Allen Beats Quad 4-1 Game Recap, Martinson and Ruskowski Post Game Comments, Post Game Brawl

In what was the most complete game Allen has played in some time, the Americans beat the Quad City Mallards last night 4-1 before a mostly disappointed crowd of 3559 at the iWireless Center. I say mostly because there was a good contingent of Allen fans at the game including the Zalazniks, Tutkas and Fischers to name a few.

The goal scorers for Allen were Eric Roy (9), David Makowski (6), Dyson Stevenson (4) and JP LaFontaine (3). Here is a recap of each of the goals.

Eric Roy: Eric scored the first goal of the game at the 16:51 mark of the first period and it was a typical Roy goal, where he got the puck at the red line, skated up the left side to the face off circle and blasted a slap shot over the goalie's shoulder on the glove side. Roy also had an assist on the Makowski goal and now has 23 points (9 goals 14 assists). Eric is second in scoring among all ECHL defenseman and is also the second leading scorer for the Allen Americans. It is just a matter of time before Eric gets signed by an AHL team. Let's hope it is San Jose rather than some other AHL team.

David Makowski: After Quad City tied the score 1-1 midway through the second period, Makowski took a pass from Chad Costello and fired a slap shot past Mallard's goalie Steve Michalek. It was a power play goal. It was David's sixth goal of the season in just 17 games. He has missed 16 games because of injuries. Had he played in all 33 games and scored at the same pace he would be leading the team in goals.

Dyson Stevenson: It was great to see Dyson get the third goal to give the Americans some breathing room in the third period and a 3-1 lead. It was a hustle play where Stevenson picked up a loose puck on the back check and skated in all alone and rifled a shot past Michalek on the glove side. The unsung hero on the play was Casey Thrush who forced a turnover by former Allen American Kyle Follmer as he was trying to get the puck out of the Mallards zone. Thought Thrush should have had an assist on the play but maybe he never actually touched the puck. Either way it was a heck of a play that created the opportunity for Stevenson.

JP LaFontaine: The fourth goal was an empty net goal and it is always nice when a hard worker is rewarded with a goal. Chad Costello could have tried to score from the red line but opted to pass the puck and LaFontaine was the beneficiary and scored from just inside the red line.


STEVE MARTINSON'S POST GAME COMMENTS

- I thought the guys rebounded well tonight after the loss in Missouri and played a good all around game tonight.

- Their goalie made some great saves as I thought we should have had several more goals.

- The difference in how we played tonight was we battled much harder for the puck and we played much better defensively. When we do that, we are tough to beat.

- Riley Gill did a good job in net tonight. It was nice to see him get rewarded with a win for his great play.


TERRY RUSKOWSKI'S POST GAME COMMENTS

Don't think there is a more quotable coach in the ECHL than Quad City Mallards coach Terry Ruskowski. Check out these gems from last night that were in a story written by Bobby Metcalf of the Quad City Times:

"I sometimes question their hockey IQ, when it was 2-1 we changed the forecheck...we didn't do it one time."

"I've got guys coming off IR and it makes my decisions a lot easier about who is going to play and who is not."

"Our work ethic and execution isn't there."

"We had guys out there that didn't do anything and those are the guys that are supposed to be turning the game around for us one way or the other and that didn't happen."


OTHER COMMENTS

- The team headed home right after the game on the 800 mile trip back to Allen. They should arrive sometime around midday (12:00 - 1:00). Haven't heard for sure, but would assume they will be off on Monday and resume practice on Tuesday since they don't play again until Friday. UPDATE: Per coach Martinson there will be practice tomorrow (10:00 am). With four days off just last week for the Christmas break and all of the road games the past month there has been limited practice time.

- Justin Courtnall played well in the last two games (Missouri loss & Quad City win) with three assists and a plus three.

- Allen did Fort Wayne a favor by beating the Mallards last night. The Quad City loss along with a Fort Wayne 2-1 win in Toledo, vaulted the Komets into first place in the Midwest Division.

- It was quite the game in Rapid City last night as the Rush beat Tulsa 4-3 with 216 penalty minutes called. There were six fighting majors during the game and another eight when a melee broke out after the game ended. Garrett Clarke got tossed with 27 seconds left in the game for a fight, a misconduct for continuing an altercation and a game misconduct for third man in, so he missed the shenanigans at the end of the game. I can't find a video on YouTube yet but if you are on Facebook go to the "Brandon Boit" page as Brandon is a Rush fan who recorded the whole thing from his seat in the stands. I wouldn't call it a line brawl as there was more pushing and shoving than fighting but it is worth a look if you like these things.

- The Missouri Mavericks showed why they are the best team in the ECHL last night. They started recently acquire back up goalie, Chris Rawlings, and were trailing Evansville 3-1 midway through the third period but tied the game and won it in overtime. With 53 points the Mavericks are now clear of the ECHL field by nine points.

- I say this frequently but it is worth repeating. The ECHL does a great job of posting highlight from games each night. A quick way to check out the game highlights from your favorite team or what is happening around the league. It takes very little time and all you need to do is go to echl.com and find the "ECHL Rewind" section. 
 


DID YOU KNOW: Tulsa and Rapid City had 216 penalty minutes last night but that isn't close to the ECHL record. On February 16, 2006 the Victoria Salmon Kings and Fresno Falcons combined for 306 penalty minutes.