The American Hockey League announced Calgary Wranglers goaltender Dustin Wolf as its 2022-23 MVP on Friday, leaving record-breaking Tucson Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone, the AHL's leading scorer this season, as a proverbial bridesmaid in the running for the league's top postseason honor.
Yet if CarconeΒ β who had previously been named an AHL postseason first-team All-Star and also won the John B. Sollenberger Trophy, which goes to the player that tallied the most pointsΒ β or his teammates want to express their frustration over the snub, tonight would be a good time to do so. The Roadrunners face the Coachella Valley Firebirds in Game 2 of their first-round Calder Cup playoff series in Palm Desert, California, with the Firebirds up 1-0 and the Roadrunners in a must-win situation in the best-of-three series. Game time is 7 p.m.
βIt has been a long season. Come a long way,β Carcone said last weekend, days before he or anyone within the Roadrunners knew the official outcome. βIt is a hard accomplishment, and just to even be in the running for it, thatβs special.β
Michael Carcone, right, seen playing for the NHLβs Arizona Coyotes during an exhibition game in September at Tucson Arena, led the Tucson Roadrunners in goals, assists and points this year, while also leading the entire AHL in the latter category.
While the finishing order is not released by the AHL, it can be presumed that WolfΒ β who also won the Aldege βBazβ Bastien Memorial Award for outstanding goalie and the Harry βHapβ Holmes Award for fewest goals allowed per gameΒ β edged Carcone and Syracuse Crunch forward Alex BarrΓ©-Boulet, who was a point behind Carcone in the league scoring race. Ontario Reign center T.J. Tynan, the leagueβs MVP each of the last two seasons, was likely also in the running.
βWolf or BarrΓ©-Boulet or Tynan, those guys, theyβre all great players. So to be in the conversation with them is just unbelievable,β Carcone said following Tucsonβs regular-season finale this past Saturday. βThese guys, Iβve seen them for six, seven years playing, and theyβre great players. Theyβre big parts of their team.
βSo itβs just special.β
Tucson Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone gives Tucson the 2-1 come-from-behind overtime victory Sunday, March 26, 2023 over the Colorado Eagles. Carcone was central to Tucson scoring the game-tying goal inside 90 seconds to play in regulation with the goaltender pulled, and then finished the Eagles off less than two minutes into OT. Carcone leads the AHL with 74 points as the Roadrunners continue to main control over one of the last playoff spots out of the AHL's Pacific Division as the scheduled winds down. Video courtesy Tucson Roadrunners
The Roadrunners are 16-3-6-0 this season when Carcone scores a goal. Heβs led Tucson in goals all three seasons heβs played for the team, and was the first AHL player this season to reach 40, 50 and 60 points. He scored 20 goals in Tucsonβs first 36 games.
The MVP award is named after AHL great Les Cunningham, who retired in 1947 as the league's career scoring leader. In Cunninghamβs 10 AHL seasons, all playing for the Cleveland Barons, he won three Calder Cup championships, was named to five postseason AHL All-Star teams in a row and played in the first AHL All-Star Game in 1942, a World War II fundraiser.
Cunningham had 579 points in 517 games and was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame in 2009.
Tucson Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone scores his third goal of the game in a 7-2 Tucson victory over the Coachella Valley Firebirds at Tucson Arena on Dec. 13, 2022. Video courtesy Tucson Roadrunners
This season Carcone was first in the AHL in points (85), fifth in goals (31), third in assists (54), third in power-play goals (14), second in power-play points (33), ninth in penalty minutes (127), first in shots on goal (273) and had the leagueβs longest scoring streak (15 games).
Wolf's rΓ©sumΓ© is certainly just as strong, with an additional cherry on top: Calgary finished with the league's best overall record at 51-17-3-1 for 106 points. The AHL's top goalie last season too, Wolf was even better in 2022-23, leading the league with a 2.09 goals against average and .932 save percentage while playing the most games in net. He led the league in minutes, shots against and saves while posting league highs with 42 wins and seven shutouts.
Calgary coach Mitch Love, a resident of Marana in the offseason, won the AHL's Coach of the Year award earlier this week.
Carcone would have been the first Roadrunner to win one of the AHLβs major awards since Craig Cunningham was honored with the Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award in 2016-17. That award goes to the player βbest exemplifying the qualities demonstrated by Fred T. Hunt: sportsmanship, determination and dedication to hockey.β
Carcone set six Roadrunner records this season: goals, assists, points, power-play goals, shots on goal and longest scoring streak. The goals and shots records that he broke were his own club marks.
Carcone won the scoring title despite playing in four fewer games than BarrΓ©-Boulet. The Ajax, Ontario, native also collected three points, scoring two goals, in nine games in the NHL this season on recalls with the Arizona Coyotes.
Tucson Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone participated in the fastest skater and shot accuracy competitions at the AHL All-Star Classic in Laval Quebec on Feb. 5, 2023. Carcone's time of 13.282 in the fastest skater competition would have placed first if it were at the NHL All-Star event, but was second at the AHL level, trailing only Ethen Frank of the Hershey Bears. Frank's time of 12.915 set a new AHL event record. Video courtesy Tucson Roadrunners
βWhen you say βleading scorer,β I donβt think people really understand the depth of how hard it is do what he did, especially with the call-ups and the way our team is,β Tucson coach Steve Potvin said Saturday. βThereβs days that we were really, really doing well on the power play. And thereβs other times we werenβt. And then thereβs a good portion of the middle part of the season that we werenβt scoring a lot of goals. And somehow, some way, he found the back of the net.β
Carcone is one of six Roadrunners to reach 100 career points, and his 151 are second behind Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting (180 points).
Carcone's 25 multiple-point games this season are the most in Tucson history.
Whether it was Carcone or Wolf β or even Tynan β for MVP, the Pacific Division has dominated the AHLβs award lineup this season, winning seven of the 10 awards the league has given out so far.
Tucson Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone, right, might be among the AHLβs leaders in goals, points and assists, but heβs also provided a significant physical presence at times. Carcone has topped 100 penalty minutes this season. No AHL scoring champ has finished with that many penalty minutes in at least 20 seasons.
Slap shots
β’ Carcone is in the final year of a two-year contract with the Coyotes. Heβll be an unrestricted free agent this summer, meaning that his time as a Roadrunner might come to an end this weekend should Tucson not mount a comeback at Coachella Valley. If Carcone signs elsewhere, heβll finish four goals shy of Tucsonβs career goals record, a mark currently held by Bunting. Carcone is at 70 goals as a Roadrunners in 148 games. It took Bunting 260 games to reach 74.
Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone breaks in for a shot on Ontario goalie Cal Petersen in the second period of their AHL game on Dec. 9, 2022, at Tucson Arena.
β’ A Roadrunners victory Friday night against the Firebirds would send Tucson and Coachella Valley to a decisive Game 3 Sunday at 3 p.m. If Tucson wins Friday and Sunday, the Roadrunners would take on Wolf and the Wranglers in a best-of-five second-round series.Β
β’ AHL coaches, players and media from the leagueβs 32 member cities vote on the leagueβs postseason awards. Reporters from the Arizona Daily Star abstained from voting this year. The leagueβs voting rules include a stipulation that players and coaches canβt vote for anyone on their own team. The rules for media are similar; media canβt vote for a player on the team they cover. Considering Carconeβs record-breaking year, Star staff chose not to vote rather than have to consider leaving Carcone's name off ballot entirely for both MVP or first-team All-Star consideration.
