The Allen Americans extended their point streak to seven games with a 6-3 win over the Wichita Thunder last night. A crowd of 6402 at INTRUST Bank Arena watched the Americans score four goals in the third period to win the game.
- The game went from no scoring in the first period to six goals in the third period. Wichita scored the first goal of the game at the 2:11 mark of the second period but the Americans fought back with two goals of their own to take a 2-1 lead at the second intermission. Allen's record this season with a second period lead is 23-1-1-0. A four goal third period outburst by the Americans sealed the victory.
- Goal scorers for Allen were Les Lancaster (3), Jared VanWormer (19), Alex Breton (7), Olivier Archambault (14) and Tyler Sheehy (20, 21). Archambault had four assists to go along with his goal. His five point night has only been bested three times this season in the entire league. Here is a highlight package of the game that runs almost seven minutes:
- Here is the game recap issued by the Wichita Thunder: https://www.wichitathunder.com/news/press-release/thunder-falls-to-allen.html
- Allen's power play was the difference maker again last night going 2-7. The Americans have at least one power play goal in six of their last seven games. In that span the power play is 12-31 which is a 38.7% conversion rate. One third of Allen's power play goals all season have come in the last seven games. The power play is now up to 18.0% which is ranked #9 in the ECHL.
- With two goals last night Tyler Sheehy now has a two point lead in the ECHL scoring race. Sheehy has 58 points (21G, 37A). His 1.49 points per game average is also the best in the ECHL.
- Alex Breton had another monster game with a goal and two assists. Alex has a point in seven straight games and multiple points in four of his last six games. Breton leads all ECHL defensemen in scoring. He has a two point lead in the scoring race with 39 points (7G, 32A).
STEVE MARTINSON'S POST GAME COMMENTS
I asked coach Martinson about Dereck Baribeau leaving the game and the incident I heard about that a fan threw a beer at the Allen players and was ejected.
"Dereck Baribeau had to leave the game after the first period because he broke his skate."
"Wichita has an opening to the bench that always attracts loud people. I didn't see what happened but I heard someone threw liquid."
"We had a slow start on the power play but then the same group scored twice so I will use them more on Saturday."
"We want to keep the shots we allow down and holding them to 25 is a good start in that effort."
REMATCH PREVIEW
- Allen has had Wichita's number so far this season with a record of 5-0-3-0. At home Allen is 3-0-1-0 against the Thunder. In their three wins Allen beat Wichita 7-3, 5-1 and 7-2. The overtime loss was 3-2.
- The Americans should be the more tired team tonight playing in their third game in 48 hours. Prior to last night Wichita hadn't played a game since last Sunday. Both teams traveled to Allen overnight and didn't arrive until early this morning.
- Olivier Archambault has at least one assist in his last seven home games dating back to January 4. The way he played in Wichita last night there is a good chance he keeps the streak alive tonight. The longest assist streak this season in the ECHL is nine. Archambault has 15 points (5G, 10A) in seven games against Wichita this season.
- As mentioned above the Allen power play has been on fire for over a month and the penalty kill has been excellent as well. If there is anything the team can improve on tonight it is not taking so many minor penalties that result in power play opportunities for their opponent. Wichita had six last night and only capitalized on one. Allen has given up 16 power play opportunities in the last three games.
- The referee scheduled tonight is Cameron Fleming. It will be the third straight Allen game he has been the referee, that doesn't happen very often. The Americans should know by now how Fleming calls a game.
- Jordan Topping didn't have a goal last night but he is the leading goal scorer against Wichita. Jordan has six goals in seven games against the Thunder. If you are in one of those pools on who will score tonight, Topping would be a good pick.
- If you are looking for who might be a goal scorer for Wichita a good bet is former Allen player Jason Salvaggio. Jason has 10 goals since joining Wichita and four of them are against his former team.
OTHER COMMENTS
- There was quite a donnybrook in Jacksonville last night that will result in plenty of suspensions coming out today. The game was won by Jacksonville 5-4 in overtime over Fort Wayne but eight fighting majors and six game misconduct penalties dominated the action. The game had an Allen flavor as former player Mike Heddon scored the overtime game winner and Emerson Clarke was in the middle of the fracas and wrestled with the linesman all the way to the penalty box which earned him an abuse of officials game misconduct penalty. Dalton Thrower was thrown out of the game for a secondary altercation. There were game misconducts for everything from slashing, secondary altercation, abuse of officials category III, abuse of officials category I and fighting off the playing surface. Of all of these penalties Emerson Clarke's is by far the most serious. He was given a Category I physical abuse of official penalty (Rule 40.2) which reads in part, "Any player who deliberately strikes an official or causes injury or deliberately applies physical force in any manner against an official with intent to injure or in any manner attempts to injure an official shall be automatically suspended for not less than 20 games." Unless the ECHL changes the category to a category II which is "without intent to injure" and carries a seven game suspension, Clarke will be gone until the middle of March at the earliest.
This story by Justin Cohn gives you the back story and recaps the game: https://www.journalgazette.net/blog/ice-chips/20200131/melees-galore-in-komets-ot-loss
Here is a video of the fracas:
- After the game tonight the players will be off until Thursday afternoon for their All-Star break. I know some are planning some fun trips to get away and recharge their batteries while some will relax in and around DFW.
- The Newfoundland Growlers shutout Brampton at home last night 5-0 for their 17th straight home win. They play Brampton again tonight and will attempt to tie the all time home winning streak record of 18 which was set in 1994-95 by the South Carolina Stingrays.
- South Carolina has hit a bump in the road. They have the best record in the league and were on pace to set an all time record for goals allowed in a season. Their record pace has hit a snag as they lost last night while giving up eight goals and they lost Wednesday night while giving up six goals. That is 14 goals in two games. In their previous 11 games South Carolina gave up a total of 14 goals.
- There are 12 games around the ECHL tonight. Here is the "ECHL Today" with a short preview of all of the games: https://www.echl.com/en/news/2020/2/echl-today-feb-1
DID YOU KNOW: With their win last night Allen finished the month of January with a record of 9-3-1-1. What has distinguished this team is they have played well all season even with injuries, sickness, call-ups and loans. Here is the winning percentage by month with the record in parenthesis:
.667 October (4-2-0-0)
.846 November (10-1-2-0)
.733 December (9-2-3-1)
.714 January (9-3-1-1)
There is additional video of "the brawl" in Jacksonville whereby the play by play describes Clarke putting the linesman in a headlock and pulling the linesman's shirt off. Looks like a good case for 20 games.
ReplyDelete