Hockey News: Tucson Roadrunners elude Wolves

The Chicago Wolves took a lead into the final period, but fell to the Tucson Roadrunners 3-2 after a furious rally on Saturday night at Tucson Convention Center Arena.

Forwards Tomas Hyka and Brooke Macek each scored for Chicago (22-13-3-1) while goaltender Zach Fucale (0-1-0) saved 27 shots in his first start with the Wolves.

Adam Helewka scored two goals in the final nine minutes for Tucson (20-10-3-1) while Domenic Alberga also scored. Goaltender Calvin Pickard (3-0-0), working on a conditioning assignment from the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, made 28 saves in the win.

Hyka scored his fourth goal of the weekend on the Wolves’ first power play of the night, tapping in a pass from Macek at the 12:39 mark of the first period.

Wolves hockey game at Allstate Arena. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania

Alberga tied things up at 16:10, executing on a passing play with his linemates. The Roadrunners entered the zone and made two quick passes before Alberga shot the puck under Fucale’s pads.

The game stayed deadlocked until the 13:20 mark of the second period when Macek scored his 18^th of the year. Forward Daniel Carr scooped the puck up behind the Tucson net, fed it to Gage Quinney in front and he dished a pass to Macek in the high slot for a snipe past Pickard.

Helewka tallied consecutive goals in the third period to lift the Roadrunners to a win, first capitalizing on a Tucson power play at 11:20 before potting the go-ahead goal at 14:47 when he powered past the defense and stuffed the puck under Fucale.

The Wolves return to Allstate Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 16, to face the Grand Rapids Griffins. To be a part of the Craft Beer Arena Crawl, visit ChicagoWolves.com or call 1-800-THE-WOLVES.

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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