The Roadrunners’ longest road trip of the season, a three-week six-game road trip, was moderately successful as the Tucson Roadrunners went 2-3-0-1 on the trip. After losing the final game of the trip 5-2 last night against San Diego, the Roadrunners look to get back in the win column on home ice against the Bakersfield Condors on Saturday. It will be a tough series for Tucson as the Condors are currently on a 15 game winning-streak.
A play along the boards during Tucson’s road game in San Diego.
Source: Tucson Roadrunners
As mentioned in gem show road trip preview article, the Roadrunners were in the Pacific Division’s fourth and final playoff spot heading into the road trip. Fortunately, winning two of the six games and losing one in the shootout, gave Tucson five valuable points that kept them in fourth place and in the playoffs. Unfortunately, they did not play well enough to pass any of the teams above them in the standings.
Pacific Division Standings
AHL Pacific Division Standings as of February 21st, 2019 (Source: theahl.com)
As a result of the Bakersfield Condor’s 15 game winning-streak, they have now taken the division lead. With more than half of the season over, and the Roadrunners being 9 points behind Bakersfield, the Roadrunners most likely will not pass them unless they can sweep their upcoming two-game series against the Condors.
With San Jose being 6 points ahead of Tucson with 2 games in hand, it also seems unlikely that Tucson will pass them either. Essentially, barring any long winning streak, the only team that Tucson has a realistic chance of passing are the San Diego Gulls.
As with San Jose, the Roadrunners have six fewer points this year than San Diego. The important difference however, is that Tucson has played two fewer games than the Gulls this year. This means that if the Roadrunners can win the their next two games, they would be only two points (or one win) behind San Diego.
Though a third-place seeding would still result in the Roadrunners not having home ice advantage in the first round, a third-place finish could mean an easier opponent in the first round as it would mean playing the second-seeded team in the first round instead of the top seed.
The Bakersfield Series
Given where the Roadrunners are in the standings, Tucson’s upcoming two-game home series, is extremely important. Tucson will play Bakersfield on Saturday night and Monday night, and both games will start at 7:05 PM.
As previously mentioned, it will be a tough series for Tucson considering the Condors’ incredible 15 game winning streak. Bakersfield has not lost a game since January 11th and the Roadrunners are 3-2-0-0 in head-to-head match-ups against the Condors this year.
Gem Show Road Trip Final Scores
- 2/8 vs. Rockford: 3-1 L
- 2/9 vs. Rockford: 5-3 W
- 2/12 vs. San Jose: 2-1 Shootout Loss
- 2/15 vs. Texas: 2-0 L
- 2/16 vs. Texas 4-1 W
- 2/20 vs. San Diego: 5-2 L
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