Michael Carcone’s tear continues — but so does Roadrunners’ winless streak

His line Tuesday night in his first American Hockey League action after his most recent NHL callup: two goals and an assist.

For an encore, he’d record three more points the next night, too. Originally registered as a three-assist evening, one of those helpers was changed to a goal via a team petition to the AHL main office the next day. Video showed Carcone deflected the puck in.

In either case, Carcone has now tallied three points in a game eight times this season through Tucson’s first 34 games. (He has played in 29 of them.) Five of those three-point nights have come over his last nine outings.

Entering play this weekend, Carcone is at or near the top of all major AHL scoring lists. He’s tied for second in goals and tied for fourth in assists, and his 48 points are eight more than the next-closest player. No other AHL player is in the top 15 in all three categories this season.

If Carcone manages to hit another three-point night — or even just two — in the Roadrunners’ next outing, a 7 p.m. Saturday faceoff on the road against the Bakersfield Condors, he’ll become just the fifth Tucson player to ever record 50 points in a season. He’ll have hit that in his 30th game.

The flip side to Carcone’s success has been the Roadrunners’ hapless last few weeks as a team. While competitive in many instances — they were that in a 7-5 loss to Milwaukee on Tuesday, before holding tough for most of an eventual 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Admirals on Wednesday — the Roadrunners enter Saturday’s tilt with Bakersfield aiming to not making team history.

The Roadrunners (14-16-4-0), whose record fell under .500 this week for the first time this season, are riding a seven-game losing streak. Tucson hasn’t won since Dec. 22, and all seven losses have come in regulation — marking the second time in team history that’s happened. The other time was last season, right around the same time of the year (Jan. 14-Jan. 28).

“Losing’s getting really old right now,” Tucson captain Adam Cracknell told assembled media postgame Wednesday. “We gotta find a way. I mean, seven in a row?”

Eight would be the longest skid of any kind Tucson has ever had.

The bright side, as the Roadrunners face the Condors (12-19-1-0): Bakersfield is only 3-7 over its last 10 games and sits second to last in the 10-team AHL Pacific Division. Tucson enters the weekend in sixth place.

Fans in Tucson who want to see if the Roadrunners might set that inauspicious record Saturday in California — or, perhaps, hoping they evade that kind of history-making moment — can do so for free via their computer, mobile phone or other smart device.

AHLtv, the league-operated subscription streaming service that aims to feature every AHL game, is offering its “one-day-only FreeView” Saturday. Viewers who sign-up at WatchTheAHL.com can see the Roadrunners and Condors, or any of 14 other AHL games at no cost.

Later this month, the Roadrunners will be on local television in Southern Arizona for the third time this season when they take on the Abbotsford Canucks in Tucson on Sunday, Jan. 29.  The 4 p.m. matchup will be televised on KWBA-TV, also known as The CW Tucson. The channel can be found on most Southern Arizona cable or satellite systems on either channel 8 or 58.