Finally again victorious, Roadrunners wrap up season’s first half against AHL-best Coachella Valley

We’ll forgive the Roadrunners if they wanted to savor this one, even for just another few seconds.

“It was such a relief for sure,” Tucson alternate captain Michael Carcone told the Star Sunday after tallying an assist in regulation Saturday while also depositing the would-be deciding goal in the shootout. “I think we all know we were pretty close the last couple games. We were in it and just couldn’t pull through, so we didn’t want to let that opportunity slide away from us.”

It had been 24 days since Tucson’s players felt the joy of victory. Sure, the American Hockey League’s week-long holiday break was part of that, but Saturday’s win staved off a dubious precedent. A loss would have made this year’s team the first in Roadrunners’ history to drop eight straight games; their now-snapped seven-game skid matched an equally rough run from last season’s team.

But should the Roadrunners make it two in a row Monday when they take on the Coachella Valley Firebirds in California’s Palm Desert region at 4 p.m., they’ll have quickly put that tough spell in the rear-view mirror as the second half of the 2022-23 AHL season gets underway later this week.

Monday’s matchup with the Firebirds marks game 36 of the Roadrunners’ expanded 72-game schedule. It’s the midpoint of what is to be the longest regular season in team history after the league elected to push Pacific Division schedule from 68 games to 72 heading into this season.

While the hardly long-forgotten losing streak is clearly the lowest point of the first half for Tucson, exercising those demons over the weekend and perhaps beating the Firebirds Monday would certainly be considered a quick-turn high point. Coachella Valley, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, may be an expansion team in their first season of action, but the Firebirds (24-6-3-1) currently sport the league’s best overall record.

Tucson, by contrast, is still in position for a Calder Cup postseason berth, although the losing streak took the now sixth-place Roadrunners (14-15-4-0) to under .500 for the year, and flush into a battle for one of the seven playoff positions that come from the AHL’s behemoth 10-team Pacific Division.

“It’s kind of crazy. There’s been a lot of hockey so far, but definitely a nice feeling that may we’re getting our skid out of the way now and we still have half a season left,” Carcone said.

Other first-half high notes for Tucson include the Roadrunners’ hot start – a stretch of games, considering the recent struggles, that are pretty much why they can still claim that playoff positioning heading into the season’s back half. Tucson jumped out of the gates 6-1-0-0.

Another obvious other high note has been the play of Carcone.

With an assist Saturday night, Carcone sits one point away from 50 on the season. He’d be just the fifth Roadrunner to reach that number in the club’s seven seasons of play. If he does it Monday, it will come in the 31st game he’ll dress for Tucson this season.

“You know, I’m proud of myself and proud of the work that’s been put into to get to this point,” said Carcone, whose 49 points are far-and-away atop the AHL charts so far, while his 19 goals are tied for second among all AHL players, and his 30 assists are tied for fourth league-wide.

Through Saturday, across the 32-team league, 1,039 skaters across and goaltenders have played at least one AHL game this season. Yet it’s hard to argue against Carcone, named this week to the AHL’s upcoming All-Star Classic for the first time earlier this week, as not just the Roadrunners’ first-half MVP, but the likely first-half MVP league-wide. And it’s not just his offensive output, but also what happened when he’s not on the ice. In addition to missing a game in early December, he was called up to the Coyotes for six games recently.

Call it coincidental, but without Carcone in the lineup this season, the Roadrunners were 0-5-0-0 and have been outscored 23-8 in those five games.

But Carcone naturally pushes away any MVP talk: “I’ve said it before. This doesn’t happen without your teammates. I’ve been fortunate to play with some good players this year, and we’ve had some good leadership and guidance. I have to give credit there.

“And honestly at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean anything. Half the season’s gone. We still have another left,” he added of where his numbers sit right now. “If we’re disciplined as a team over the next 36, I think we’re putting outselves in a good position to be successful and make the playoffs.”