Friday, March 1, 2024

Allen vs Tulsa Preview, Weekend Schedule, ECHL 15 Goal Scorers, Ironman Club and More

 

The long hiatus for the Allen Americans is over as they get back in action tonight against the Tulsa Oilers. Allen's last game was on February 17,  a 3-1 loss to Tulsa. The game tonight will be the 12th of 16 times Tulsa and Allen meet during the regular season. The Americans record against the Oilers is 6-4-1-0.

 

- Here are some head to head stats between these teams over the 11 games they have played thus far.:

  • Goals: Tulsa has outscored Allen 44-41.
  • Shots: Tulsa has outshot Allen 473-365.
  • Power Play: Allen is 8-34 (23.5%), Tulsa is 12-42 (28.6%).
  • Penalty Minutes: Allen has taken 207, Tulsa 113. 

 

- Here is a comparison of overall stats:

  • Allen averages 3.4 goals per game, Tulsa 3.3.
  • Allen allows 4.0 goals per game, Tulsa 3.2.
  • Allen averages 30.1 shots per game, Tulsa 37.8.
  • Allen allows 40.3 shots per game, Tulsa 29.9.
  • Allen's power play percentage is 21.4%, Tulsa's is 18.0%.
  • Allen's penalty kill percentage is 78.7%, Tulsa's is 78.2%.


- Roster moves this week definitely favor Allen. The Americans got Bennett MacArthur back from the  AHL and Liam Finlay should be activated from the injured reserve today and be in the lineup tonight. Tulsa on the other hand lost three players yesterday. Two contract players were recalled to San Diego and one of them was averaging 1.50 points per game in Tulsa. The third loss for Tulsa is former Allen forward, Tyler Poulson. He was suspended for two games yesterday and will sit out tonight. Poulsen leads Tulsa in goals (6) in the head to head games against Allen this season.  


- A good start is always a key to victory and the scoring first stat proves that. Allen is 17-5-1-1 (.750) when scoring first and Tulsa is 17-6-3-0 (.712). Allen is 12-0-1-1 when leading after the first period, Tulsa is 12-3-2-0. Pretty clear the team playing from behind tonight will have an uphill battle.


- Between February 7-17 Allen played Tulsa five times and won three of the games. In the two losses the Americans scored just one goal. With few exceptions if the Americans allow three or fewer goals they win the game. The last game against Tulsa was an exception as Allen lost 3-1. If you look at the entire season, Allen has a record of 16-3-1-0 (.825) when allowing three or fewer goals. A key to the game tonight will be good team defense while generating offense. Staying out of the penalty box will help achieve this goal.

 

- Allen has not scored a power play goal in the last three games against Tulsa. Tulsa has scored a power play goal in just one of the last three games, but that was the record setting game when the Oilers had 10 power play opportunities and scored four power play goals.  

 

- Players to watch tonight would be Colby McAuley for the Americans with 12 points (7G, 5A) in 11 games and #15 Eddie Matsushima for the Oilers with 15 points (6G, 9A) in 10 games. Allen players averaging a point or more per game against Tulsa in addition to McAuley include Blake Murray, Bennett MacArthur and Johnny Walker. For Tulsa #3 (Jarod Hilderman), #37 (Kyle Crnkovic), #26 Michael Farren, and #13 Alec Butcher are all averaging a point per game against Allen. 

 

 

OTHER COMMENTS

- Allen will leave right after the game tonight and head for Wichita (365 miles) where they will play the Thunder Saturday night. Wichita will also have to travel tonight (200 miles) as they are playing in Kansas City. After the game tomorrow night the Americans and Wichita will travel to Allen for a 2:10 Sunday afternoon game. 


- Some players have a knack of scoring early in a game. Grant Hebert has scored eight goals this season and half of them have been Allen's first goal of the game. Two other players have more than two first goals. Hank Crone and Easton Brodzinski have three first goals. 


- Last season Jack Combs led Allen with four empty net goals. This season as a team Allen has just three empty net goals. Kris Myllari, Ty Fournier and Eric Williams each have one.

 

- I say every season that one of the toughest clubs to join is the Allen Americans Ironman Club. This club is for players that don't miss a game all season. No injuries, no call ups and no loans to the AHL. Allen has had seasons where as few as no players qualified and as many as three players qualified. With 22 games remaining, Kris Myllari and Eric Williams are the only two Allen players that have not missed a game.   


- There are 12 games in the ECHL tonight and all seven Mountain Division teams will be in action. In addition to Tulsa at Allen, Kansas City is at Tulsa, Utah is at Idaho and Savannah visits Rapid City. Here are the previews: https://echl.com/news/2024/03/echl-today-march-1

 

 

DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about 15+ goal scorers. The four Allen players with 15+ goals are Colby McAuley (22), Easton Brodzinski (19), Hank Crone (15) and Blake Murray (15). No other player on the team has more then nine goals.

 

Here are the number of 15 or more goal scorers for each ECHL team. Current playoff teams (by points percentage) are marked with an asterisk:
 
6 - *IDH, *TOL
5 - *KC, *NFL
4 - *ADK, *ALN, *FLA, *IND, *JAX, RC, *SC
3 - CIN, FW, *KAL, SAV, *TUL, UTA, *WHL, WIC, *WOR
2 - *GVL, *MNE, *NOR, ORL, TR
1 - ATL, IA, REA

 

No comments:

Post a Comment