While they’re not officially out of the American Hockey League playoff chase heading into their second-to-last home series of the season Friday against the Colorado Eagles, the Tucson Roadrunners know how precarious their fate is at this point.
Tucson will need to be nearly perfect in its remaining seven games — while hoping the San Diego Gulls lose each of their remaining eight outings this season — to squeak into the playoffs as the seventh and final seed out of the AHL’s nine-team Pacific Division.
In other words, it’s not happening. And let’s be real: the Roadrunners know that.
But a .377 win percentage be darned, veterans leaders like defenseman Cam Crotty and goaltender Ivan Prosvetov believe the Roadrunners still have a lot to play for.
“I think for everybody it’s setting a tone for what they want to bring next year,” said Crotty, one of just two skaters to appear in all 61 team games this season. “You can look at these games and give it what you want. You can focus hard, or you can kind of look at it as, you know, we’ve only got seven games left.
“But that’s not what we’re looking to do. We’re looking to come in and battle every night. Some guys have contract next year, some guys don’t. So everybody’s hungry. Nothing changes for us.”
Prosvetov, who appeared in a club-record 16 straight games not long ago, agreed with Crotty.
“You try to win every game, yeah,” he said. “But I look at is as a learning (experience). We have lots of young guys and we’re kind of building for the future for them and the whole organization.”
The final stretch of games offers opportunities for those with a little more on the immediate line, too.
One example is Colin Thiesen. The leading scorer this season for ASU’s NCAA Division I program has six points in nine games with Tucson after being signed to an AHL tryout deal. Thiesen is one of a number looking to impress coaches and front office officials enough to be considered for an AHL spot next season.
Another is defenseman Cole Hults, acquired in the offseason from Ontario. Hults is in the second year of a two-year NHL deal, so he’s ostensibly playing for next year’s contract, too. The 23-year-old Hults is playing more over the past two months, and during one six-game stretch in March carded eight of his 15 points this season.
“When it comes down to it, you have a job to do. It’s not going to do you well to come in and start pouting and bringing the energy down,” he said. “So coming in with a good attitude, the right attitude, and to have fun as a group, especially in these last few games, is huge. And nobody likes a guy who’s being a Debbie Downer, too.”
Tucson coach Jay Varady said his job over these last seven games includes “a lot of individual conversations.”
“At this point in the year, we don’t need to talk about our forecheck. We don’t need to talk about our coverage. The structure is the structure,” he said. “But everybody’s got a little something different to play for. Understanding those, acknowledging those and trying to achieve those, it’s OK.”
Imama suspended for 6 games
One player who won’t see ice time down the stretch is forward Bokondji Imama.
The AHL announced Thursday that it had suspended Imama for six games, leaving him eligible to return for the club’s April 29 finale. The suspension is the third-longest in the league this year.
Imama was suspended one game due to an AHL rule that penalizes players who fight more than 10 times per season. The additional five games, an AHL spokesperson told the Star, came because “Imama attempted to enter the Rockford dressing room after the incident on the ice” in Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the IceHogs.
Roughly seven minutes into the first period, Rockford’s Garrett Mitchell checked Imama over the boards that enclosed the Roadrunners’ bench. Imama retaliated and the pair scrapped, marking the 12th time this season Imama would be assessed a five-minute major for fighting. Imama was ejected via a match penalty amid the fracas.
Imama has lost 11 games of eligibility this season. That includes the six announced Thursday, a pair of one-game suspensions following his 10th and 11th fights of the season, and a three-game suspension “as a consequence of a match penalty assessed in a game at Abbotsford on Feb. 9,” according to the league.
