have to so
many two way players like that. It really kind of
stretches the stretches the game and stretches eyes and makes
it tougher to frond the opponents. And that's interesting thing
about Canton coming back for because he was called up
because of the was it was the Mavericks injury that
he was.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Called up from Bartuso. Bortuso got hurt. Yeah, Bartuso got hurt. Uh,
Cana was called up an emergency basis. Didn't really see no,
when he was gonna come back. Uh, but then he
was reassigned to us on the game day. They're trying
to get him here in time. Uh, and he just
couldn't make it.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah, So that's Kandan comes back because they Utah claimed
Dakota Murmurs off of Waivers. And it was funny when
I when I saw that, when they tweeted that out
their their PR department, I was like, Oh, that's that's
that's interesting. I remember that's feeling name for some reason.
Speaker 7 (30:58):
Why is it? Why is his name familiar? I was thinking,
and you.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Know, I don't have sometimes kind of my memories maybe
not so great, you know, but I forgot I'm Karconi's
name of a couple weeks ago whatever.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
But I was like, oh, wait, duh, that's right. He was.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
He was one of the original Roadrunners and he's a
captain in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. So it's it's good
to see him coming back and helping out the run
owners again by filling out that on that spot in
the blue line for Utah. And then I'm bringing Cotton
back to the Roadrunners.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Well, James, yeah, you do have a really good memory.
I'm sometimes forgetting a lot of this stuff. But again
this supposed to before I was with the organization as well,
so obviously some names pop up and I'm like they
played for us, So yeah, good, good memory there, James.
Good to have Kevin Cannaton back, but also nice to
Jessee Hudson Wilson get his first action in the American
Hockey League as well. Let's hear from Ardam Dude on
(31:48):
the series versus the Silver Knights, on his play and
on his play as recently as well with the big
sweep for the Roadrunners.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Uh.
Speaker 10 (31:57):
Yeah, we we had top games against Calgary and we
we got and yeah, I think it's a very good
step for us to go to the next games. So yeah,
I think that WIMS is crucial for us.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
So James, Uh, I think one of the biggest obviously
things of the weekend was the Teddy Bear toss goal.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
It was scored by our Roadrunners captain Austin mcganski, and uh.
I again, I don't like the boast, but I'm gonna
boast because it's not every day you predict the Teddy
Bear toss goal. You we said or I've said throughout
this uh this past week on our Insider podcast episode
last week Happy Hour pregame with Kim Koto Robaz. Literally
(32:47):
seconds before it happened, I was calling Austin mcgansky Teddy
Bear toss goal and he was able to score from
the assists from Ardham Dudah. It was a really quick play,
but it was four and four for the Roadrunners. Assimc
gansky just kind of tipped it into the net with
art of Dudah's hard just pin dot passed his stick,
Beganski falling over it, gets the goal and flung the
(33:09):
Teddy Bears onto the eyes and it was just a
great Teddy Bear toss knight for Tucson.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yeah, it's not only you should boast because it's not
only a good prediction, accurate prediction, you know, and really
tough prediction to make because you know, obviously, you know,
last last week I went with with Doan because you know,
he'd been scoring a lot, and that's kind of like
the safe bet, you know, that's what I thought it
would be the best way to go against Henderson. But uh,
it's a double double accurate position of prediction because you
(33:37):
also brought him up, brought up your prediction when right
before he scored when they were getting ready for the
for the draw. Right before that, before he scored, they're
showing the crowd and he You're like, oh, yeah, I
think Austin's gonna score, gonna score that Teddy Bear test goal,
and and he did.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
It was funny because once he scored the goal, I
was like, oh my gosh, like I predicted that, that's
crazy going going in. And then I texted my former colleague,
list Child, who works with Flow Sports. Texted her, Hey,
you have to you gotta clip this or look at
that our Teddy Bear toss goal. I predicted our captain
(34:13):
this whole week and I said it again literally seconds
before it happened.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
You got to post it, and she did.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
So if you want to check out the clip, go
to really any social channel for Flow Sports. Even you
can go to my Instagram on our Twitter as well.
But yeah, it was a great moment. Kudos to the captain,
Austin mcganski. Michael Goodrich, our radio producer, actually made a
funny little clip of it after we Pagansie scored that goal,
(34:38):
kind of edited a little thing together because after we
scored the goal, I just started saying, you gotta clip that.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
You gotta clip that.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
So yeah, in case you folks who came to the
game missed the broadcast version, here's the goal right now
and a little snippet Michael put together for us for
our show.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
This so winning on that first Teddy Bear goal for
the road Runners. I'm predicting all. He's on the ice
right now taking the next draw. Bourn four coming up
for the Roadrunners and Silver Knights. Real solk over to
Tuna who fires.
Speaker 11 (35:10):
The goal Runners setting the Teddy Bears onto the eyes
put it mcgansky.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Austin mcgansky sends the Bears on to the ice for
twuson and it is raining, stumped animals.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Chat chat, did you clip that?
Speaker 7 (35:27):
I'm kind of a new streamer, but did you clip that? Chat?
Did you clip that?
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Chat? You gotta clip that.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
You have to clip that one, I said Austin mcgansky
right before he scores the goal, the big one for
the road Runners.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
It's a one nothing lead for Tucson. Chat. Did you
clip that?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Austin mcgansky's going the first goal for the Teddy Bear
toss for the Roadrunners.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
It was a great It was a great goal.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
James uh again falling down getting that stick hit on
the pass from Ardam Duda and he sent the Bears flying.
Speaker 7 (35:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
And then the other funny thing about it was that
you said that when he made the call here, wait
a minute, did he score? When I'm right, because you
were just thinking about because I was thinking about that
is like yeah, because you're just thinking about his name,
and then he scores afterwards, so he's gonna be kind
of confusing here, like, wait, is that right?
Speaker 7 (36:11):
No?
Speaker 4 (36:11):
I got to check, you know. So that's kind of funny.
Oftentimes when I see a see go, I I do
kind of check. I look at the replay or I
look at one of the Usually I would do I
would watch the broadcast on my computer something, but I've
been bringing it less this year. But I look over
at Michael's computer and see like, oh, well wait, did
that just happen? But that totally, that's totally one of
those cases where're like, oh, yeah, you got to check
(36:32):
because it just feels like really really wild.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, And it's all the on the reactions of the players,
right because you know it was such a quick play too.
But who knows if maybe that puck just went straight
through Peganski and the Henderson de Vender into the net
and then all of a sudden, m Dudo gets the
Teddy Bear Tosco, which I think would have been hilarious
because I don't think Ardam Dude has ever parted. I
ever seen a Teddy Bear toss, you know, playing in Europe,
(36:57):
and I don't know if the school he went to
play in Toronto did a Teddy Bear toss either, but
that would have been funny. You know, scores the first
one and you know, seeing it for the first time ever.
But yeah, it was such a quick play and kind
of had to wait for a sec to see the reactions.
And uh, once I saw Pagansky get up, I saw
the sea on his chest and realize like, oh my gosh,
(37:18):
you actually just did it. You know, obviously you don't
want to you don't want to call it too soon,
but uh, seeing the action of Paganski and you know,
you kind of did see that puck redirect off his
stick and into the net for the goal. But great
job by Pogo, great job by everyone on the play,
and just an overall phenomenal nights for the Roadrunners. On Saturday,
Brad also ran out there to grab Puganski right after
(37:40):
the Teddy Bear toss goal, played it on our broadcast.
But we're gonna play for you once again, folks here
on this week's show.
Speaker 6 (37:45):
Congratulations on scoring the Teddy Bear toss goal.
Speaker 8 (37:48):
How does it feel a score that goal out?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
Yelway's here about those games and no one scores the
teddy bear goal in this god no goal scorer. So
to get it early in the first year, it's it's big,
and it's big for a team to get going here and.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Lead this week. Awesome. How do you guys build momentum
off that?
Speaker 6 (38:04):
Yeah, always get these bears cleaned up. It's obviously for
a good cause. It's it's awesome to sale the fancier
a Teddy Bears and Christmas time it's a doll bo
gimming and hopefull we can get some of their energy
with throwing the bears and put us out this very
song of nursing game.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Awesome, Thank you if you heard that.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I think I heard it finally because Brad said Matthew
Balta swung by and said like two to lute, I
think or something when he was interviewing Paganskna. I believe
I just heard it right there. But yeah, great job
by Austin. Also you caught up with him after the
game for postgame as well, as you always say what
do you think of the series?
Speaker 11 (38:40):
Started the game, and it's to come out like we
did yesterday and get a big win and then to
repeat that again today. It wasn't easy, but I thought
we kind of battled through kind of a rough second
period and we were able to get the win and
that's that's all that matters. So we're really excited about that.
And we'll turn the page and you get ready for
San Diego.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah, it's another quick turn page.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
As we said, James, san Diego tomorrow once again on Wednesday,
and another quick turnaround for a series versus the Abbotsford Canucks.
But yeah, kudos once again to Austin Biganski scoring that
Teddy Bear Toss goal and sending the Bears onto the
ice for the Roadrunners. Big prediction coming from me. Let's
see if I can hit it next year when we
come to the time. But yeah, it's you know, it
(39:23):
sucks that it's over, but the lead up to the
Teddy Bear Toss is just always so fun and yeah,
it's just that time of year now. Where Teddy Bear
Toss games are starting to become over. We'll focus now
on the new year.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Yeah, it's fun with Also, you guys added the guys
didn't do the build a bear thing last year, did.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
You No, we did not. That was new cool.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah, so that's cool. I like that edition. It was
funnier walking by there. I went during the first intermission.
I went with my sister and my nephew to go
check out the breezeway and check out what the tables were.
Speaker 7 (39:54):
And we're walking by and she's like, Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
That's from the broadcaster because your teddy bear had a
little suit like the right of the game.
Speaker 7 (40:00):
So that's cool. So that that was cool. The build
a Bear thing, it was also cool.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
They had a bunch of They decorated the press box
with a bunch of bears too, So that was fun
that that was That was a new thing. And the
other thing that he on that Austin brought up was
a good point that you definitely want to score that
scored the Teddy Bear Toss game because I went to
a u A game. You have a Teddy Bear Toss
game when they when they didn't score and they lost,
like it was they lost like four to zero, and
(40:25):
it was like, well, zero two zero. But it was
really weird because we're like, wait, the game ended, We're like,
what do we do?
Speaker 7 (40:31):
Do we just throw it?
Speaker 4 (40:32):
And some people started throwing it. We're like, yeah, so
I guess you throw it. So it wasn't it wasn't
as fun obviously because they lost, but it wasn't fun
because it was separated, like some people threw it and
we're like, do you throw it yet? Are we allowed
to throw it? You know when when you throw it?
You know, So that that was kind of awkward. So
that was that was a.
Speaker 7 (40:48):
Good point that he brought up that I'd even think about.
So so that was a good point.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
And the other thing I was going to talk about
the Teddy Beard Toss is how quickly they cleaned it up,
because I think the tennis was a little bit less
than was last year. Maybe I don't know, but they
were really quick about cleaning it up. And that was
something that like when I asked Steve about the before
the game and in the advance for the story for
(41:12):
the table beer Toss, He's like, well, you know, it's
one of the things when that happens. You got to
be prepared for, you know, the delay, and the guys
are mature, so they know what to do and they
know to handle. They helped the they helped the people
pick them up and everything. But he did bring that up,
the delay, but it was so quick that I was like, wow,
that was really quick. It was like a couple of
minutes or maybe five minutes or something. And the the
(41:33):
Henderson announcer he brought that up too, He's like, well,
they're really really efficient with how quickly they cleaned it up.
Well uly, not cleaned up, but collect them, collect the bears,
I should say.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Yeah, it was really quick.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
And I felt bad because I had Chase Clements come
on with me because I thought we were going to
have about maybe eight to ten minutes of air time
to you know, just to kill and all of a sudden,
he's on the air with me for like three minutes
and I'm like, oh, those are like the last bit
of the Bears, Like that's it. Well, thanks for coming on, Chase,
and then instantly got back to work. So yeah, and
(42:05):
I was saying on the broadcast too, it was kind
of the perfect moment to score a Teddy Bear Toss
goal seven minutes into the first period, near the middle
mark of that first period as well, because if you
score early, there might be fans who haven't made the
game yet didn't get to be involved in the Teddy
Bear Toss. Especially with the parade of lights going on
in downtown two so on, traffic might have been a
little bad on Saturday night. I mean, you score late
(42:28):
in a period, then the guys go straight into intermission
and you know, I'm not sure how much of the
help they can be if they have to go straight
to the locker room. So it was a perfect moment
to score the Teddy Bear Toss goal, especially it being
the first one for the road Runners. It was a
nice job by the rally Runners and the players too
to quickly get the bears off the ice, because as
(42:49):
much as the Teddy Bear Toss is awesome and you
won as many bears as possible, you want to get
them off the eyes so that you can keep the
momentum on your side after scoring your first goal.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Yeah, it was so so crowded last night, not only
the Teddy Bear Toss game. You had the street fair
few blocks, I few for the city blocks over at
fourth Avenue and then you had the there was like
a winter form more or something over the see other
parts of the CCC.
Speaker 7 (43:13):
So it was there was this huge.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
Line to get into what where I park and is
the garage behind not behind, but you have to the
west of the TCC. So normally I think most people
in the media like, like, I know you park over there,
park in the garage right next to the TCC. I
park at a newer garage over by the music hall,
and that was like so full. I had parked on
the fourth floor and that's usually really weird. And then
(43:35):
there was a huge line to get into to get
into there, and it was like it was wow, there's
so many people. So that was a good thing to
score a little bit later with also you messing the
Festival of the Parade lights thing, so that that was
a good thing to score a little later but not
too too late and close to the close to inner mission.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, James, it was a It was a good spot
for the road runs to score that Teddy Bear toss
and overall a really really fun week. Actually going back
to the build a Bear, let's see, I have actually
have the numbers of how much my bear went for
My bear went for seventy nine bucks at the auction,
and then we sold another one for a hundred, and
(44:13):
then another one for one hundred and five. I don't
know which of because it was me, Kevin Connaughton, and
Andre Gazina who all built bears, so I didn't expect
mine to go for as much as it connect Kevin
Connaughten's and Andrew Gazino's. But it was actually a one
of the fans of the Roadrunners. David Rodriguez, who bought
(44:34):
the bear, posted on his story mentioning me of the
Broadcast Bear. That's what I named the bear, because I
don't know. I was thinking of Teddy Bear, but then
Broadcast Bear.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
It was a it was a bit of a bland name,
but I thought it went well. Bought it, and he
told me that he's gonna build. They're gonna bid a
little broadcast booth for the bear, so I'm actually really
looking forward to seeing that. So thank you David Rodriguez
for buying my bear, and I can't wait to see
its little broadcast booth. You know very soon that his
(45:06):
kids will be building, so looking forward to seeing that
as well. James, Let's close things out here with one
of our favorite editions that we started off last year.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Brad Kerner.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
He's been doing a lot of work with the interviews
as of Lake kind of had a rotation of them
this season. Eliana Deibert has done a great job when
she's doing the interviews. Brad Kerner has done a bulk
of it as a Lathe Chase Klemens is going to
be doing it tomorrow because Brad has finals as he
is still going to college. So we've had a rotation
of all of our interviews. But one of the last
(45:37):
things we'd like to do is I have a question.
Brad asked Steve pop In that question after Saturday's victory
of the Teddy Bear toss game, and.
Speaker 7 (45:46):
Actually two last questions.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Wait for this all right, So based on Teddy Bear Toss,
I figure it out, Well, if you had a pet bear,
what kind of bear would you have?
Speaker 9 (45:56):
If I had a pet bear, what kind of the
bear would I have? But I think I think a
grizzly bear. Right, it's gotta be one of the coolest bears.
Speaker 7 (46:05):
Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 9 (46:08):
I think I'd name it Teddy just because we watched
Teddy the other day.
Speaker 10 (46:11):
It was on TV.
Speaker 9 (46:12):
So we have about nine TV's in our room right
now in our locker I heard, so we're watching some
Teddy awesome. Appreciate it, Thanks Brad, Thanks James.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yeah, I heard the I've seen that locker room. I've
seen that coaches room. They have a ton of TVs
in there. Uh. So, guys were in the spirit of
Teddy Bear toss. Uh you know, what do you say
watching Teddy? Is that a movie? Were they watching ted
ted the Comedy one?
Speaker 7 (46:39):
Or Yeah? I thought he meant like the movie ted Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
I was thinking ted So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Maybe I might have to ask him, well what he
meant by Was he watching a movie called Teddy? Or
was the movie Ted the Comedy made by Seth mcfarloll. James,
great show, It was a great week overall. Oh yeah,
I was gonna recap the week, and then I got
distracted by Build a Bear. Yeah. Started at BUILDE Bear,
made those with Andrag Zino and Kevin Connaughton, and then
(47:05):
the guys and I took a couple of community trips
throughout the week as well. We visited Children's Diamond Medical
Center to paint some sticks with the kids, also had
them signed as well.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
I had a couple of trips to.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
The holiday ice outside of the Tucson Arena. Also had
their season ticket member holiday party at the Tucson Arena
allow on that Tuesday night as well. And then close
things off with the Teddy Bear Toss here. Two games
upcoming and we're off to Abbotsford and then the holiday
break and then we have those really long trips coming
(47:43):
up in January. So folks enjoy while the Roadrunners are
still here because we have a long trip coming up
very soon. We have an ornament giveaway on Wednesday, and
our next big prom night is going to be Star
Wars Night versus.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
The Call Ride of Eagles on October twenty eighth.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
So get your tickets for all the upcoming games at
tuson roadrunners dot com, slash tickets, or at ticketmaster dot com. James,
thanks for joining me once again. Always great having you
on Roadrunners. Two games over five hundred twelve and ten
going up now against the hot San Diego goals. We
will close things out here, win lights, tou.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Zone, Gotta see the lines to two soon, gotta pat
gotta see the lines to two song coming back. We
(48:47):
just win, My little little city candidles we to get
but to the song. My heart is a yearing like Bronzon.
Speaker 7 (48:56):
My wheels are in.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Can't we be there with her in the cattlinas the
lights of Touc sun shining, and her Hello Belona, We Neversona,
the desert reaching the sky. You gotta see the lions
(49:33):
of Tucson and I got him back.
Speaker 10 (49:35):
We get a new mom.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
Gotta see the lions of Tucson coming back.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
We get a new ball.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Gotta see the lights are too soon back?
Speaker 10 (49:53):
Won't get the moon.
Speaker 7 (49:54):
Gotta see the lights too soon coming back?
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Will you get a bon
Speaker 10 (50:03):
Away a
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