For the second straight game the Allen Americans lost in overtime at home. Last night a depleted Americans team came back from 1-0 and 3-2 deficits but could not get the game winner in overtime. A crowd of 4102 at the Allen Event Center (AEC) watched as long time Allen nemesis, Adam Pleskach, scored a natural hat trick for the Oilers and led them to a 4-3 overtime victory. Pleskach has been tormenting the Americans at the AEC going all the way back to the Central Hockey League days. I am sure if the young Allen players had been around over the last five years Pleskach would be the last guy they would leave alone at the side of the net for two easy tap in goals as happened last night.
- Allen certainly dealt with some diversity in the game last night and to their credit continued to battle to come away with one point. Vincent Arseneau (loaned to the AHL), Colby McAuley (family emergency) and Zach Hall (injury) weren't in the lineup, Peter MacArthur left the game with a shoulder injury and didn't return and Bryan Moore was given a major penalty and game misconduct penalty for slashing at the beginning of the third period. For most of the third period and overtime the Americans were playing with seven forwards.
- Goal scorers for Allen were Marcus Basara (1), Alex Schoenborn (4) and Eric Roy (6). If you want to watch all the video highlights from ECHL Rewind here is the link: https://www.echl.com/
- Here are the three Allen goals from the Sporfie App:
Marcus Basara - This is Basara's first professional goal. Casey Pierro-Zabotel makes a great back door pass to Marcus. https://sporfie.app.link/nDTeeAVa6I
Alex Schoenborn - Some times it is better to be lucky than good. Alex was trying to make a backhand pass but the puck went off two Tulsa defenders and slid slowly through the legs of goalie Jake Hildebrand. https://sporfie.app.link/EeWpdC4a6I
Eric Roy - A patented Eric Roy laser beam shot from just above the circle tied the score 3-3 at the 13:16 mark of the third period. https://sporfie.app.link/isoPnGmi6I
Here is the game recap issued by the Allen Americans complete with post game quotes from Miles Liberati and Marcus Basara. https://allenamericans.com/americans-pick-point-4-3-loss-tulsa/
STEVE MARTINSON'S POST GAME COMMENTS
- I am not in the Christmas spirit right now. That game was frustrating because we took some bad penalties and that hurt us because we are short players. Then we get an injury and get a guy tossed out of the game. We ended up having to juggle the lines a lot. Tulsa made a mistake in overtime and we didn't capitalize, then we made a mistake and gave them a scoring chance and they put it in the net.
- I thought it was great the way we game back in the third period. We had one power play in the second period where we generated a lot of chances but could not get the puck in the net and on the goal that Roy score to tie the game 3-3 we scored just after the penalty expired.
- With MacArthur and Moore out of the game at the end I was just trying to get through the overtime to the shootout. On the Tulsa game winner we had two defensemen on the ice and when Tulsa crisscrossed we didn't play it right and they put it in the net. That is what happens in overtime, if you make a mistake you give the opponent an easy scoring chance.
- MacArthur won't play tomorrow and with Areseneau and McAuley gone it will be an opportunity for some of the new guys to get more ice time and step up.
- I thought we were night and day better tonight than in the loss to Kansas City on Wednesday. We didn't have as many turnovers tonight. We had 20 turnovers in the first two periods against the Mavericks. It was probably the most painful game of the year for me to be behind the bench. So yesterday everyone came in on their day off to watch all of the turnovers. We were a lot better tonight with more outside speed and had more chances and fewer turnovers.
ALLEN VS TULSA REMATCH PREVIEW
- The best thing about losing the game last night in overtime is the Americans don't have to wait long to do something about it as they have a rematch with Tulsa tonight (7:05 pm).
- The Americans will have to defend better if they want a different outcome. They made mistakes with their best players on the ice. They can't give up the kind of scoring chances they did on the first two Pleskach goals, leaving him wide open at the net.
- Allen and Tulsa have played seven games this season and the team that scored first has won all seven games. Enough said.
- The boxscore from last night shows Allen 0-4 on the power play and Tulsa 0-5 but you can give the edge to Allen on special teams. The penalty kill unit killed a five minute major early in the third period with Tulsa leading 3-2. That was a big kill. Eric Roy's game tying goal was not counted as a power play goal but was scored right as a penalty expired.
- On the power play Allen is 21.9% at home and Tulsa is 13.8% on the road.
Allen also has the edge on the penalty kill with a percentage at home
of 87.5% versus Tulsa with 80.6% on the road. Allen needs to use their
special teams advanatge against the Oilers to be successful.
- There is a possibility and my guess a probability Bryan Moore will be suspended for the game tonight. A major slashing penalty which results in an injury and a game misconduct is not an automatic suspension but a suspension can be assessed at the Commissioner's discretion. Given Moore is a repeat offender and plays for Allen, he won't be given any breaks by the league.
- Allen could start the game tonight with 50% of their goal production over the last six games out of the lineup (Arseneau, Moore, McAuley, MacArthur). Next man up will be the theme of the day for sure.
- Look for Stephon Willams to get the start in goal tonight for the Americans.
- The officials tonight will be the same as last night. The referee scheduled for the game is Mike Zalcman (#24) and the linesmen are Aaron Schacht (#31) and Eli Rivera (#59).
OTHER COMMENTS
- In other Mountain Division action last night Wichita and Idaho won while Colorado lost in overtime. Allen maintains their fourth place spot in the division but now trails third place Wichita by three points, second place Idaho by five points and first place Colorado by nine points. All four teams are in action again tonight.
- Last night was a good night for former Allen Americans. In addition to goalie Jake Hildebrand leading Tulsa to a win, Joel Rumpel did the same for Wichita stopping 25 of 26 shots as the Thunder beat Kansas City 4-1. Dyson Stevenson scored his seventh goal of the season in that game. Greger Hanson scored the first goal of the game, which he did so often in Allen, for the Utah Grizzlies as they beat Colorado 5-4 in overtime. The goal was Greger's ninth of the season.
- Vincent Arseneau didn't take long to make his presence known playing his first game since being loaned to the Utica Comets (AHL). Arseneau scored the first goal of the game for Utica in the first period. The Comets ended up losing the game to the first place Toronto Marlies but Vincent was selected the #3 star of the game.
- Today is the last day if you are interested in bidding on the Christmas specialty jerseys the Americans will be wearing tonight. There are still plenty of jerseys where the bid is at or close to the minimum bid. You don't need to register to check out the bidding and get all of the details. Here is the link: https://one.bidpal.net/goamericans
- Had a question about whether coach Martinson could add players to the roster since the team is so shorthanded. It is very unlikely because the ECHL is currently in their Christmas break where teams can't trade or waive players until next Wednesday at noon. Players can still be loaned/assigned/recalled between the ECHL and AHL however that option is unlikely.
- Allen has had seven games this season go past regulation (four against Tulsa). The American have won one game in overtime and lost four. They have been in two shootouts with one win and one loss.
DID YOU KNOW: The player providing the most offense (goals) for their team looks a lot different than just looking at the ECHL goal leader list. I saw this stat for the NHL and decided to take a look for the ECHL. Here are the ECHL players with the highest percentage of their team's goals. For the Americans the leader is Vincent Arseneau who has scored 11.7% of the Allen goals.
19.7% - Sam Warning (Quad City)
19.0% - Justin Danforth (Cincinnati)
18.1% - Phil Lane (Atlanta)
17.7% - Michael Joly (Colorado)
17.6% - Mike McMurtry (Kansas City)
17.6% - Justin Taylor (Kalamazoo)
Hildebrand’s victory last night was his first one against the Americans since he left the team at the end of the 2015/16 season.
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