Martinson Post Game Comments, Brian Burke, Stats & More

The best thing about the frustrating loss at home to Missouri on Friday night was the team didn't have to wait long to do something about it. Less than 24 hours after the defeat the two teams were back at it close to 500 miles away in Independence, Missouri. Whether it was motivation from losing on Friday or the magic potion that playing on the road has become the Americans shut out the Mavericks 3-0 behind a great performance from goalie Bryan Pitton. Three unanswered goals (Greger Hanson, Jonathan Lessard, & Alex Lavoie) quieted a big Teddy Bear Toss Night crowd of 5291.

- Had a chance to ask coach Martinson his thoughts about the game last night and he mostly talked about how the Americans played "Allen" hockey in the 3-0 win. He encouraged me to look up Brian Burke's comments about the style of play to be successful because Burke describes Allen Americans style of hockey. The brand of hockey Allen needs to play to be successful. Here are just a few of Burke's gems:
"We're not big enough. We're not hostile enough for me," Burke said. "I don't like playing flag football. I like teams that bang."
"We want black-and-blue hockey here," he said. "That's what we do."
“We require, as a team, proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence.”
“There’s room for the small player in our game, but you better surround them with some beef.”
And a final Burke quote that I also think applies to Martinson, "I am not a patient man, I was born impatient, I'm going to die impatient."
Other Martinson comments after the game:
- Bryan Pitton was really good in goal stopping 40 Missouri shots for our first shutout of the season.
- The penalty kill was very strong tonight playing without Jarret Lukin. Missouri had five power play opportunities and did not score.
- Ross Rouleau had a couple of clean, hard hits on guys tonight.
- I liked the way Darryl Bootland called out Dave Pszenyczny.


OTHER COMMENTS:

- The three stars of the game were the three Allen goal scorers (#1 Lessard, #2 Lavoie & #3 Hanson). They were all deserving but how can Bryan Pitton with a 40 save shutout not crack the three star list. COME ON, MAN!

- It was good to see the Lavoie, Lessard & Bootland  line back together last night as they accounted for two of the three goals. This line seems to play very well together. They have scored 36 goals this season while the rest of the team combined has 40 goals.

- While the penalty kill was strong last night the power play continues to struggle going 0-5. In the last four games the power play is 2-19 or 10.5%. The Americans still rank #3 in the league at 19.23% but the power play percentage has been slowly declining during the recent slump.

- With the win last night Allen moved into a tie for 4th in the standings. With 28 points they trail second place Missouri by three points and first place Rapid City by eight points.

-  Allen has the most road wins in the league (tied with Rapid City with nine) and the biggest differential between home and road records. Home record is 4-4-2 and road record is 9-4-0. As one fan suggested maybe the team should ride around on the bus for a few hours before being dropped off at the Allen Event Center each game day.

- You know it was a tough night for the Mavericks fans when the highlight of the evening was the "Teddy Bear Toss" and that had to take place during a 70 second timeout late in the game because Missouri had not scored. Should be a rule of no shutouts on "Teddy Bear Toss" night.

Teddy Bear toss was the highlight of the night for Mavericks fans

- Greger Hanson has quietly gone about his business even though he is not 100% healthy. He was held out of practice during most of the week. His goal last night was his fifth in the ten games he has played since signing and it was the game winner. Hanson's ten points in ten games (5 goals 5 assists) puts him in the "point a game club" along with Darryl Bootland who has 22 points in 22 games (12 goals 10 assists) and Alex Lavoie who has 34 points in 23 games (13 goals 21 assists).

- Lavoie with a goal and assist last night continues to lead the team in almost every offensive category including plus/minus. With the two points last night it was the eleventh time this season Alex has had multi-point games.

- In the odd stat category the four CHL teams that lost Friday night (Rapid City, Allen, Wichita & Arizona) all won their rematches on Saturday night.



DID YOU KNOW: Bryan Pitton has slowly and quietly climbed into 4th place in CHL goalie GAA rankings. Pitton has played in 12 games and has a record of 8-3-1 with a GAA of 2.56 and a save percentage of .920.

Bryan Pitton with 40 saves records Allen's first shutout of the year.