Tucson Roadrunners' 2023-24 AHL season comes to close after 4-3 Calder Cup playoff loss to Calgary (2024)

James KelleySpecial to the Arizona Daily Star

The Tucson Roadrunners’ late rally came up short, and their season came to a close Friday night in Downtown Tucson.

No. 2 seed Tucson lost 4-3 to the Calgary Wranglers in Game 2 of their first-round, best-of-three Calder Cup playoff series Friday night, two days after falling 2-0 in Game 1 on Wednesday.

Trailing 4-2 in the back half of the third period, the Roadrunners scored with about 7 1/2 minutes left to get within a goal; Tucson outshot Calgary 17-7 in the third as it put the pressure on to even up not only the game, but also the series.

Tucson pulled goalie Matthew Villalta with about 1:20 left but couldn’t force overtime.

"I thought we came out with the right energy. I thought our guys really did do everything they could to try to get this victory,” Tucson head coach Steve Potvin said. “You can see the hurt in the room and I honestly thought the guys gave it the right amount of effort tonight and I couldn’t be prouder of that.

“But listen: We fell short.”

It’s the first time Tucson has been swept in a playoff series in its eight-year history.

Tucson outshot Calgary 43-24 Friday after outshooting the Wranglers 46-35 on Wednesday.

In Friday’s clincher, the Wranglers were 1-for-2 on the power play and the Roadrunners were 1-for-5.

“It sucks. I don’t know. I think it’s just a short series. (It’s) tough to get behind early,” Tucson forward Dylan Guenther said. “I mean they played well but we’ve got to capitalize on our opportunities and it really hurts to have that good of a year and come up short like that.”

Tucson finished the season, including the two playoff losses, at 43-25-4-2. The Roadrunners set a franchise record for regular season points and wins.

At 16:17 in the first, Guenther scored the Roadrunners’ first goal of the series on the power play, with the assist by defenseman Steven Kampfer. Tucson’s power play had been 0-for-5 in the series to that point.

Tucson led for just 52 seasons in the game, and all series. Calgary center Sam Morton scored the Wranglers’ first power play goal of the series less than a minute later breaking Calgary’s own 0-for-3 power play slump in the series.

Calgary took the lead seven minutes in the second when center Riley Damiani scored.

At 12:33 in that period, Tucson left wing Justin Kirkland scored the equalizer off an assist from defenseman Max Szuber.

But Calgary matched Tucson’s effort yet again, retaking the lead 26 seconds later when defenseman Ilya Solovyov scored.

Potvin thought the Roadrunners showed too much excitement on the goals where Calgary lit the lamp right after Tucson scored.

“I think we got a little bit frantic there. I think we built a lot of energy and we just got a little frantic and a little sporadic. That’s not typically how we respond and play,” Potvin said. “It’s a learning experience for us to really be able to keep our emotions in check, whether it’s heated emotion or excited emotion, and I felt like we needed to be able to stay central and focused on the plan right after we scored.”

Calgary added an insurance goal about halfway through the third when left wing William Strömgren scored.

The Roadrunners struck back when right wing Hunter Drew scored at 12:29 in the third. Center

Curtis Douglas had an assist.

“Obviously it’s do or die so a lot of fight in us and we want to play right until the end,” Tucson center Cameron Hebig said. “We were really pushing there, it’s too bad we couldn’t get ‘er back there.”

All season long Potvin praised the character of this group of players.

“This is a team of great leaders and great people and honestly this has been the most fun we’ve ever (had coaching) this type of team,” Potvin said. “If you look around from the leadership group to the young kids that just bought in to the plan and bought into working every single day and – listen, we weren’t easy on them. We pushed them hard and we asked them to get into that comfort zone and they honestly bought into it.

“When they started seeing success and they started to really work on their relationships and man, this team just took off.”

Although it ended in heartbreak – let alone the team’s future in Southern Arizona remaining in question after the Roadrunners’ ownership has said publicly it is exploring moving the club to Tempe – the Roadrunners’ eighth season in Tucson was a historic one.

“You don’t end up getting what you wanted in the end,” Potvin said. “But it doesn’t take away from the amount of success that we had.”

Slap shots

• The attendance of 5,178 was the largest home playoff crowd in Roadrunners history.

• The University of Arizona roller hockey team, winners of the Division II national championship at the National College Roller Hockey Championships last week, performed the ceremonial puck drop.

• The Roadrunners’ “Hero of the Game” segment, where the crowd cheers for a veteran or active serviceman or servicewoman, took a different tact in Game 2. On Friday night, the team celebrated Tucson Arena Public Address announcer Kim Cota-Robles during that segment. Cota-Robles was an officer in the Navy for 11 years and later became one of the first female full-time P.A. announcer in professional hockey when hired by the Roadrunners two seasons ago.