Ft. Worth Game & Other "Stuff"

Kip Brennan Photo by Chip Grail chlphotos.com

The Americans came away with a hard earned 4-3 victory last night over the Ft. Worth Brahmas. Even though the Americans were out shot 36 -25 they seemed in control of the game through out. They scored the first three goals of the game and gave up a late goal on a 6 on 4 after Ft. Worth pulled their goalie so the score was closer than the game itself. For those that didn't listen or watch here is some info about the game:

- Kip Brennan had two goals and a fight to lead the team

- Jamie Schaafsma continued his streak (I call it his post interview streak) with two assists. He now has six points in the last three games (three goals & three assists).

- Garrett Clarke took an elbow to the head midway through the second period and did not return to the game. Sounded to me like he will have to pass a concussion test before he gets back on the ice. No tweets last night after the game from Garrett so that tells me he was hurting.

- It is a good night when the three forwards with the most penalty minutes (Brennan, Grantham & Bootland) score all of the goals.

- The official crowd was 968. How can the Brahmas survive?

OTHER STUFF:

- The Americans now have a five point lead over Wichita with four games in hand. The next closest teams (Missouri & Denver) are ten points behind.

-  In the weird stat category the top four players in penalty minutes (Clarke, Grantham, Bootland, & Brennan) are the only guys on the team with the number 7 on their back (7, 17, 27, 37). Brennan leads with 99 PIM's.

- Lukin, Pineault & Brennan all had opportunities for short term call ups to the AHL but turned them down for personal reasons.

- According to the pregame interview Tommy Daniels had with Coach Martinson, Alex Penner should play Friday night and Kale Kerbashian should be in the line up on Saturday.

- If Mike Montgomery doesn't get called up by Houston (remember he has a two way AHL/CHL contract) he may also be in the line up this weekend.

- Tyler Ludwig has returned to Allen after playing one game with the Houston Aeros.

- I keep hearing about financial difficulties that several teams around the league are having. We've all heard about Ft. Worth only having one set of uniforms until recently. Even though officially this wasn't budget related it has to be tough when average attendance as reported by the CHL (which most say is inflated) is under 1600 per game. I have also heard about other franchises asking players to take pay cuts and owners not allowing anyone to be put on injured reserve to save money. All I can say is we are so fortunate to have the ownership group that we have here in Allen.

- I talked to Adam Pineault yesterday after practice and he agreed to sit down for a "player profile" interview this Thursday. I will have his story posted Friday morning. I am so grateful the players are willing to take the time to share their life stories with us. I am sure you will find Adam's story very compelling as he and his wife, Monique, dealt with her diagnosis of leukemia in 2011.

- I know I keep kidding that doing a "player profile" interview results in a great weekend in the scoring department. I just want to point out that after Adam agreed to doing an interview he went out and got a point last night. I predict we will keep the streak alive and Adam will score a goal this weekend.