It's game day for the Allen Americans as they take on the Kansas City Mavericks in the second game of a three game series. There are plenty of incentives for both teams to do well tonight. Allen is fighting for a playoff spot and is trying to get back on track after losing six of the last seven games. The Americans have fallen four points behind fourth place Utah and six points behind third place Tulsa in the standings. Allen has games in hand with 12 games remaining in the season compared to 11 for Utah and 10 for Tulsa.
- You might think Kansas City doesn't have much to play for given they have a 10 point lead over Idaho in the Mountain Division and could play .500 hockey over its final 11 games and still be the division champions. Kansas City and Idaho are #1 and #2 in the ECHL standings so Kansas City also has a 10 point lead overall and has all but locked up the Brabham Cup as the regular season champion. What will be motivating the Mavericks tonight is the chance to tie the ECHL all time record for road wins. The record is 26 and Kansas City won its 25th road game on Wednesday in the 3-2 win over Allen.
- I won't bore you with long paragraphs on each key to the game tonight, but here are a few succinct stats that tell the story.
- Kansas City is 7-0-0-0 when scoring first against Allen this season.
- Kansas City has a combined record of 26-2-0-0 when leading after the 1st and 2nd period.
- Kansas City has outshot Allen by 154 shots this season (487-333).
- Kansas City has 565 penalty minutes, Allen has 1087.
- Allen has lost all six home games against Kansas City this season.
- Allen has lost six of its last seven games and of those six losses the Americans have scored two or fewer goals in five of them. In the game against Kansas City on Wednesday the Americans played with eight defenseman and just nine forwards. That will change in the game tonight. Forward James Hardie will get his first game action since being acquired in a trade with Rapid City. Hardie will be wearing jersey #86. Grant Hebert is listed as day to day but it is expected he will also be in the lineup tonight. Mikael Robidoux will be not play tonight as he will be serving the second of his two game suspension.
- Allen's offense has been struggling recently for a couple of reasons. Two top goal scorers, Hank Crone and Easton Brodzinski are out of the lineup and others are struggling to put the puck in the net. Liam Finlay scored goals in his first three games back after missing 48 games, but has just one goal in the last seven games. Bennett MacArthur has one goal in eight games, Blake Murray hasn't scored in his last five games and Colby McAuley, Allen's leading goal scorer, has just two goals in his last 14 games.
- Allen's leading goal scorers over the last five games with three goals each are Colin Jacobs and Ty Farmer. No other player has more than single goal.
- Considering Kansas City has a 41 point lead over Allen in the standings it is remarkable how close the team save percentages are. Allen has a team save percentage of .901 compared the Kansas City's .905. Allen gives up a lot more goals (239 vs 173) but faces so many more shots (2393 vs 1805), therefore the Americans have a decent save percentage.
- Here is another stat that shows the difference between Allen and Kansas City. Performance in the third period is critical to success. Allen has scored 61 third period goals and allowed 82 for a goal differential of -21. Kansas City has scored 103 third period goals and allowed 50 for a goal differential of +53.
OTHER COMMENTS
- What sets Kansas City apart from the other top teams in the ECHL is they are great at both ends of the ice. Three ECHL teams average more than 3.60 goals per game and they are all over 4.00 goals per game. Here is how the top three offensive teams rank defensively, by average goals scored and allowed per game.
- #1 Kansas City (4.30) is #3 defensively (2.84)
- #2 Idaho (4.18) is #17 defensively (3.44)
- #3 Toledo (4.11) is #12 defensively (3.13)
- Allen didn't make any moves at the trade deadline, but that doesn't mean there weren't discussions throughout the day. If you look at the ECHL standings almost every team with few exceptions still has hopes of making the playoffs. Lot's of buyers but not a lot of sellers on trade deadline day.
- One big trade at the deadline found 31 goal scorer Zack Andrusiak traded from Cincinnati to Florida to Fort Wayne yesterday. There were a lot of moving parts in this deal that also included former Allen defenseman, Stanislav Demin going from Florida to Fort Wayne. It is a big move for the Komets to get Andrusiak as they battle for a playoff spot. Andrusiak will be a veteran next year so this could end up being a rent a player if he doesn't re-sign in Fort Wayne. The Komets sent the rights to forward Matthew Wedman to Florida. He has spent much of the season in the AHL. He is qualified for the ECHL playoffs and could soon be sent to Florida. He is not a vet so Florida will retain his ECHL rights next season.
- It is a big night in the ECHL with all 28 teams in action with many teams battling for playoff spots. Adirondack is the only team that can punch its ticket to the playoffs tonight and become the third of 16 teams that qualify for the playoffs, joining Kansas City and Idaho. Here are the previews from ECHL Today: https://echl.com/news/2024/03/echl-today-march-22
They can’t score if they don’t shoot!! Continue to shoot and shoot. They set up and pass and pass but don’t shoot! SHOOT!!! You have nothing to loose, Try it-you might like it and score!!!!
ReplyDeleteTommy continues to get more excited when opposing teams score than when Allen Americans score.
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