Nine games into his first American Hockey League season, Tij Iginla finally broke through.
The Utah Mammoth’s 2024 first-round pick scored his first pro goal on Wednesday for the Tucson Roadrunners in a one-off matchup with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, and he did it with the kind of flash that made him such an intriguing prospect in the first place.
The play started with Montana Onyebuchi firing a strong stretch pass out of his own zone to Joshua Roy, who then slid a backhanded feed over to Iginla in the second period. From there, Iginla took over. He slipped past a Firebirds defender, got his shot away while that player was still draped on his back, and buried the puck in the net before throwing his arms up in celebration.
For Iginla, it had been building for a while. He’d had plenty of looks through his first eight games, but the finishing touch hadn’t arrived yet.
In those early outings, he often seemed to be dialing it back instead of making the aggressive moves he showed in juniors to drive the puck to dangerous areas. This one looked much more like the version of Iginla that lit it up with the Kelowna Rockets and earned him his draft status.
The first player to reach him after the goal was Caleb Desnoyers, and that moment stood out just as much as the finish itself. Desnoyers gave him a stick tap on the shins and was clearly fired up for him before Iginla headed back to the bench. If you’re the Mammoth, that’s the kind of chemistry you want to see keep growing.
Iginla became the fifth Roadrunners rookie to score his first pro goal this season, joining Desnoyers, Yegor Borikov, Vadim Moroz, and Tomas Lavoie.
The night had plenty going on beyond Iginla’s milestone. Desnoyers picked up an assist on Austin Poganki’s goal, giving him five points on the season.
Lavoie dropped the gloves for the first time as a pro, fighting Nathan Villeneuve after the Firebirds forward delivered a needless hit on Desnoyers. Michael Hrabal kept building his case as Tucson’s starter, earning his third win while posting a .929 save percentage.
Outside the rookie storyline, Ben McCartney made his mark too. He scored a shorthanded goal, the sixth of his career, setting a new Roadrunners franchise record.
McCartney finished with two goals in the game and now has 13 points in nine games, which ties him for third in the entire AHL. Brandon Tanev also added an assist, his third point of the season.
The Roadrunners extended their point streak to seven straight games, and they now sit third in the Pacific Division, just one point behind the Colorado Eagles and Abbotsford Canucks.
For Iginla, though, the headline is simple: the first one is in. That weight is off now, and the Roadrunners will be hoping it opens the door to more as they push toward a playoff spot and, maybe, their first division title since the 2019-20 season.
In Other News...
Utah Let A Heated Division Game Slip Away The Same Old Way
A divisional game with real bite turned into a slog for Utah in a 3-1 loss to Minnesota, and the familiar issue was impossible to ignore. The Mammoths penalty kill and goaltending did enough early to keep the Wild from blowing the game open, but the constant trips to the box kept dragging Utah out of its rhythm and away from the kind of five-on-five push it needed to build anything lasting.
Andre Tourigny and Logan Cooley both pointed to the penalties as the story of the night, and it is hard to argue otherwise when a team spends so much of the night trying to survive instead of attack. For a Utah group trying to hold its own in a division race, the frustration is not just the loss itself but the way it happened, with one self-inflicted problem undercutting everything else it tried to do. [Read more 🡒]