Patrick Williamstheahl.com writer
Two teams, one position. Who wants it?
Six of the seven playoff spots in the Pacific Division were claimed. One remaining, that battle is attributed to Tucson Passers-in-Law and Bakersfield’s Condor.
Tucson took a two-point advantage tonight with Bakersfield 72-70. The two teams have two games left. Passers-by will stay home this weekend for the game against the Colorado Hawks tonight and Saturday. Bakersfield hosted the Henderson Silver Knights tonight, before completing the team’s family and family series on Saturday.
Runners control their fate: they won one of two games and they made it to the Calder Cup playoffs.
The path to Bakersfield is tricky: Even if the vultures sweep off the Silver Knights, they need Tucson to stumble.
The seventh place will face the second-place team in next week’s best three first-round series. For now, this is Abbotsford Canucks, but this is far from a deal completed. Abbotsford and Ontario even scored 88 points (Canucks had a tiebreaker during their reign, which was a victory for the regulations). Abbotsford also has the potential to win the Colorado championship.
Tucson has experience in seventh place from both sides. Two years ago, the Roadrunners were barely qualified for the Calder Cup playoffs. Once inside, however, they really scared the second-place Coachella Valley Firebirds and played a full three games in the final Calder Cup final. Last season, the long spring hopes of the second-place Roadrunners were quickly gone as Calgary ranked seventh finished their series in two games.
This year’s road operators have been getting a lot of help at their mother team Utah Hockey Club. As Utah season ends, goalkeepers Matthew Villalta Leading scorer with Tucson Keller Yamamoto All rejoined passers-by. Yamamoto is an experienced NHL’er whose playoff experience includes 34 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and he scored 53 points (19 goals, 34 assists) in 52 games against Tucson. Villalta is back again, and passers-by have emerged from a major career, his first NHL win over the past Tuesday night.
Recently, Home Ice has also been very good with Roadrunners. Of the last six dates at Tucson Arena, they were 5-1-0. They swept the Condors in two games two weeks ago.
For the Condors who have not missed the playoffs since 2018, it was the first real close call since 2015-16, when only four teams qualified in the Pacific Division. That year, the Condor missed two points in the playoffs.
Bakersfield also got some rosters. Outstanding defender Connor Carrick After a brief recall, come back – despite Bluebrins companions Josh Brown and Cam Dineen Still in Edmonton – Forward Noah Philp and Derek Ryan Back from the Oilers too. Another reason for optimism about vultures? They won the game 3-0-0 in four of their six meetings against Henderson this season.
Tonight – maybe Saturday – will address the rest.
During the fifty years in the American Hockey League, Theahl.com writer Patrick Williams currently covers NHL.com and Flosports leagues and is a regular contributor to Siriusxm NHL New Network Radio. He won the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding league coverage in 2016.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘634980329980573’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
Source link
