Tucson Roadrunners Road Ahead: March Madness

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Upcoming Games on Five-Game Road Trip (All Times MST)

Saturday, March 22 @ Colorado Eagles at 6:05 p.m.

Wednesday, March 12 March 22 @ Colorado Eagles at 2:05 p.m.

Wednesday, March 26 @ Ontario Reign at 7:00 p.m.

Friday, March 28 @ San Diego Gulls at 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 29 @ Bakersfield Condors at 7:00 p.m.

Roadrunners Record Through 59 Games: 29-25-3-2 (63 points), Seventh Place In The Pacific Division

Pacific Playoff Watch This Week (Top Seven Seeds Make The Calder Cup Playoffs)

Colorado Eagles: 34-15-5-3 (76 points), First Place

  • Tuesday, March 18 vs. Bakersfield Condors at 7:05 p.m. MDT (4-3 L)
  • Wednesday, March 19 vs. Bakersfield Condors at 7:05 p.m. MDT
  • Saturday, March 22 vs. Tucson Roadrunners at 7:05 p.m. MDT
  • Sunday, March 23 vs. Tucson Roadrunners at 7:05 p.m. MDT

Ontario Reign: 34-19-3-1, (72 points), Second Place

  • Tuesday, March 18 @ Texas Stars at 7:00 p.m. CST (5-2 L)
  • Wednesday, March 19 @ Texas Stars at 7:00 p.m. CST
  • Saturday, March 22 @ Iowa Wild at 6:00 p.m. CST
  • Sunday, March 23 @ Iowa Wild at 3:00 p.m. CST

Coachella Valley Firebirds: 32-20-2-5, (71 Points), Third Place

  • Wednesday, March 19 vs. Henderson Silver knights at 7:00 p.m. PST
  • Friday, March 21 @ Calgary Wranglers at 7:00 p.m. MDT
  • Sunday, March 23 @ Calgary Wranglers at 7:00 p.m. MDT

Abbotsford Canucks: 33-23-2-1, (69 points), Fourth Place

  • Friday, March 21 vs. Manitoba Moose at 7:00 p.m. CST
  • Saturday, March 22 vs. Manitoba Moose at 6:00 p.m. CST

Calgary Wranglers: 31-22-4-3, (69 points), Fifth Place

  • Friday, March 21 vs. Coachella Valley Firebirds at 7:00 p.m. MDT
  • Sunday, March 23 vs. Coachella Valley Firebirds at 7:00 p.m. MDT

San Jose Barracuda: 29-21-4-4, (68 points), Sixth Place

  • Wednesday, March 19 vs. San Diego Gulls at 10:30 a.m. PST (4-0 W)
  • Saturday, March 22 @ Bakersfield Condors at 7:00 p.m. PST
  • Sunday, March 23 vs. Bakersfield Condors at 5:00 p.m. PST

Tucson Roadrunners: 29-25-3-2, (63 points), Seventh Place

  • Saturday, March 22 vs. Colorado Eagles at 7:05 p.m. MDT
  • Sunday, March 23 vs. Colorado Eagles at 3:05 p.m. MDT

Bakersfield Condors 26-20-6-3, (61 Points), Eighth Place

  • Tuesday, March 18 @ Colorado Eagles at 7:05 p.m. MDT (4-3 W)
  • Wednesday, March 19 @ Colorado Eagles at 7:05 p.m. MDT
  • Saturday, March 22 vs. San Jose Barracuda at 7:00 p.m. PST
  • Sunday, March 23 @ San Jose Barracuda at 5:00 p.m. PST

Check Out The Entire AHL Playoff Primer HERE

Monster Jamming:

The Tucson Roadrunners open a five-game 10-day road trip versus the Colorado Eagles, Ontario Reign, San Diego Gulls and Bakersfield Condors during Monster Jam at the Tucson Arena. Tucson has a combined record of 11-10-1-1 between these next four opponents. With just the two game series coming against the Eagles on Saturday, March 22 and Sunday, March 23. The rest of the trip will be single-game matches with the Reign (March 26), Gulls (March 28) and Condors (March 29). Tucson has struggled this season against Colorado (1-2-1-0) and Ontario (1-5-1-0) but have fared much better against San Diego (5-2-0-0) and Bakersfield (4-1-0-0). After snapping a three-game losing skid in the two-game sweep over the San Jose Barracuda on Saturday, March 15 and Sunday, March 16, the team has had a solid month of March with a 4-3-1-0 record, but a 6-3-1-0 record in the last 10 games overall.

The Mullet Magic:

Roadrunners forward Curtis Douglas is currently on one of the best four-game runs of his career, scoring five goals over the four-game homestand for Tucson. This is the first time in the third year Roadrunner forward’s career that he achieved a four-game goal streak. Douglas scored some crucial goals for Tucson in the team’s two-game sweep against the San Jose Barracuda: including the first goal in-route to a three-goal period for Tucson in the team’s 6-3 win in game one on Saturday and two goals on Sunday that kept the Roadrunners alive in game two; eventually coming back and winning 6-5 in the shootout. In addition, Douglas has gotten Tucson on the board in the first period in three of the last four games and has had plenty of help from his current linemates Ryan McGregor and Julian Lutz. With Douglas leading the line with the five goals in the four-game homestand, McGregor and Lutz each had three assists. As for McGregor, the fifth-year Roadrunner forward has only played in 28 games this season, but has been contributing offensively and defensively, with six points (1 goal, 5 assists) in his last eight games overall; including an over 60% faceoff percentage that he has suited up in. Lutz has also been finding his stride recently, with four points (1 goal, 3 assists) in his last seven games as the rookie continues to develop for Tucson. In addition, Curtis Douglas is making a difference off the ice with March Mullets 4 Mental Health, already raising over $3,000 for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation. To donate and find out more click HERE.

Zooming Szuber:

Roadrunners defenseman Maksymilian Szuber was also huge for Tucson in the weekend sweep versus the San Jose Sharks affiliate, combining for four assists total with a crucial shootout goal in the 6-5 shootout victory on Sunday. Szuber has also been a key benefactory on the Roadrunners power-play: with scoring one goal and adding five assists on the extra man unit in the last six games. Szuber has helped the power-play unit mount a 7-for-28 line (25%) in the same stretch. Overall, the six power-play points are part of seven total that the second-year Roadrunner defenseman has in the last seven games. With his burst of power-play assists, he is now tied with Kailer Yamamoto for the team lead at 10 and tied for fourth on the team with 11 total power-play points (1 goal, 10 assists). Szuber is one goal away from matching his season-high of seven goals in his rookie season last year currently at six, and five points away from his rookie total in points at 28 (7 goals, 21 assists) with 23 points (6 goals, 17 assists) on the year. In addition, Szuber is tied with Assistant Captain Kevin Connauton for the lead amongst blue liners with his six goals after scoring his first power-play goal of the season and career on Wednesday, March 12 versus the Ontario Reign.

The Full Cycle:

As the chaotic weekend of the Roadrunners and Barracuda commenced, Tucson saw a historic night on Saturday’s 6-3 victory. Assistant Captain Andrew Agozzino netted his first hat trick as a Roadrunner and the fourth overall of his 14-year career. It overall capped off a four-point (3 goals, 1 assist) night for Agozzino; joining fellow forward Sammy Walker who also had four points (2 goals, 2 assists) in his Roadrunners debut on Friday, February 7 versus the San Jose Barracuda in a 4-3 victory. That is now twice this season that Tucson snapped a losing skid against San Jose with a four-point night coming from a Roadrunner. The hat-trick also marked the second one this season for Tucson as forward Cameron Hebig achieved his first career hat trick on Friday, January 3 in a 6-3 win for Tucson against the Texas Stars. Agozzino continues to be huge for the Roadrunners, stashing seven goals and four assists for 11 points in the last 11 games since returning to the Roadrunners lineup after injury. In the same game as well, Agozzino saw his single season scoring record for the San Jose Barracuda get snapped by AHL leading scorer Andrew Porturalski. In his lone 2022-23 season with San Jose, Agozzino scored 26 goals and 35 assists for 61 points in 63 games. Now those numbers rank second as Porturalski had four points (3 goals, 1 assist) over the series and continues to climb up the numbers; leading the Barracuda and AHL in scoring with 27 goals, 38 assists and 65 points in 55 games.

The Madness:

The March Madness of the American Hockey league continues in the Pacific Division as no seed is 100 percent solidified with just about a month left of the season. Tucson is still hanging on to the final playoff seventh seed entering Wednesday with 63 points, just two ahead of the Bakersfield Condors’ 61 points. The Condors defeated the Colorado Eagles 4-3 on Tuesday night and can tie the Roadrunners point wise with a Wednesday night victory entering the weekend. Though the race for the seventh seed remains tight, Tucson is still in play for higher seeds; with just five points away from the San Jose Barracuda for the sixth seed and six points away from the Calgary Wranglers for the fifth seed. This year’s Pacific Division has been hard for any team to gain ground on one another, with teams having lesser winning percentages than last season’s division due to the arsenal of teams. Last season, five of the 10 teams had better winning percentages of .600: including the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ .715 which was second best in the league and best in both the Pacific Division and Western Conference. This season, just three teams have better winning percentages of .600: including the Colorado Eagles (.655), Ontario Reign (.621) and Coachella Valley Firebirds (.602). This is due to eight of the 10 teams of the Pacific Division having over .530 winning percentages, with the addition of the San Jose Barracuda, who are one of the more improved teams from last season: going from a division worse 24-34-10-4 record (62 points) in 72 games to a 30-21-4-4 record (68 points) in 59 games in 2024-25. With San Jose in the mix now for playoffs, it can potentially push a team with an over .530 winning percentage to miss the postseason due to only seven playoff spots being available. The only division in a similar scenario is the North Division; with only five of the seven members of the Division being granted a pass to the playoffs, the Syracuse Crunch (66 points), Cleveland Monsters (66 points) and Belleville Senators (64 points) are all battling for playoff positioning. The Senators are the odd team out currently despite having a 28-21-4-4 record and .561 winning percentage. However, with just about a month left to go in the season seeding can change.

We Are Live:
Tucson Roadrunners Happy Hour airs every Tuesday at 5 p.m. on FOX Sports 1450AM and the iHeartRadio app, with a podcast version also available after each episode on the iHeartRadio app and Apple Podcast. This week, “Voice of the Roadrunners” Jonathon Schaffer and Co-Host Kim Cota-Robles had forward Curtis Douglas to talk about March Mullets 4 Mental Health on this week’s show. Listen live each week HERE and the podcast version after HERE.