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The Roadrunners play a two-game series at the Abbotsford Canucks (14-10-0-1) starting on Friday in their first trip north of the border since they got swept by in early December by the Calgary Wranglers, who are in first place in the league as of Thursday morning.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ (14-10-0-0) goes to British Columbia having won a season-high four in a row and six of their last eight.

“It’s an excellent homestand,â€� said ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ head coach Steve Potvin. “I think the guys obviously were motivated after that weekend in Calgary, they thought it was their best representation or as well as they can play.

“So, I love the initiative they took as leaders and they wanted to improve, wanted to get better and they made that possible this week.�

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ has climbed to fifth place in Pacific Division, behind the fourth place Canucks but by only one point. Abbotsford has played one more game than ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ (a shoot out loss) to give them 29 points compared to the Roadrunners’ 28.

The Roadrunners improved to 4-1 against San Diego and have beaten the Gulls three times in a row. Last season, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ went 7-1 against SD and are 23-12-2-0 against their I-8 Border Cup rivals in the last five years.

Agozzino joins the 600 club

On Wednesday, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ center Andrew Agozzino scored a goal to reach 600 career AHL points.

Agozzino is the 50th player in AHL history to get to 600 points. The AHL dates back to 1936.

Agozzino played for San Diego last season and in 2021.

“Yeah, that’s pretty impressive,� Potvin said. “I think it obviously shows how consistent he’s been in the league and he’s been such a good leader, he shows up the same version of himself every single day.

“He doesn’t ever seem like he has really any bad moments.�

In the third period he notched his 601st point on an assist on forward Josh Doan’s empty-net goal.

He has points in eight of his last 10 games, including 5 goals.

Villalta’s shut outs

Roadrunners goalie Matthew Villalta made 36 saves to earn his fourth-consecutive victory.

Villalta had a 1-5 record when Jaxson Stauber got called up on Nov. 20 but now it is 8-8 and he has shut outs in three of his last seven games.

“Matty’s playing with a lot of confidence right now,� Potvin said. “I think he’s made some good adjustments in his game.

“I thought the previous three games we did a really nice job defensively and I thought it was a real good balance between the defense and Matty, but I thought (Wednesday night) Matty was arguably our best player,� he added. “He made a lot of real key saves, they were getting some slot shots on us.�

On Wednesday at 1:39 in the second period, San Diego right wing Sasha Pastujov scored to end Villalta’s shut out streak of an hour and 43 minutes but that would be the last time the Gulls would light the lamp. He had back to back shut outs in the homestand.

“It’s definitely pretty cool,� Villalta said on Monday night. “I think at the end of the day, it’s a team effort, the boys are playing great in front of me right now and they’re keeping a lot of shots to the outside and I feel like I’m just making the saves I need to, so all in all it’s a team effort, a team win, and it’s a shut out as a team.�

Connauton connects

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s trend of defensemen scoring continued on Wednesday as defender Kevin Connauton scored two.

“It’s always nice to contribute offensively,� Connauton said. “You take care of the puck and the D zone first and every once in a while they sneak in on the other team.�

Connauton scored in the first and second periods to record his first two-goal game since Dec. 18, 2019, when he was a Colorado Eagle playing the Manitoba Moose.

Connauton leads all ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ defensemen in goals with 5 this year. Over the last four games ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s defensemen have 12 points.

“If you’re getting offense from your defenders, you’re in a really good spot,� Potvin said, “and typically that means you got guys going to the net and doing their job and you know if we’re able to create the offense from the goal line up, we’ll take the offense and production any way we can.�

Connauton, who has played for six NHL teams, got called up last Wednesday and returned to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Saturday.

“It was a cool experience to get back up there even though it was short lived,� Connauton said. “It was nice to go and now come back, join the guys and obviously they had a couple of wins while I was gone, so, got to build off that energy and pick up a few more.�

Christmas break

After the Roadrunners play at the Abbotsford Canucks on Saturday afternoon, they will have four-day break. Then their next game is Dec. 28 when they host the Colorado Eagles.

“I hope we go into Abbotsford and we do well there and it’s too bad we have a break because we’d like to keep going at that point,� Potvin said, “but it’s nice to be able to get time with family and all that is important, I think this time of year for sure.�