Getting called for too many men on the ice just once turned out to be one time too many for the Tucson Roadrunners Friday night.
A bench minor penalty for too many skaters in play during during the 3-on-3 overtime led to a game-winning, power-play goal by the host Bakersfield Condors, giving Bakersfield a 3-2 win and, at least until Saturday's rematch, supremacy over Tucson in the AHL's Pacific Division playoff race.
With goals from AHL leading scorer Michael Carcone in the first period β he extended his own club record with his 31st of the year β and Ryan McGregor five minutes into the third, the Roadrunners matched the Condors at 2-2 through 60 minutes to push the game to the extra frame and gain at least one point in the standings.
But the OT win gives Bakersfield two points, putting the sixth-place Condors ahead of the seventh-place Roadrunners, 68 points to 67, in the AHL's Pacific Division Standings heading into Saturday's tilt between the same two teams at 7 p.m. at Bakersfield's Mechanics Bank Arena.
Tucson Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone tallied a goal and an assist in Tucson's 3-2 overtime loss March 31, 2023, at the Bakersfield Condors. Even with the loss, the Roadrunners gained a point due to sending the game past regulation, putting Tucson six points up on San Jose for the AHL Pacific Division's final 2023 Calder Cup playoff spot. Carcone, the AHL's leading scorer as the season heads down the stretch, now has multi-point games in five of his last six appearances. Video courtesy Tucson Roadrunners
Carcone also assisted on McGregor's goal, pushing his league-best point total to 79; he has a six-point lead in the scoring race with six games to play. Carcone now has five multi-point efforts in his last six games, coinciding to some degree with the Roadrunners' streak of earning at least one standing point in six of their last seven games.
Tucson's Jan Jenik also added two assists, giving his multi-point games in all three games he's played since returning from an injury that sidelined him for 37 Tucson outings.
Former Tucson Roadrunner Cam Dineen, now with Bakersfield since an early-March trade between the NHL's Arizona Coyotes and Edmonton Oilers, scored the game's first goal 18:17 into the second period. One of the keys Dineen was traded for, former Condor-now-Roadrunners Michael Kesselring helped answer by assisting on Carcone's goal just 24 seconds later.
Bakersfield's other regulation goal came from Xavier Bernard one minute into the third period, while Raphael Lavoie scored the game-winner on the 4-on-3 power play 2:37 into overtime. Seth Griffith and Dineen, with his second point of the night in his first game against his former club, had the assists.
Tucson's Tyler Parks stopped 30 of 33 in defeat, while former Roadrunner Calvin Pickard turned away 27 of 29.
Tucson is now six points ahead of the eighth-place San Jose Barracuda, won defeated the Texas Stars in overtime Friday, but both Bakersfield and Tucson moved closer to fifth-place Ontario Friday, too. The Reign, with 71 points, lost 4-0 to the second-place Coachella Valley Firebirds.
