Officially, the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup playoffs start in a little more than two weeks.
For the Tucson Roadrunners, at least, it began long, long ago.
“We’ve been playing playoff hockey here for a while already,” said Lane Pederson, the Roadrunners’ leader in both goals (19) and points (40) on the season. “It’s cliché to say we’ve just got to win and take care of our business, but we know we can’t wait for another team to falter and help us out. We have to do it ourselves.”
The Roadrunners, paced on the offensive end by Pederson and recent acquisition Michael Chaput, have been doing just that of late: taking care of things themselves.
Two weeks ago, the Roadrunners were coming off a stretch where they’d won just twice in 16 games. Defense wasn’t the issue, with goaltender Adin Hill leading the way there. But offensively, the Roadrunners’ “puck luck” had all but disappeared. Tucson had not only fallen to fifth in the AHL’s Pacific Division — the top four teams in each division earn playoff berths – but was treading water a full 11 points out of that last spot. There were 14 games left on the schedule.
Since: A hearty turnaround, with five wins in six games — and a deficit in the standings of just four points.
Tucson this weekend plays host to the very team — the Colorado Eagles — it might even pass as early as late Saturday night.
The Roadrunners (30-23-5-2) and Eagles (33-24-4-1) face off Friday and Saturday in a pair of 7:05 p.m. starts with heavy implications: Win both in regulation, and the Roadrunners are effectively in the playoff picture. The teams would be tied in terms of points, but Tucson would have six games left and Colorado only four.
Lose one — or both — and all bets are off at whether the Roadrunners will even have enough opportunities to climb back level again.
“It’s going to be a really, really fun run. We have a chance to do something special here,” Pederson said.
If the Roadrunners pull the comeback off, Pederson will be looked to as one of the sparks that made it happen. Over the recent six-game hot streak, Pederson’s five goals and five assists have vaulted him to that top spot on the team’s scoring charts. That includes a night last Saturday he likely won’t forget even decades from now, when his career is long done. The second-year AHL forward not only scored all three Tucson goals in a 3-2 win over the one-time Pacific Division bully San Jose Barracuda, but netted the game-winner a minute into overtime.
“We clawed our way back into it all night and we found a way to win in the end,” he said, first deflecting his own success to his teammates before noting the parallels between that game and the Roadrunners’ season as a whole. “We just want to keep the momentum going. We’re having a lot of fun right now.”
Chaput has been right there, too. The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes acquired Chaput from the Montreal Canadiens in late February after he’d spent about half his season with the Canadiens and the other half with the Laval Rocket, Montreal’s AHL affiliate. He was ultimately assigned to the Roadrunners. He has potted four goals and tallied eight points during the club’s recent six-game uptick.
For Chaput, who grew up in the Montreal suburb of Île Bizard before playing in Laval, too — both cities are 22 miles from Montreal proper — the chance at playing playoff hockey was the saving grace to a trade he admits took him by surprise.
“Obviously playing at home was great. And I was kind of disappointed at first,” he said. “But I told myself it was another challenge.”
When teammates and coaches speak about what Chaput has brought to the Tucson locker room, they often do it using terms like “veteran,” “older,” or “experienced.” To be sure, Chaput, who also has 167 NHL games to his credit and a Calder Cup ring from his stint in Cleveland a few years back, is just 26 years old.
“It’s funny. By no means is he an old guy. But it just kind of speaks to the youth on our team and how young we are,” said Pederson, just 21 himself. “He’s been a leader in the locker room. … A player of his caliber to jump in and be a point-per-game guy for us is huge.”
