How do you win a hockey game on the road when you allow your opponent 49 shots on goal as the Allen Americans did last night in a 5-2 win over the Tulsa Oilers? Let me count the ways.
- You score on three of your first six shots and chase the starting goaltender (former Allen American Jake Hildebrand).
- You get a natural hat trick by the 14:45 mark of the first period from the most consistent goal scorer on the team. Vincent Arseneau has a goal in seven of his last nine games. With his hatty last night that is nine goals in nine games.
- You get a big game from a veteran and the team's leading scorer. Casey Pierro-Zabotel did what he does best assisting on all three Arseneau goals. Casey now has 22 assists in 24 games to lead the ECHL in assists.
- You get immediate production from Bryan Moore, playing in his first game since returning from San Jose. Bryan had a goal and two assists and continued the scoring streak right where he left off before being called up by the Barracuda. Moore has a point in his last seven games with multiple points in five of the seven. Total points in his seven game scoring streak is 15 (6 goals 9 assists) for an average of 2.14 points per game.
- You reunite a line that had played really well together before Bryan Moore was recalled to San Jose. As soon as Steve Martinson got the call Bryan was returning to Allen he said, "Moore is going right back on the line with Pierro-Zabotel and Arseneau. The stats for the A to Z line last night look more like a weekly recap. The line had all five goals, six assists and were +12.
- You don't win games when being out shot 49-31 unless you get stellar goaltending and Allen definitely got that from Jeremy Brodeur. He stopped 47 of 49 shots for a save percentage of .959. Jeremy has won five of his last six starts. His save percentage (13 games) is now up to .930 which is ranked #3 in the ECHL.
- You score the first goal of the game. Allen not only scored the first goal of the game they scored the second, third and fourth goals of the game. The Americans have scored first in 11 of their 24 games this season and maintain a perfect record of 11-0 when scoring first.
- You win the special teams battle. If you look at the boxscore this might be a head-scratcher since both teams were 0-1 on the power play. However, if you look closely Allen scored a goal after their power play expired but before the Tulsa player got back in the play. The Americans not only killed Tulsa's lone power play, Pierro-Zabotel scored Allen's fifth shorthanded goal of the season on a great play by Colby McAuley. Give the special teams victory to the Americans.
- You get great play from your team captain. Joel Chouinard didn't have a single point in the game but was on the ice for all five Allen goals and none of the Tulsa goals for a plus/minus of +5.
- The goal scorers for Allen were Vincent Arseneau (8,9,10), Pierro-Zabotel (6) and Bryan Moore (8). You can check out all of the video highlights at ECHL Rewind. Make sure to watch the Pierro-Zabotel shorthanded goal a few times to see the great play by Colby McAuley to win a puck battle along the boards and make a perfect pass to Casey who had two guys on him but still managed to put the puck in the net. https://www.echl.com/
- Here is the game recap from the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/arseneaus-natural-hat-trick-leads-allen-5-2-win-tulsa/
- Here is the game recap from the Tulsa World with many quotes from Tulsa coach Rob Murray. Here is a sample:
"You have to play from start to finish. Their top line scored all five goals. We could not stop them."
"That was a big two points we gave up that we should have competed harder for."
"They (Allen) have not played since Monday. They were fresher and it showed."
Check out the complete game recap with additional quotes here: http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/oilers-fall-behind-early-unable-to-make-up-difference-in/article_9cd6cf8a-f354-5866-9855-495a82269000.html
STEVE MARTINSON'S POST GAME COMMENTS
- A good win for us tonight and a big game from the Arseneau, Pierro-Zabotel, Moore line. They picked up right where they left off when Moore went to San Jose.
- Arseneau has been our most consistent goal scorer recently. It is not very often you see a pure hat trick to start a game in less than 15 minutes.
- We had more speed and skill in the lineup tonight and we will get even better when Hall and Guptill are in the lineup. When you have speed and skill on every line it makes us tough to defend.
OTHER COMMENTS
- Tulsa and Allen have now played six times this season and will play seven more times. Tulsa won the first three game, Allen has won the last three games.
- Allen will now prepare for four home games (Kansas City on Tuesday and Wednesday & Tulsa on Friday & Saturday) in five days. It will be a grind but also a chance to gain on the teams ahead of the Americans in the standings.
- Colorado won again last night beating Kansas City 3-1 and Wichita beat Idaho 5-3. The Mountain Division standings remain about the same with Allen still five points behind Idaho and Wichita who are tied for second place. Here are the current Mountain Division standings with games played in parentheses:
39 points - Colorado (26 games)
36 points - Wichita (25 games)
36 points - Idaho (28 games)
31 points - Allen (24 games)
26 points - Tulsa (25 games)
25 points - Utah (27 games)
14 points - Rapid City (25 games)
- Allen has games in hand on every team in the division some of which will be made up this week when Allen plays four home games. Coach Martinson sees this week as one where the Americans need to capitalize on the opportunity. If you look at winning percentages in the division, which is a way to balance the difference in games played, here is how it looks. In parentheses is how each team ranks in the 27 team ECHL. The strength of the top four teams in the division is obvious from these rankings:
.750 - Colorado (#2)
.720 - Wichita (#3)
.646 - Allen (#7)
.643 - Idaho (#8)
.520 - Tulsa (#17)
.463 - Utah (#22)
.280 - Rapid City (#27)
- Allen's road record is is now 8-5-0-0. Their home record is 6-2-2-1. The Americans opponent on Tuesday and Wednesday, Kansas City, plays much better on the road than at home. The Mavericks have a losing record at home (4-8) and winning record on the road (9-5).
- There were some big moves in the plus/minus stats as result of the game last night. Four players were +4 (Arseneau, Makowski, Moore, Pierro-Zabotel) and Chouinard was +5. In this one game Chouinard went from +7 to +12 which leads the team. Arseneau went from 0 to +4, Makowski from +6 to +10, Moore from +5 to +9 and Pierro-Zabotel from +5 to +9.
- I listened to the Tulsa post game show last night and props to Tulsa broadcaster John Peterson who disagreed with the official three stars of the game which omitted Casey Pierro Zabotel who had a goal (shorthanded), three assists and was +4. Peterson's three stars were #1 Arseneau, #2 Pierro-Zabotel, #3 Brodeur.
DID YOU KNOW: On January 14, 1990 Brian MacLellan, who is now the general manager of the Washington Capitals, was playing for the Calgary Flames and scored a natural hat trick in the first 5:21 of the game. MacLellan had four goals in that game as Calgary beat Chicago 6-5.
The fastest of any natural hat trick in NHL history was scored by Bill Moseinko of the Chicago Blackhawks in 1952 in just 21 seconds. Moseinko was the captain of the Blackhawks and a future hall of famer. If you have never read the story about this amazing feat which took place on the last day of the season in Madison Square Garden check out the story as told by a fan that was at the game: https://www.nhl.com/news/bill-mosienko-scores-fastest-hat-trick-in-nhl-history/c-290802314
I am curious about the 3 stars of the games...is it just an honor to get picked for the 3 stars or is there any other incentives given to the players that are picked for them?
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or does it scream bad sportsmanship when the home team doesn't pick an visiting team player for one of the three stars of the game when clearly the visiting team's player outperformed the members of the home team? I don't seem to recall the Americans doing that on any occasion.
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