Roadrunners prepare to battle Coachella's hottest new group, the Firebirds, in AHL playoffs

The Tucson Roadrunners return to the Calder Cup playoffs to face a powerful AHL debutant.

The Roadrunners face the expansion Coachella Valley Firebirds in a best-three-game series — all in Palm Desert, California — beginning Wednesday at 7 p.m.

“Anything can happen,” Tucson forward Michael Carcone said. “Playoffs is a different animal. I’ve been through it a couple times and kinda happy and excited for the young guys that get to experience it. It’s hard to accomplish it, to get to the playoffs, so we’re gonna see what we’re made of here.

“I think we got the team to go the distance here.”

Tucson went 2-5-1-0 against Coachella Valley, 1-3-0-0 in Palm Desert. However, the Roadrunners by only one goal, 4-3, in the first game at Acrisure Arena on Dec. 18 to split that series during the brand-new facility’s opening weekend.

“Everybody says the real season is starting,” Tucson center Jean-Sebastien Dea said. “So I think everybody is excited.”

The Dec. 18 game had an attendance of 10,087 on opening night, and there were 6,487 at the next game. So the Roadrunners already have had a taste of what a playoff-like atmosphere could be like in Coachella Valley.

“I think that was a good experience,” Carcone said. “It’s exciting going in there. You can say we’re the underdogs and they have the home-ice advantage, but it will be nice if we can go in there and just kinda shut the crowd up and maybe disappoint them and kinda get through them.”

Coachella Valley scored 3.57 goals per game, third best in the AHL, in the regular season. The Firebirds featured five players with at least 50 points, led by left wing Max McCormick (67), right wing Kole Lind (62) and left wing Cameron Hughes (56). Carcone (85 points, most in the league), forward Adam Cracknell (53) and Dea (50) paced the Roadrunners.

Left wing Tye Kartye had 57 points for the Firebirds, but CV’s parent club, the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, called him up for their playoff series. Also, center Andrew Poturalski, who had 42 points in 38 games, suffered a season-ending injury in January. He led the AHL in scoring last year with 101 points.

Seattle sent forward Shane Wright, the fourth overall pick of the 2022 draft and captain of Canada’s World Junior team, to the Firebirds for the playoffs.

The Arizona Coyotes sent five 2022-23 Roadrunners back to Tucson for the playoffs, including goalie Ivan Prosvetov.

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“Listen,” Tucson coach Steve Potvin said. “I think when our lineup is healthy and we get the saves necessary and everybody is connected and pushing and pulling and we’re in the same boat, we’re a hard team to play against. And honestly, the way the season ended is a grind, and the record doesn’t really indicate the type of finish that we had.”

Former ASU goalie Joey Daccord, fifth in the AHL in goals against average (2.38), leads the Firebirds’ netminders.

Tucson ended the season with the goalie position in disarray as all three were under the weather. The Roadrunners had to suit up an emergency backup goalie on Saturday.

Potvin said Prosvetov, who was 4-3 in the NHL this year, should be “ready to roll” for the series and he wasn’t dressed as a precaution.

He even joked about how close the three sick goalies are.

“The goalie union is pretty tight,” Potvin said.

Slap shots

The Calgary Wranglers, the AHL regular-season champions, had 106 points and held off Coachella Valley for the league and division crowns. Only Calgary and Coachella Valley got to the 100-point mark this season. Last season, only the eventual Calder Cup champion Chicago Wolves got over 100 points (110). The 2018-19 season was the last with two 100-point teams, the Charlotte Checkers (110) and Syracuse Crunch (102), and 2017-18 was the last time two teams from the same division got 100 points: The Toronto Marlies had 112 and the Crunch 100, while the Lehigh Valley Phantoms had 104.

The Roadrunners will host free watch parties for road playoff games at Main Event at 4700 S. Landing Way. There will be food and drink specials and discounted play cards.

Every game of the playoffs will be available on AHLtv.com. The cost for an all-playoff-game package is $29.99.