Disallowed Goal Explained, Individual & Team Statistics, The ECHL's Best Division

- After a rare day off yesterday to play golf, go fishing, spend time with the family or lay low and relax, the Allen Americans will be back at practice this morning. One of the most grueling five days of the season are about to take place. The Americans are preparing for one of the two times all season they play four games in five days. They travel to Tulsa tomorrow, play Colorado at home on Saturday and Sunday and then travel to Missouri for a game on Tuesday. Anytime you play four games in five days it is stressful and increases the chance of injury because the players have little recovery time between games. Add in close to 1500 miles of bus time for the two road games and it just adds to the stress. To make matters worse the following weekend Allen has a three in three where the have Wichita (A), Tulsa (H) and Tulsa (A). Add it all together and it amounts to seven games in ten days with four separate bus trips. Welcome to AA hockey.

- Thanks to Matt Harding from Team Sin Bin, here is an explanation of the disallowed goal from the game on Tuesday:  As frustrating as it was for fans at the game to have such a long delay only to have  a goal taken off the scoreboard, the bottom line is the officials got the call correct. It was unfortunate that Chad Costello lost his fourth point of the night and Casey Pierro-Zabotel lost the goal. To make matters worse it was the prettiest goal of the night. Thanks again to Matt for taking the initiative to get this official explanation from the league office.

ECHL Vice President of Hockey Operations Joe Ernst provided The Sin Bin an explanation for what led up to the disallowed goal in Tuesday night’s Wichita/Allen game.  Ernst said that the Allen player was let out of the box after the clock malfunctioned following an icing. The player should have been in the box for an additional eight seconds and once the goal was scored, there should not have been a power play.

“It was brought to the officials attention after and the following rule was followed and done correctly,” Ernst said in an email.

Here is the rule referenced:
68.5 Disallowed Goal – If a penalized player returns to the ice from the penalty bench before his penalty has expired by his own error or the error of the Penalty Timekeeper, any goal scored by his own team while he (or his substitute) is illegally on the ice shall be disallowed but all penalties imposed on either team shall be served as regular penalties. The penalized player must return to serve his unexpired time (and an additional minor penalty if he left the penalty bench on his own).
If a player shall illegally enter the game from his own players’ bench or from any other location in the rink, any goal scored by his own team while he isillegally on the ice shall be disallowed but all penalties imposed on either team shall be served as regular penalties.
The official final score of the game was 5-2.



INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

- When you consider there are 28 teams in the ECHL, if a player is in the top fifteen in any statistical category that is quite impressive. Below is a listing of the top players on the team with their stat and ECHL rank.

Points - Costello 13 (#3), Hanson 12 (#8), Pierro-Zabotel 10 (#23)
Goals - Hanson 5 (#14), Costello, Pierro-Zabotel, Parker, Roy 4 (#35)
Assists - Costello 9 (#6), Hanson 7 (#16), King, Pierro-Zabotel 6 (#27)
Power Play Goals - Steffes 3 (#4), Roy 2 (#12)
Power Play Assists - Gens, King 3 (#9) 
Shorthanded Goals - Pinkston, Pierro-Zabotel 1 (#1)
Game Winning Goals -  Makowski 2 (#3)
Penalty Minutes -  Hanson 18 (#58), Stevenson 17 (#67), Makowski 16 (#70)
Plus/Minus - Baker, Hanson, Pierro-Zabotel +7 (6)
Shots On Goal - Hanson 37 (#8), Courtnall 29 (#42), Pierro-Zabotel 28 (#51)
Points By Defenseman - Gens, Roy 7 (#10), Baker 6  (#18)
GAA - Rumpel 2.01 (#11)
Save Percentage - Rumpel .927 (#10)
Goalie Wins - Rumpel 8 (#1)
Minutes Played - Rumpel 598 (#2)
Saves - Rumpel 253 (#4)

- The one stat that really sticks out is the penalty minute stat. Hard to believe Greger Hanson is leading the team in penalty minutes and the top three Allen players in penalty minutes rank #58, #67, and #70 in the ECHL.




TEAM STATISTICS:

 Here is how the Americans rank in the 28 team ECHL in some of the statistical categories. The first number is Allen's number and the second number is how they rank in the ECHL.
Win Percentage - .727 (#3)
Points - 16 (#3) 
Average Goals For - 3.45 (#5)
Average Goals Against - 2.18 (#5)
Average Shot For - 29.73 (#13)
Average Shots Against - 26.73 (#6)
Power Play Percentage - 14.3% (#18)
Penalty Kill Percentage - 95.1% (#1)
Average Penalty Minutes - 13.27 (#21)
Win % When Scoring First - 100% (#1)
Team Plus/Minus -  +41 (#7) 
Goal Differential -  +14 (#2)
Average Attendance -  4175 (#11)

- It is still early in the season but it is moving faster than you may think. By the end of the weekend many teams will have already completed 20% of the season. With Thanksgiving just two weeks away it is a good reminder that 75% of the teams in playoff spots on Thanksgiving will make the playoffs.

- Congrats to former Allen American, Drew Daniels, who was loaned to the Utica Comets (AHL) yesterday. Drew was a member of the 2012-13 CHL championship team in Allen. He now plays for Fort Wayne. Drew has certainly earned his promotion to the AHL. He is currently leading all ECHL defensemen in points, assists and plus/minus.

DID YOU KNOW: There are plenty of ways to try and compare all of the divisions in the ECHL. You can look at the record of the best team in each division, the record of the worst team in each division, total points by division or record when playing outside your division.  Today I wanted to look at winning percentage by division as it may be the best way to judge strength by division. This stat accounts for the variable number of teams in the divisions and also the differential in games played by each team. Here is the winning percentage by division.
.591 - Central Division
.587 - East Division
.564 - Midwest Division
.557 - South Division
.454 - West Division
.438 - North Division