For 58 minutes in their first game A.M. — that’s “After Maccelli” — the road-warrior Tucson Roadrunners looked like giant-killers.
But Wednesday night’s game ended like too many others have for Tucson this season: With a defensive breakdown led to a mad scramble to the finish.
Tucson led second-place Ontario 3-1 with less than two minutes to play in regulation only to watch as the Reign inexplicably tied the game in the waning seconds — and won 4-3 barely a minute into overtime.
Through the ups and downs of the Roadrunners’ 2021-22 campaign, Tucson coach Jay Varady has held a stoic balance between keeping a positive outlook and offering a righteous critique of how his team needs to improve.
“I think we played incredibly good hockey for 57 minutes, then found ourselves in a situation where a really talented team was able to pull their goalie. They found the back of the net on an attack, then got another on a low play,” Varady said postgame Wednesday, via a team-issued release. “For us, it’s a point that we’re able to take away from a really good hockey team. In that situation, you want to come away with two points, but we’ll go back, regroup, and we’ll get ready for Saturday.”
Tucson visits the Bakersfield Condors for an 8 p.m. faceoff Saturday before heading further north Sunday to take on the San Jose Barracuda at 6 p.m.
They’ll do it all without scoring star Matias Maccelli, who was called up to the NHL’s Coyotes earlier this week. He had 55 points in 42 games with Tucson; it’s unknown when — or it — he’ll be returned to the AHL.
Tucson’s season has already been riddled by excessive roster movement. As a result, the Roadrunners have struggled with breakdowns on the penalty kill, in net and on defense as a whole.
The numbers probably don’t lie at this point.
Consider:
Tucson’s penalty kill is tied for dead last in the league at 74.7%. While Ontario’s two late-game goals Wednesday weren’t technically with a man advantage, it created a veritable 6-on-5 power-play by bringing netminder Matthew Villalta to the bench for the better part of three minutes.
The Roadrunners have the second-worst defense in the league overall, giving up just shy of 4.0 goals per game. Of qualifying goaltenders across the league, Tucson’s Ivan Prosvetov ranks 40th out of 40 in both goals against average and save percentage. It’s been two months since he posted a .900 save percentage in a single night.
Even with Maccelli sitting third in the AHL in points and Mike Carcone tied for seventh in goals after recording his 22nd of the season Wednesday, Tucson’s offense, hasn’t been able to keep up with its struggling defensive unit. The Roadrunners rank last in the AHL in goal differential per game, giving up 1.2 more goals per outing on average than they’ve been able to generate offensively.
Does that mean all hope is lost for Tucson with the final third of the season beginning this weekend? Not exactly.
For one, Jan Jenik, a power forward in every sense of the word, is looking more and more like an eventual NHL regular himself. Jenik’s two assists Wednesday give him eight points in his last five games, and he’ll be expected to pick up some of the offensive slack left behind in Maccelli’s absence.
Jenik also knows that his ticket to the NHL depends on how well he plays away from the net, too. After the Roadrunners’ home loss Sunday to the Reign, Jenik delved into his mindset as a two-way player, especially considering Tucson’s defensive struggles this year.
“It’s always the same as the first day. You’ve got to help the (defensemen),” he said of his job as a two-way player up front. “It’s not just about the (defensemen). They have a lot of pressure on the forecheck, and we have to talk to them and help them out there.”
And while Prosvetov’s numbers Wednesday didn’t end up above that .900 threshold, he did stop 24 of 25 shots before Ontario managed to score on each of their last three shots.
“If you’ve done it before, it’s capability, not potential,” Tucson general manager John Ferguson Jr. said last week regarding not only Prosvetov’s struggles but his continued development. “This league, and any pro league, challenges you every day. And he understands he’s got to find a higher level of consistency. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s a top prospect at that position. And his in his age and his size, his flexibility, his experience is going to grow. He’ll get better.”
The Roadrunners’ schedule seems tailor-made for Tucson to move up from eighth place up — and into the postseason.
While Bakersfield is an AHL top-10 team, Tucson’s seven games after Saturday — and 16 of the Roadrunners’ remaining 23 games — come against teams in the bottom nine of the league’s 31-team overall standings. That group includes San Jose (.367 point percentage), Texas (.479), Iowa (.500), Rockford (.511) and, San Diego (.465). Tucson happens to be part of that bottom nine, too, at a .422 clip.
Captain Hudson Fasching said recently that to take advantage of that schedule down the stretch, the Roadrunners have to take care of the little things first.
“We are doing a lot of things right, but it’s those small, inconsistent things that need to be ironed out,” he said. “I think we’re going to find our game is actually in a really good spot, but we kind of have to put all the pieces together.”
