Allen vs Wichita Preview, Interesting Stats, Updates (Dell, Tamblyn, Cintala)

- Seems like each week presents a new challenge for the Americans and this week is no different as Allen takes on a much improved Wichita Thunder team tomorrow night at 6:05 and then has two games with league leading Rapid City on Friday and Saturday. Will talk more about the Rapid City series later in the week but suffice it to say they are still undefeated on the road as they have won a record eleven games.

- The Wichita game tomorrow night is a chance for Allen to build on the momentum from winning their last two games. As coach Martinson said at his press conference on Saturday, "I like our team and we can beat any team in the league, we have to build on the positives and eliminate the negatives." Allen hasn't won three games in a row since the beginning of November so a win on Tuesday will show the team is moving in the right direction. 

- If you look at the CHL standings you would see Wichita mired in seventh place with just 26 points. But if you look at the last ten games they have the best record in the league at 7-3. They come to Allen with a four game winning streak and have scored an average of 5.25 goals per game during this streak. If you look at monthly records it might appear these two teams are headed in opposite directions:
                                                                          Allen                                                Wichita

OCTOBER                           5-0-1                      1-2-2             
NOVEMBER                          7-6-0                      3-9-2             
DECEMBER                          4-4-1                      7-3-0             

- Jamie Schaafsma leads the Americans in all offensive categories over the last five games. He has the most goals (4), assists (4), points (8) and also leads the team in plus/minus with a +7.

- Wichita leading scorer Jon Booras (12 goals 24 assists) recently passed two milestones. On December 20th he played in his 500th game and last night against St. Charles he scored his 500th point. Keep an eye on #72 if you are attending the game tomorrow.

- Was working on my power ranking input this morning and found only two teams that went undefeated this week. Quad City was 2-0 and Wichita was 3-0.  Winless this week were Brampton who was 0-2 and St. Charles at 0-3. In a rare Monday night game in the CHL Quad City and Brampton finish their three game set this evening in Brampton.

- Current streaks of significance would be Rapid City and their road win streak of 11 games and St. Charles who has lost 6 straight games.

- Aaron Dell is back with the Utah Grizzlies (ECHL) and played in two games this past weekend. Aaron has had two call ups to the AHL this year (Norfolk & Manchester) but did not get in any games. He has only played in 5 games all season (all with Utah) and hadn't started a game before last Friday since mid November. The good news is Aaron was in goal for Utah wins on Friday & Saturday. For the season (5 games) his record is 4-1, his GAA is 2.20 and his save percentage is .923.

- Peter Cintala, the defenseman from Slovakia who became a fan favorite during training camp and was playing for the Louisiana Ice Gators (SPHL) was traded to the Bloomington Thunder (SPHL) on Friday.

- Corey Tamblyn who played 16 games for the Americans before being released and recently signed with the Peoria Rivermen (SPHL) has gotten off to a great start with Peoria. In eight games he has eight points (3 goals 5 assists) and is a +5.



DID YOU KNOW: Allen and Wichita haven't played each other since the first two games of the season. Both of those games went to a shoot out and they both ended with a score of 4-3. Allen won in Wichita and Wichita won in Allen.