If you are a long time Allen Americans fan and it is a Saturday night, with a big crowd (6007) and a specialty jersey on Top Gun Night there is a reason to be wary. Add to the mix Allen was playing the ECHL "Top Gun" in the Kansas City Mavericks and the outcome was not a surprise. When the best road team in the history of the ECHL (more about that later) has everything go its way it is no surprise Kansas City beat Allen 8-4 last night.
- The game didn't start out as a one sided affair and everything was going Allen's way early in the contest. The Americans scored the first goal of the game and held a 2-1 lead after the first period. The odds of the Americans winning the game from stats point of view heavily favored Allen. The Americans win over 75% of the games win they score first. The first period lead was even more encouraging. Allen's record prior to last night with a first period lead was an outstanding 13-0-1-1.
- Allen's lead got even bigger early in the second period when Easton Brodzinski scored his second goal of the game to give the Americans a 3-1 lead. From that point (4:08 of the 2nd period) Kansas City strafed Allen seven times. Allen was out scored in the last 35 minutes of the game 7-1.
- Allen's second period woes continued as the Americans gave up four goals to relinquish the lead. Allen has now given up the most second period goals (89) in the league and the Americans second period goal differential is -18. The score at the end of the second period was 5-4 Mavericks, and the odds swung heavily in Kansas City's favor. The Mavericks record with a second period lead is 22-2-1-0 and Allen's record when trailing after the second period is 3-21-1-0.
- The third period was not kind to Allen. The Americans were outshot 11-2 and outscored 3-0 as the Mavericks turned the game into a route. The final score of 8-4 allowed the Mavericks to keep their perfect record of 5-0-0-0 in Allen intact. It also meant Kansas City is one step closer to setting the all time ECHL record for road wins in a single season. The Mavericks road record is now 24-2-1-1 and they have eight road games remaining. The current road win record is 26 and unless something drastically happens Kansas City should be well above 26 road wins. The current record of 26 has been accomplished six different times, most recently last season. Here are six teams that hold the record for most road wins in a single season:
- 26 - Idaho, 2022-23
- 26 - Toledo, 2022-23
- 26 - Cincinnati, 2007-08
- 26 - Texas, 2007-08
- 26 - Louisiana, 2001-02
- Goal scorers for Allen were Bennett MacArthur (10), Easton Brodzinski (20,21) and Eric Williams (7). Here are the video highlights, but some of the Kansas City goals are missing. Hope it was a technical problem rather than a decision by the Americans not to include all of the goals in the highlight package. https://echl.com/videos/kansas-city-mavericks-vs-allen-americans-march-9-2024
- Here is the game recap issued by the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2024/03/americans-blow-out-by-kc
- A big part of the Allen loss last night was because of special teams. Kansas City had six power play opportunities and converted on three of them. Allen had a goal of staying out of the penalty box to avoid giving up power play opportunities, but that failed in both losses to the Mavericks. Combined Allen was 1-6 (16.7%) on the power play. Kansas City had twice as many opportunities and four times as many goals. The Mavericks were 4-12 (33.3%) on the power play. Allen's special teams ranking continues to slip. The power play was ranked #3 earlier in the season, but is now ranked #12 at 20.6%. The penalty kill has fallen to 20th place at 77.5%.
ALLEN vs TULSA PREVIEW
- It may be out of the frying pan into the fire for the Allen Americans. The old saying after a blowout loss is the one good thing after a blowout loss is getting back on the ice quickly to get back on the winning way. Not sure they had Allen's situation in mind. If you combine the early start today (2:10 pm) and the daylight saving time switch overnight here is the timing. With all of the scrums after the whistle the game last night ran late and was official over at 9:45 pm. That means the players and coaches left the rink around 10:45 give or take a few minutes. With the clocks being set forward over night a hour it was really 11:45 pm.when they left the rink. What time do the players and coaches arrive at the rink today? Right around 11:45 am. Just 12 hours after exiting the rink they will be entering the rink for the game today.
- The Allen schedule is only half the problem. The opponent today, the Tulsa Oilers, have not played a game since Wednesday when they lost 7-1 in Wichita. The Oilers have been sitting around resting the last few days. Another scheduling gem by the ECHL.
- To make matters worse the ECHL just announced that Gavin Gould (1 game) and Blake Murray (2 games) have been suspended: https://echl.com/news/2024/03/echl-announces-fines-suspensions2
- Here is the lineup for the game today with numerous changes. In addition to Gould and Murray being out of the lineup, Chase Perry will get the start in goal and Dalton Skelly replaces Andrew Jarvis at defense:
- The best comparison for today's game is the six games these teams played between February 7 and March 1:
- Allen won four of the six games by scores of 4-3, 6-3, 4-2, 1-0.
- Tulsa won two of the six games by scores of 6-1 and 3-1.
- Both teams scored 17 goals over the six games. Allen scored just one goal in three of the six games.
- Tulsa outshot Allen 245-210.
- Allen was 2-20 (10%) on the power play
- Tulsa was 6-23 (26%) on the power play which included a 4-10 game.
- Neither team scored a power play goal the last three games they played.
- The team that scored the first goal won all six games.
- Looking at the stats above and the path to victory for the Americans is pretty clear:
- Score first and don't play from behind.
- Keep the shots allowed down.
- Win the special teams battle.
- Hold Tulsa to three or fewer goals.
- Stay out of the penalty box.
- The referees for the game this afternoon are the same as last night, #12 Brendan Schreider and #8 Tyler Hascall. They allowed a lot of scrums, pushing and shoving after the whistle last night so you can expect more of the same this afternoon.
OTHER COMMENTS
- The Mountain Division standings are as tight as ever going into the games today. Here are the standings by points with points percentage in parenthesis:
- 90 points - Kansas City (.789)
- 77 points - Idaho (.688)
- 56 points - Tulsa (.491)
- 54 points - Utah (474)
- 53 points - Allen (.482)
- 52 points - Wichita (.448)
- 45 points - Rapid City (.395)
- The Mountain Division is unique because it has two of the top teams in the league who hand a lot of losses to the other five teams. That is a big part of the reason all the other teams have records below .500. I decided to look at the number of times each team in the division has played Kansas City and Idaho. Here are the number of times the bottom five teams have played Kansas City and Idaho. The numbers are a combined total of games played against Kansas City and Idaho along with each team's record and points percentage in parenthesis:
- 23 games - Allen (6-15-1-1, .304)
- 18 games - Rapid City (2-14-2-0, .167)
- 17 games - Wichita (3-12-1-1, .235)
- 15 games - Utah (4-11-0-0), .267)
- 14 games - Tulsa (5-8-1-0), .393)
- How many games do each of the teams above have left with Kansas City and Idaho:
- 8 games - Utah
- 5 games - Rapid City
- 3 games - Allen
- 3 games - Tulsa
- 0 games - Wichita
- The Minnesota Boys High School Hockey Tournament ended last night. One of the highlights in addition to the huge crowds and great hockey is the "All Hair Team" which has become quite a tradition over the years. Lot's of inside jokes about the school names and locations but very puny, enjoy!
- There are just six games on the ECHL schedule today. Here are the previews: https://echl.com/news/2024/03/echl-today-march-10
- Congrats to Tommy Daniels (broadcaster) and Lee Hastings (PA Announcer) who were honored last night in a pregame ceremony celebrating their 15th year anniversary with the Allen Americans.
DID YOU KNOW: Some ECHL teams play each other a lot during the season and that can result in lopsided records. Here are the most one sided head to head records this season where one team owns the other:
Americans had a goal of staying out of the penalty box??!! 😂.. I laughed out loud. I never laugh out loud.
ReplyDeleteTrue- Allen Americans= Stupid penalties
ReplyDelete