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👋 GOOD MORNING
Happy Friday, and I hope you had a great week! I’ll get to the Roadrunners’ critical weekend of play below, but if you have any holiday plans this weekend, I hope they go off without a hitch and you enjoy the time! We’re just one week away from the NFL Draft, and speculation is beginning to run rampant on who the Cardinals may be interested in picking with the 16th overall selection. Make sure to stay up-to-date with our incredible PHNX Cardinals team, who have worked closely with ALLCITY draft expert Fran Duffy to put together this big board of all the top prospects.
One last note: Remember, if this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up for the newsletter right here, and I’ll keep you in the loop with everything going on this summer! Don’t miss a beat!
On to the show!
Final Weekend To Determine Roadrunners’ Playoff Fate
It all comes down to this.
The Tucson Roadrunners have two games remaining in the regular season, but their playoff status is still very much in doubt. As it stands right now, they hold a two-point lead over Bakersfield with an even amount of games played, and Tucson also holds the tiebreaker. As such, the Roadrunners are one win away from securing a spot in the AHL Playoffs.
The only catch? They’re playing the first-place Colorado Eagles in Tucson tonight and tomorrow, while the Condors have a home-and-home set against the last place Henderson Silver Knights.
Roadrunners Reinforcements Arrive Just in Time
It has been an up-and-down season for Tucson, which has dropped two straight, but the club is getting a little help with the conclusion of its parent club’s NHL season. Goalie Matt Villalta — who just earned his first NHL victory — and veteran forward Kailer Yamamoto were both assigned to the Roadrunners on Wednesday, providing a nice boost as they prepare for a critical weekend of hockey.
A weekend win would secure seventh place in the Pacific Division, as Tucson cannot catch sixth-place San Jose’s 79 points. A postseason berth would cement a matchup against the second seed, and though that currently aligns with the Abbotsford Canucks, there’s also a chance they could face the Ontario Reign. The first round is best-of-three (hosted by the higher seed).
Gotta get there first, though.
- Yamamoto’s return is a huge boost, as the veteran forward leads the team in points (53) and assists (34), despite having only played 52 AHL games this season.
- Matthew Villalta carried the lion’s share of the load this season, compiling a 3.01 goals-against average and .906 save percentage with four shutouts in 41 games with the Roadrunners.
- Tucson has defeated Colorado just once in six games this season.
- Bakersfield defeated Henderson 4-2 on April 9, and has won four of the six meetings between the two this year.
My take: It’s not quite the playoffs just yet, but it might as well be. The Roadrunners have been through a lot this season, left as the lone professional hockey team in the state following the departure of the Arizona Coyotes at the end of the 2023-24 season. A win would go a long ways, not just for the development of young players still trying to make their way into the NHL, but also for fans, who have stuck by this team despite seeing its parent club leave for Salt Lake City. A little reward in the form of postseason hockey would be a pretty nice payoff.
Take a deeper dive: Leah wrote about the one-year anniversary of the Coyotes’ departure, complete with a poll of almost 150 fans. Check it out!
Musings From Around (and Sometimes Beyond) The Valley
Snakes Very Much Alive: The D-backs completed a sweep in Miami with a 6-4 win yesterday, winning their fifth straight game while improving to 12-7 on the season. They’ll now open up a three-game set against the Cubs this morning, looking to keep pace in a wildly stacked NL West.
This is the End: The Suns held exit day interviews yesterday, and our PHNX Suns team covered all the action from start-to-finish. Interviews covered a wide range of topics, from owner Mat Ishbia taking on pundit Stephen A. Smith, to questions and answers around the status of GM James Jones and CEO Josh Bartelstein. There may be no playoffs for the Suns, but I doubt it’s going to be a boring offseason.
A New Era: The Arizona women’s basketball team joined in the recent trend of college athletics, naming Michelle Marciniak as the program’s first-ever general manager. The WNBA veteran will be oversee program operations, staffing, roster management, global recruiting and NIL development, and will also act in an advisory role to newly-named coach Becky Burke. Marciniak was wildly successful in college, winning one national championship (1996) and two SEC titles under Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee.
🧢 Tip of the Hat by Branded Bills
Yesterday was a therapeutic day ❤️🩹
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