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During Tucson’s (25-22-8-0) six-game AEW road trip, the Henderson Silver Knights caught up to the Roadrunners and moved into a tie for the final playoff spot in the Pacific Division.

As of press time, Henderson and Tucson are tied for seventh with 58 points, but the Silver Knights are ahead on a tiebreaker. Though the Roadrunners went a respectable 3-3 on the road-trip, Henderson caught up with them as they are on a seven-game unbeaten streak as of press time.

The Roadrunners are 4-6 in their last 10 games while HSK is 6-1-1-2.

Tucson hosts the Silver Knights (24-18-6-4) for a two-game series on Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. each night. The Silver Knights are the AHL affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights.

Tucson is 1-1 this year against the Squires, having lost 4-3 at Henderson on Jan. 24 but beat the Silver Knights 3-2 in overtime on the next night, thanks to a walk-off goal from forward Ben McCartney. The Roadrunners went 4-2-1-1 against the Silver Knights last season and are 17-10-4-3 against them in the last five seasons.

Henderson played a two-game series against the Ontario Reign over the weekend, Friday in California and Sunday in Nevada. The Tucson series starts a six-game road trip for the Silver Knights, as they go to the Abbotsford Canucks next and then the Calgary Wranglers.

The Henderson series starts a four-game home stand for Tucson, who host the San Jose Barracuda over the weekend.

Playoff picture

Tucson may be in the thick of the , but its chances of hosting in the first round are fading away.

In seventh with 58 points in the 10-team Pacific, Tucson is only five points back from fifth-place Coachella Valley as of press time, but the fourth-place Bakersfield Condors have 70 points. Fourth place is the last team that hosts in the best-of-3 first round in the Pacific.

In Tucson’s division, the regular season champion gets a bye to the second and seeds two through seven play in three series.

Tucson’s magic number (points needed to clinch a playoff spot) is 39. In the AHL, teams get two points for a win and one for an overtime or shootout loss.

The Roadrunners have 17 games left in the season.

So far, two AHL teams have clinched playoff spots: the Providence Bruins, affiliate of the Boston Bruins and the Grand Rapids Griffins, affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings. Providence is in the Atlantic in the Eastern Conference, and Grand Rapids is in the Central in the Western Conference.

The winners of the Pacific and Central face off in the playoffs, with the winner of that series playing the Eastern winner in the Calder Cup Finals.

Pacific leading Ontario’s magic number is 17 to clinch a playoff spot and 33 to win the division.

Road Runners

The Roadrunners' success on the road has kept them in the playoff picture.

Tucson opened the road trip with a 2-1 overtime win at the San Diego Gulls on Feb. 25. Next, they split with San Jose, losing 5-3 on Feb. 28 but winning 6-4 the next night.

On Wednesday, the Roadrunners dropped a solo game 4-1 at the first-place Reign. Then Tucson closed out the trip by splitting a series with Bakersfield, winning 3-2 in overtime on Friday but falling 2-0 on Saturday.

San Diego (sixth), San Jose (third), Ontario and Bakersfield are all ahead of Tucson in the standings as of Sunday afternoon.

The Roadrunners’ 3-3 California road swing came after they went 3-2 on their annual gem show road trip. It was their second-most wins on a Gem Show trip ever and just the third time they had a winning record on one.

Tucson is 14-11-2-0 in road games and 11-11-6-0 in home tilts this season.

The Roadrunners have another long road trip to start April, where they travel for seven games, at San Diego, Henderson, Bakersfield and Colorado.

Hot dogs and emo kids

The Henderson series features a familiar promotion and a new one.

Tuesday’s game will feature $2 hot dogs and $2 sodas. Then on Wednesday, it is .

The Roadrunners encourage fans to “revisit your junior-high phases� and to enjoy “throwback jams� for Emo Night.