The Tucson Roadrunners can push their playoff hopes closer to reality when they host San Jose for a pair of midweek games.
Tucson opens the two-game series against San Jose on Tuesday night, looking to extend its winning streak to four games.
The Roadrunners are coming off a 3-0-0 road trip that has Tucson well atop the American Hockey League’s Pacific Division with 11 games to go in the regular season.
“We need to keep winning games here and separate ourselves from everybody in our division so we can keep that No. 1 spot more firm,” goalie Hunter Miska said. “I think these two games Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be huge for that.”
San Jose, despite its seventh-place standing, has given Tucson trouble this season.
The Barracuda are 3-2 against Tucson; San Jose won the most recent matchup 4-2.
The first-place Roadrunners, with a 34-18-4-1 record, have also struggled at home this year.
The Roadrunners haven’t won back-to-back games at the Tucson Arena since late November.
“It’s a pretty blanket statement to say we haven’t been good (at home), but to really look at why we’ve had success on the road and not at home, coach Mike Van Ryn has really talked about the starts,” forward Mike Sislo said. “Playing each period getting off to a quick start, so that’s something we can control. If we can do that, hopefully we can carry momentum throughout the entire period and the game.”
Tucson got off to strong starts in both of its wins at Stockton over the weekend, scoring a goal in the first period of each game.
Miska recorded his first professional shutout in the Friday night win over Stockton.
Roadrunners goalie Adin Hill, who was called up to the Coyotes last week, was recalled to Tucson over the weekend and earned the win Saturday.
“We need to trust our process, play our game and stick to what we’re good at — being a quick team who plays a 200-foot game,” Miska said. “I think our power play has been really good here recently and I think our penalty kill has been doing a lot better of a job.”
Tucson is humming along offensively, led by five goals from Sislo over the past five games. Sislo credited the addition of forward Carter Camper for adding more cohesion on the offensive side.
Camper has recorded 11 assists in his first seven games with the team.
“I feel like we have some pretty good chemistry and he’s been able to find me a lot,” Sislo said.
