The Texas Tornado took a 2-0 advantage in their best-of-five series against the Topeka RoadRunners, winning by a score of 2-1 for the second straight night on Sunday. CJ Reuschlein had his second goal in as many nights, while he was joined in the scoresheet by Scott Conway. Hunter Leisner stopped 24 of 25 after making 35 saves in Saturday’s win.

The Tornado opened the game playing a trap and completely confused the RoadRunners, who put just three shots on goal in the first period. The first two actually came from outside the zone, as the RoadRunners struggled to get it over the Tornado blue line. Both teams were tight defensively, but with under a minute left, Topeka picked up the opening goal of the contest. Tyler Andrew entered the zone on the right wing and drove to the net. His initial shot hit the post and ended up on the outside of the net. Sean Gaffney knocked it off and found Kyle Sharkey in front for the goal that gave Topeka a 1-0 lead.

Sharkey’s goal came with under a minute left in the period, but the Tornado came out strong in the second period, as well. They tied the score after catching Topeka in a change in the early stages of the middle frame. After a shot from the point went wide and went all the way back to the Tornado end, Topeka tried to get a fresh defensive pair out. Alexey Soloviev sent a long pass to the opposite blue line and Reuschlein entered the zone. He came into the circle and snapped a wrist shot over the glove of Topeka goaltender Spencer Viele to tie the score.

A few minutes later, the Tornado took the lead, taking advantage of a bad giveaway by Topeka. Max Shuart picked off a bad pass in the RoadRunner zone, and found Conway parked right out in front. He stickhandled before poking it off the post and in to beat Viele for the Tornado lead. Conway’s goal came about midway through the second period, and though Topeka had chances throughout the rest of the game, Leisner stood tall and stopped everything he saw.

Game 3 of the series is scheduled for this Friday at 7:30 at Dr Pepper Arena. Should the Tornado win, they’ll advance to the second round of the South Division playoffs, where they will face the winner of the series between Amarillo and Corpus Christi.