👋 GOOD MORNING

Happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend. How’s your bracket doing? I feel like this is the best I have seen a lot of folks do given that all four No. 1 seeds appeared in the Final Four, but the two I filled out — one had Michigan State as the national champ and the other had Auburn — are all said and done. I hope yours is doing better, and that you enjoy the game tonight! (5:50 pm, CBS)

Since today’s newsletter is hockey-focused, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin, who surpassed Wayne Gretzky yesterday with his mind-boggling 895th career goal. He did it in one game fewer than The Great One, to boot. Remember, though, Gretzky did finish with 2,857 career points, so Ovie has a little more than 1,200 to go to catch him there 🙃

All joking aside, what an accomplishment – never thought I’d see that record broken. Congrats to Ovechkin.

On to the show!

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Roadrunners Take Huge Step Toward Playoffs With Weekend Sweep

What a weekend it was for the Tucson Roadrunners.

Tucson swept its weekend series against Bakersfield, taking a five-point lead over those very Condors for the seventh-and-final playoff spot in the Pacific Division. Yes, Bakersfield has two games in hand, but the Roadrunners are finally in a position in which they have a little — albeit very little — breathing room. Even if Bakersfield wins its two extra games, Tucson maintains its playoff edge — and with just four games remaining in the AHL season, things are finally falling into place.

Win-and-Get-In is Only Half of the Roadrunners’ Battle

If the Roadrunners manage to hang on and get into the postseason, it’s looking increasingly likely that they will face either Ontario or Abbotsford, who continue to jockey for the second seed in the Pacific (the top seed has a bye). The first round is a best-of-three series that’s hosted entirely by the higher seed.

• The Roadrunners have four games remaining – two against Rockford (28-30-6-2) and two against first-place Colorado (40-19-5-3).
• Bakersfield has six games left; three vs. Henderson (28-34-3-1), and one game each against San Diego (27-32-5-3), Coachella Valley (36-24-2-5) and Abbotsford (41-21-2-1)
• With Tucson’s parent club almost assuredly set to miss the NHL Playoffs, it’s likely the Roadrunners will also get some reinforcements with NHL-caliber experience soon.
• Tucson was a two-seed last season, and was stunned by Calgary in a 2-0 sweep.

My Take: GIVE ME ALL THE HOCKEY PLAYOFFS! I know, this is the AHL, and I know, Tucson’s path is anything but certain, but there is nothing more exciting in my opinion than playoff hockey. It’s especially fun to watch the AHL Playoffs because you never know what budding stars may be picking up invaluable experience en route to an NHL career, but at the same time, you also see dedicated AHL “lifers” giving it their all, and I can’t say I blame them. For crying out loud, I get mad when I lose in Mario Kart, so I can only imagine how much it means to these players in one of the top hockey leagues in the world. Sure, it’s not the NHL, KHL or SHL, but it sure is something, and would be a lot of fun to watch.

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Musings From Around (and Sometimes Beyond) The Valley

Barnes’ Noble Exit: Arizona women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes is leaving the Wildcats after nine seasons at the helm, including four straight NCAA Tournament seasons and one championship game appearance (54-53 loss to Stanford in 2021). Barnes is taking over SMU, which has appeared in the NCAA Tournament just once, in 2007-08.

Wild’n Out: The No. 22 Arizona Wildcats baseball team took two of three games from the No. 24 ASU baseball team in a highly anticipated matchup of Top 25 teams. U of A won the first two games of the series, while the Sun Devils emerged victorious yesterday to salvage one of three.

D-backs Fall in DC The D-backs dropped two of three to the Nationals, marking their first series loss of the season. Arizona is 5-5 and in fourth place in the stunningly-potent NL West, which features the first place Giants (8-1), second place Dodgers (9-2) and third place Padres (8-2). Buckle up, those division games are going to be a showdown!

That’ll About Do It: The path to the playoffs for the Suns is pretty darn grim, as yesterday’s 112-98 loss to the Knicks marked the team’s sixth consecutive loss. Phoenix has four remaining games: a three-game home stand against Golden State, Oklahoma City and San Antonio before wrapping up the regular season at Sacramento. The Suns are 2.5 games behind the Mavericks for the final postseason play-in spot.

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🧢 Tip of the Hat

What a game from Devyn Netz, as the Wildcats improved to 33-7 on the season.

🚨 DEVYN NETZ BOMB ALERT 🚨

The senior got the win in the circle pitching 5 scoreless innings AND hit a dagger 2-run home run in the 6th to beat Oklahoma State 🥎🔥pic.twitter.com/Qp0JG7zgFH

— PHNX Wildcats (@PHNX_Wildcats) April 6, 2025