Practice Day, Series Win Probabilities, Playoff Statistics, Team Leaders and Playoff Brackets

After playing four games in five nights along with a 1000 miles of bus time, the Allen Americans will have a slower pace this week with home games on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. If you are wondering about the game days it is all about the Allen Event Center (AEC) availability. Thursday night is "The Fab Four - The Ultimate Tribute" and Saturday night is Texas Revolution arena football.

- I will attend practice today to get an update on injuries, roster changes, line changes and any other news of interest. Will have a full report tomorrow.

- Many fans say the third game of a 2-3-2 series is the most important and an excellent predictor of the eventual winner. There was one stretch in the NBA where the winner of game three in a series tied 1-1 went on to win the series ten times in a row. And in seven of those ten times, the road team won game three, which makes sense because in a 2-3-2 format the road team would be the team with the better record.

- I saw another study that tracked every seven game series in the quarterfinals (second round in the ECHL) of MLB, NBA, and NHL playoffs. In a total of 380 series, the team that started on the road won the series just 28.4% of the time.

- Allen's record in game threes since Steve Martinson has been the coach is 6-4. The Americans have only played two game threes at home and are 1-1. In game threes on the road their record is 5-3.


- Here are the ECHL playoff brackets as they currently stand. There is just one game scheduled tonight (Reading at Wheeling) and one game scheduled on Tuesday (South Carolina at Adirondack).

PLAYOFF STATS

- Allen has now played nine games in the 2016 playoffs. Here are the team leaders after nine games:

Points - Costello (11)*
Goals - Hanson & Pierro-Zabotel (4)
Assists - Costello (9)*
Power Play Goals - Pierro-Zabotel (3)*
Power Play Assists - Costello (7)*
Power Play Points - Costello (8)*
Penalty Minutes - Arseneau (29)
Plus/Minus - Arseneau, King & Steffes (+1)
Shots On Goal - Makowski (30)
Shooting Percentage - Hanson (14.8%)
Points By Defenseman - Makowski & Roy (6)
*Leads the ECHL



- Of the five teams at the top of the list for average number of penalty minutes per game in the playoffs, only #1 (Wheeling at 22.14 minutes per game) made it to the second round. Likewise, only one of the five teams at the bottom of the average penalty minutes per game list made it to the second round (South Carolina at 12.43 minutes per game).

- Of the top five teams with the best playoff power play percentage just one (Colorado) did not make it to the second round.

- Only one of the bottom seven teams in playoff penalty kill percentage made it to the second round and that was Allen.

- The top five in average goals per game are all still in the playoffs. Only one in the bottom five is still alive (Allen).

-  Adirondak, Allen, Missouri and Reading are all undefeated in the playoffs when scoring first.



DID YOU KNOW: Mentioned yesterday that Allen is the only team in the second round of the playoffs that has a negative plus/minus for the entire playoffs. Had someone ask what the plus/minus numbers are for all of the teams still in the playoffs. Here they are:

+45 - South Carolina
+33 - Fort Wayne
+29 - Missouri
+24 - Wheeling
+19 - Adirondack
+11 - Utah
+1 -  Reading
-32 - Allen