Allen Wins at Home for First Time in 238 days, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Martinson Comments, Rematch Preview and More

It took quite a wait between victories at the Allen Event Center (AEC) for the Allen Americans. To be exact, 238 days and one minute after the Americans beat Utah 5-4 in overtime in the playoffs they got the monkey off their back with a 4-1 win over the Wichita Thunder last night.

- It has been a long time since there has been so many smiles and high fives at a home game. It was an entertaining game that was much closer then the final score. The game didn't start well for the Americans as they dominated the first period by out shooting Wichita 17-9 with many grade A scoring chances but finished the period trailing 1-0. Allen's record prior to last night when giving up the first goal was 0-11-0-1 and it looked like they would be snakebit once again.


- What happened last night was Allen put together three good periods, outshot Wichita 39-30, won the special teams battle by going 1-4 on the power play while killing all four Thunder power play opportunities, minimized turnovers and played solid defense. When the defense did break down rookie goalie, Kyle Hayton, playing in his second game with Allen and third as a pro, came up big. Hayton stopped 29 of 30 Wichita shots for a save percentage of .967.


- Goal scorers for Allen were Adam Miller (3), Alex Breton (4) Greg Chase (2) and Zach Pochiro (8). Here are the Sporfie highlights of the goals.

Adam Miller - Adam got the Americans on the scoreboard with a power play goal at the 13:16 of the second period. A great play that was started by Miller on the side boards. Adam passes to Salituro in the corner. Dante takes the puck behind the net drawing the defense with him. Salituro passes to Pochiro in front of the net, who makes a highlight reel blind pass between his legs to Miller who was all alone on the side of the net.





Alex Breton - Another great pass set up this goal. Spencer Asuchak makes the play by holding the puck to draw the goalie completely out of position before threading a pass by a sprawling defenseman to Breton who hustled the length of the ice to be in position for the pass.






Greg Chase - Asuchak made the pass to spring Chase on this goal but watch the speed of Chase  blow by the defenseman who was former Allen player, Eric Roy.







Zach Pochiro - Sure it was an empty net goal but Pochiro's team leading eighth goal is worth a look. Dante Salituro didn't figure in the scoring but his pressure on the sideboards helped make the play and Zach had to battle a couple of defenders to get the puck in the net.



 






- Here is a four minute highlight package with no sound that has clips of the goals but also many other close plays and great saves by both goalies:

 

- Here is the game recap issued by the Wichita Thunder: https://www.wichitathunder.com/news/press-release/allen-uses-third-period-to-get-past-wichita.html


- Here is Steve Martinson's post game interview:

- Martinson did address the season tickets holders after the game and shared his thoughts on how the team played which was all positive and he emphasized the team played well in all three periods. However, after getting the monkey off his back with the first home win of the season Martinson regaled the group on a variety of topics. I have said this many times in the past and it was true last night, sometimes you just have to be at the post game talk with coach Martinson. It just can't be translated for the blog. I will tell you it was an all time classic.


REMATCH PREVIEW

- The easiest way to describe what Allen needs to do to win tonight is more of the same. The game last night might have been the most complete game the team has played all season. Good at both ends of the ice, good on special teams and outstanding goaltending.


- One improvement for tonight would be for the Americans  to score the first goal of the game. They have managed to do that in only eight of their 21 games.


- Martinson did share that he will get  forward Mitch Maloney, who was a healthy scratch last night, in the lineup tonight. Otherwise, the lineup should remain the same.


- Everyone was expecting plenty of fisticuffs last night and the teams had the the fewest combined penalty minutes (24) of any of the five games they have played this season. It looked like Jake Doty was asking for a dance partner from Wichita but had no takers. Things may change tonight.


- The referee scheduled tonight is Stan Szczurek (#15). The linesmen will be Micheal Miggans (#47) and Aaron Schacht (#31). This is the same crew that worked the game last night.



OTHER COMMENTS

-  The Mountain Division has three of the top five teams in the ECHL in winning percentage. Tulsa and Utah are tied for second (.789) and Kansas City is fifth (.676). Allen is still firmly entrenched in last place with a winning percentage of .286 looking up at the two teams directly ahead of them (Atlanta & Kalamazoo) who are tied at .382.


- To give you an idea of how difficult it will be to dig out of the hole Allen has created for themselves, they will have to have a record of 30-21 the rest of the season just to get to .500. There has been just one team of the 64 that have made the playoffs in the last four years with a winning percentage of .500 or below.


- Joe Ernst, Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations for the ECHL was at the game last night and I took the opportunity to ask him about the video replay test that is taking place in four arenas this season (Kalamazoo, Toledo, Worcester, Idaho). Joe told me the test is going well, it has been used several times and the feed back from coaches and on ice officials has been positive. He wishes it could be used everywhere and it looks like the league will be moving in that direction though no decision has been made at this point.


- I asked Ernst if he has seen any trends in penalties this season and he said, "A trend I have seen recently that I don't like is aggressor game misconduct penalties where it is a one man fight or a player punches a guy that is a non-willing  combatant. We are trying to eliminate those because it causes injuries."


- There is a full slate of games (13) in the ECHL tonight with all Mountain Division teams in action. In addition to Wichita at Allen, Tulsa is at Kansas City, Utah visits Rapid City and Idaho takes on Jacksonville at home. 


- Ted Hosterman who has been a big fan and supporter of the Allen Americans is in the hospital and needs your thoughts and prayers. Ted has helped me with the blog filling in when I go on vacation, doing research where he read and categorize close to 1600 blog posts and being one of many proofreaders that let me know when I have an error in the blog. I know Ted will find a way to read this blog so Ted we look forward to seeing you back on your feet and joining everyone at the Allen Event Center.


DID YOU KNOW:  If you are in the camp that believes Allen plays Tulsa and Wichita too many times this season keep in mind the ECHL plays unbalanced schedules with a disproportionate number of games with teams that are geographically close as a cost savings effort. The Americans play Tulsa 13 times and Wichita 14 times this season which amounts to 38% of the schedule with these two teams. However, that is an improvement from a few years ago (2014-15) when close to half (46%) of the games on Allen's schedule were with Tulsa (16 games) and Wichita (17 games).