The Texas Roadrunners moved to an astounding record of 24-1-0-0 over this past weekend with a three game sweep of the Atlanta Capitals on the road in Duluth, Georgia.
Friday Final:
Texas R 8 @ Atlanta 1 – The Atlanta Capitals hosted the Texas RoadRunners for their fourth matchup of the season. The RoadRunners have won their previous three matchups and had a 15-game winning streak going into this game. The Capitals had a 15-game losing streak going into this game, and have yet to win their first game of the season. In the first period, Texas forward Ronin Draffan opened up the scoring with a goal at 14:52. The RoadRunners continued to extend their lead with a goal by forward William Heskett on the power play at 4:00, and a goal by defenseman Hillard Johnmeyer on the power play at 2:47. In the second period, Texas was carrying a lead of 3-0 into the period, and forward Joseph Izzo scored the first of the period at 19:34. RoadRunners forward Logan Diskey scored on the power play at 14:20. Capitals forward Maddox Woulfin scored the first goal of the game for Atlanta at 1:21 to end the period one goal to five. In the third period, Diskey scored his second of the game for Texas at 9:52. His teammate, forward Lucas Dyer, scored on the power play at 7:22. Heskett scored his second of the game at 3:43, and closed the game 8-1 for the RoadRunners to extend their winning streak to 16 games. Calum Hartner started in net for Texas and made 13 saves on 14 shots. Maxwell Pelton started in net for the Capitals and made 43 saves on 51 shots.
Saturday Final:
Texas R 13 @ Atlanta 3 – The Atlanta Capitals hosted the Texas RoadRunners for a second night in a row and for their fifth matchup of the season. On Friday night, the RoadRunners extended their winning streak to 16 games, and the Capitals were unable to capture their first win of the season. In a high-scoring game for Texas, they would start the first period with goals from forward Ronin Draffan at 18:27, defenseman Hillard Johnmeyer at 12:16, and forward Lucas Dyer at 10:16. The Capitals would get their first goal of the game from an unassisted goal by forward Preston Hall at 6:11. Texas would close out the first period with a goal by forward Logan Diskey at 2:30. The second period would open with a short-handed goal by Dyer for his second of the game at 19:27. Texas would proceed to extend their four-goal lead with goals from forwards Michael Garrett at 18:26, Joseph Izzo at 5:48, and William Heskett at 5:29. Forward Gavin Koehler would give the Capitals their second goal of the game with two minutes remaining in the period. Defenseman Vincent Campbell would score Texas’ ninth goal of the game with 33 seconds remaining in the period. In the third period, Dyer would complete a hat trick with a short-handed goal at 18:36. Campbell would score his second of the game at 10:38, and forward Kristopher Pope would score for Texas at 6:12. Atlanta would get their third of the game off of a power-play goal by forward Dylan Warmath with less than two minutes remaining in the third. Garrett would score his second of the game and end the game 13-3 for Texas, extending their winning streak to 17 games. Brenden Patterson started in net for the RoadRunners and made 12 saves. Milo Pricinsky started in net for Atlanta and made 43 saves before Maxwell Pelton closed out the game with 6 saves.
Sunday Final:
Texas R 8 @ Atlanta 2 – In a battle in the Southeast, the RoadRunners were looking to continue their winning ways against the Capitals. On Sunday, the RoadRunners got the scoring started thanks to a trio of goals in the first period. Luca Dyer finds the back of the net 30 seconds into the matchup, with William Heskett tallying two goals midway through the period. Atlanta’s Maddox Woulfin scores at the 3:03 minute mark, tightening up the contest as it moves into the second frame. The middle period featured another trio of goals by the Texas team. Ronin Draffan got the scoring started, with Joseph Izzo and Lucas Dyer scoring 10 minutes later in the period for the RoadRunners. With a commanding 6-1 lead, the matchup moves into the final 20 minutes. Atlanta’s Josiah Castaneda finds the back of the net on the man advantage for the Capitals at the 17:20 minute mark. Seven minutes later, Hillard Johnmeyer scored short-handed for the RoadRunners. With 3:35 on the board, Texas’ Dyer notches his third of the contest, securing a hat trick performance. The RoadRunners leave with an 8-2 win against the Capitals.
The Roadrunners will now head off to face the undefeated and last years Fraser Cup champions The Louisiana Drillers in a three game set in Lafayette, LA. this coming weekend. The Drillers have been dominant this season and a perfect 18-0-0 and currently sit in third place in the 3HL trailing the first place Roadrunners by 14 points but have seven games in hand on the Runners. “We have a nine game stretch coming up that will tell us exactly where we are at mid season with six against the Drillers then our three game match-up in Blaine at the showcase. The guys need to be ready to face some real adversity and I thing it will be very interesting as well as potentially shocking to some of our guys. We need to play a full sixty and stay out of the box, control emotions and just plain work our systems and do our jogs every game.” states Roadrunners Head Coach Mike Beavis.
This matchup will be what everyone has waited for and all eyes will be on the Roadrunner / Drillers series this weekend. Be sure to tune into NAHLTV.com to catch all the action or take a trip to Lafayette, LA “Planet Ice” to catch the games live.