ITS CANDY CANES FOR KIDS TONIGHT - AMERICANS RETURN HOME VICTORIOUS

Today is a day filled with fun and festivities including a Josh Wilson concert before the game. Last night was also filled with fun after a daunting first period

Game Recap

• Chad Costello scored the first goal at the 4:38 mark of the first period.  He was given an excellent backdoor pass from Justin Baker and scored as he crossed the crease.
• The second goal, at 9:11 of the second period, was a result of good aggressive play by Vincent Areseneau and Casey Pierro-Zabotel keeping traffic in front of the net.  After a shot from the point by Jonathon Parker, a rebound allowed Arseneau a shot and Pierro-Zabotel was there to knock Arseneau's rebound home.
• The night's final goal was again a result of aggressive play in front of the net. A rebound from a shot by Costello was poked twice by Arseneau and an alert play on the squirming puck by Justin Baker allowed a score over the left shoulder of Wichita goalie David Shantz.
• The first period was unnerving as Allen allowed a season high 21 shots on goal while managing only 7 of their own.  Riley Gill's outstanding play in goal kept the score at 1-0 after the first period.  The remaining two periods were a complete turnaround as the Americans picked up the pace with aggressive forechecking, strong physical play all around and penalty killing on all four Wichita power plays, one being a 5 on 3 for over a minute and a half.
• Evidence of the increased physical play was 4 roughing penalties and 4 fighting penalties called in the last two periods.  The "Main Event" involved Dyson Stevenson and Wichita's Dan Milan.  A number of rights were exchanged.  (We scored the round 10-7, Stevenson).
• Riley Gill was outstanding in goal,getting his first shut out of the year and surviving a barrage of shots in the first period.  He was rightfully named first star of the game.

Coach Martinson's post game comments

• Riley Gill was very good in goal tonight
• Scoring first and special teams play made the difference tonight
• Chad Costello used his speed to create some opportunities
• Strong physical play from Stevenson - Braid line.
• A full post game interview, compliments of the All Americans facebook page, is below

• Missouri defeated Tulsa, tonight's opponent, in overtime last night.  They remain 3 points ahead of the Americans with a game in hand and lead the entire ECHL in points

Pregame for Tonight

• Please remember the start time of tonight's game has been moved to 7:35PM due to pregame activities surrounding the Candy Canes for Kids events.
• The Americans are on a three-in-three stretch beginning with last nights game and continuing today at the AEC and concluding tomorrow in Tulsa with a 4:05PM start time.  Tulsa also played last night and, with Allen today and tomorrow, is also in the middle of their own three-in-three.  The Americans will depart at 10:00AM Sunday for the trip to Tulsa
• Tulsa is currently in last place in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference and 26th in the ECHL, besting only the Evansville IceMen in points.
• Allen leads Tulsa in the division with 22 points vs Tulsa's 10.
• Leading points scorers for Tulsa are Adam Pleskach with 9 points and Brandon Wong with 7.  By comparison the Americans have 5 players with over 10 points
• Phil Brewer and Brandon Wong lead the Oilers in goals with 4.  The Americans have four players with 5 or more goals
• For special teams, Allen is 11/71 (15.5%) on the PP; Tulsa is 5/41(12.2%).  On the PK Allen is 6/59 (89.9%) and Tulsa is 8/47 (83.0%)
• Tulsa has lost their last 5 games, Allen is 3-2 over the same stretch.
• Allen continues its unbeaten streak when scoring first (9-0) and leading after 1 period (5-0).  A fast start usually means success for the Americans
• In spite of the statistical differences, the teams are 2-2 in head to head meetings.  Allen winning its only home game with the Oilers and recording a 1-2 record at the BOK Center in Tulsa.  It appears we may have a closer game than would be expected by looking at stats only.
• Tudor Floru, a crowd favorite, will be the referee tonight - he also called last night's game in Wichita (doubtful he made the trip to Allen on the team bus!)

This and That

• ECHL officials will wear #32 on their helmets for the remainder of the season in honor of ECHL linesman Camden Nukols.  Nukols passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday after a brief illness.  He was 25 years old.
• For those of you interested in recent activities of the Stevens brothers please check out this link which was listed in the echlforums.com-http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives/2015/11/17/a-couple-guys-from-wichita-want-to-bring-minor-league-hockey-to-kemper-arena

Did you know - The earliest hockey games were played with chunks of frozen cow dung (aren't we glad that the puck has evolved into vulcanized rubber!?)