ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO!


*Please note: While Barry is on vacation, the views below do not reflect those of Barry or the Allen Americans Organization.

On behalf of the Allen Ameicans fans, and we are sure we speak for Barry Janssen, we would like to congratulate Chad and Ashley Costello on the birth of their third child, a beautiful 9 lb. baby girl! To the best of our knowledge, the baby has not yet been named.

Allen faced off with the Missouri Mavericks in Independence Missouri in front of a packed house (5694) last night.  And oh, what a showing our Americans made.  As was promised at practice on Wednesday, Allen won the first of two final regular season Americans-Maverick showdowns.  The Mavs were the first to strike as Darian Dziurzynski scored at the 7 minute mark of the first.  This was a power play goal from a perfect feed by Darren Nowick. That would be the 1st period's only score.

Allen came back to the ice for the second period with a "we will win" attitude out-shooting the Mavericks 15-6.  As stated previously, it is amazing when Allen actually shoots the puck. David Makowski would score his 14th goal of the season with a laser shot to the glove side of Parker Milner at the 9:03 point of the second frame. The tightly played game also provided a second period dust up.  Trevor Ludwig viciously hip checked Justin Courtnall (who just returned from a lower body injury!) low across the boards. Spencer Asuchuk and Dyson Stevenson immediately went to the aid of Justin.  A total of 20 penalty minutes were assessed due to this altercation.

Vincent Arseneau scored a power play goal at 3:45 of the third. Arseneau got behind the Mavs defensemen and took a perfect pass from Nikita Jevpalovs.  The Mavs would not sit still for this as they scored another power play goal less than 2 minutes later at the 5:26 mark.  Scott Howes slid a nice pass to Sebastien Sylvestre who was alone in the slot. Sylvestre flipped the puck high to Hildebrand's glove side. Being determined to defeat the Mavs, Allen scored the game winning goal at the 13:29 mark when Tristan King corralled the puck from the boards in the MO end. Tristan made a nice pass to Makowski who scored from the top of the face off circle.

Coach Martinson's comments:

• All the new guys played real well
• Thomas Carr made some nice passes 
• Hildebrand was solid
• Matt Register also had a solid game
• Penalty kill was weak, got caught twice to give them odd man rushes (shorthanded)
• We did not give up an even strength goal

Chad Costello extended his streak for consecutive games for assists to 15, tying the American's record set by Nino Musitelli. Chad is currently tied at 5th in the ECHL record book (ECHL record is 20).

Allen made a clean sweep of the stars of the game:

1. David Makowski (2 goals)
2. Nikita Jevpalovs (2 assists)
3. Vincent Arseneau (1 goal)

This is very unusual for the visiting team to be awarded all 3 stars!

Allen's win last night prevents Missouri from setting the ECHL record for most points in one season.  

The race for the final playoff seeds are tightening.  Only 4 points separate Allen from Cincinnati, and 3 points separate us from Colorado and Utah.

Game Preview:

Nothing has changed so a game preview would be redundant.  Let's repeat last night with another victory.  Allen had great traffic in front of Milner last night and we need to maintain traffic in front of their goalie again tonight.  Again tonight's points are of vital importance to Allen.

The officials tonight are Mike Sheehan (Ref) and linesmen Erik Contino and Mitch Macpherson. (Same crew as Friday night).



Did you know: Long time Allen Favorite and original captain, Jarret Lukin will return to the Allen Event Center next week.   Jarret has been with the Evansville Icemen since 2014 and is the team Captain.  Due to injuries, Jarret has only played in 9 games this year scoring 5 points all on assists.  Unfortunately, as of this writing, Jarret will not be in uniform but will be attending next week's games against Evansville.