The Allen Americans wrapped up their three game series against Adirondack Sunday afternoon with another third period comeback before a crowd of 4206 at CUTX Event Center. Trailing 2-1 as the game wound down, Hank Crone scored his 16th goal of the season to send the game to overtime. Adirondack prevailed in overtime but the Americans earned an important point in the standings. It was a great series for Allen earning five of six points against the #1 team in the North Division.
- The Sunday afternoon matinee followed a familiar script. Just like the first two games Adirondack scored the first goal of the game and took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. The script changed in the second period. Allen scored its first second period goal of the series when Chaz Smedsrud tipped in a shot from the point by Ryan Gagnon. It was Smedsrud's third goal and sixth point since the rookie joined the Americans six games ago. The game was tied 1-1 at the second intermission. I rarely quote tied stats but this one is noteworthy. Allen has been tied after the second period a league low eight times this season and in those games has a record of 2-5-1-0. Adirondack has been tied after the second period a league high 24 times and has a record of 14-5-3-2.
- Adirondack took a 2-1 lead early in the third period (1:17) and as the game wound down you had to wonder if the Americans could score yet another late period goal to force overtime for the third time in the series. It was Hank Crone to the rescue as he flipped home a backhand from the side of the net to tie the score 2-2 and send the game to overtime. It was quite a series for Crone who returned after missing a month (21 games). Hank factored in all three games. He had the shootout winner in game one, the primary assist on the overtime game winner in game two and the game tying goal in game three. It is nice to have the MVP and his 1.38 points per game average back in the lineup.
- At 2:05 of overtime Adirondack ended the Americans streak of four straight extra time wins, but the point Allen earned was huge with the Kelly Cup playoffs on the line. Allen played four games last week (Monday-Sunday), all went to overtime and the Americans earned seven of eight points. How big was it? The two teams Allen is chasing in the standings (Tulsa and Utah) each earned just one point.
- Here are the video highlights with the goals and the Easton Brodzinski fight: https://echl.com/videos/adirondack-thunder-vs-allen-americans-april-7-2024
- Here is the game recap issued by the Adirondack Thunder with all of the details: https://echlthunder.com/news/2024/04/ashbrook-propels-thunder-to-3-2-ot-win-over-americans
- The game on Sunday could prove costly for the Americans as goalie Marco Costantini and forward Grant Hebert went down with injuries. Hopefully with treatment and rest this week one or both can be available for the Tulsa series that starts on Friday. The team will take the day off today and my guess is some players will take a maintenance day on Tuesday and not practice. Four overtime games in five days is tough anytime, but at this time of the season it is brutal.
OTHER COMMENTS
- Kris Myllari played in his 229th regular season game for the Allen Americans yesterday to tie Mike Berube (2010-2014) for #2 all time for career games played by a defenseman. The all time leader is Tyler Ludwig (2011-2015) with 247 games played. In the 15 year history of the Allen franchise just six defensemen have reached the 200 games played milestone:
- 247 - Tyler Ludwig
- 229 - Kris Myllari
- 229 - Mike Berube
- 222 - David Makowski
- 213 - Eric Roy
- 205 - Joel Chouinard
- Here is an update on the Mountain Division standings with games remaining for the four teams fighting for the final two playoff spots:
- 110 points: Kansas City
- 96 points: Idaho
- 67 points: Tulsa - Allen (A) Friday, Allen (A) Saturday, Allen (H) Sunday
- 66 points: Utah - Idaho (A) Friday, Idaho (A) Saturday
- 66 points: Allen - Tulsa (H) Friday, Tulsa (H) Saturday, Tulsa (A) Sunday
- 63 points: Wichita - Rapid City (A) Thursday, Friday, Saturday
- 58 points - Rapid City
- Allen has their fate in their own hands playing Tulsa in the last three games of the season with two of the three at home. Tulsa has a one point lead in the standings (67 vs 66). Allen owns the first and second tiebreakers going into the series, regulation wins (24 vs 23) and regulation plus overtime wins (29 vs 28). If I have this figured out correctly Allen needs to earn one more point than Tulsa in this series to surpass the Oilers and make the playoffs.
Allen has a second way into the playoffs by surpassing Utah who has only two games remaining, both in Idaho. Utah holds the tiebreakers over Allen so the Americans need to earn one more point then Utah this weekend. Utah can earn a maximum of four points. Allen has two of three games at home and can earn six points. You have to like the Americans odds to earn one more point than the Grizzlies.
After all of the struggles to make the playoffs, if Allen beats Tulsa two out of three and Utah gets less than four points in Idaho, the Americans will finish in third place in the division and take on Idaho in the first round of the playoffs.
- If Allen does make the playoffs there will little time to prepare. The Americans play their final game of the regular season in Tulsa on Sunday (April 14), playoffs rosters are due the next day and the first playoff games are on Wednesday (April 17).
- Six players that have played in Allen this season have averaged 1.00 or more points per game, but only two are currently playing. Here are the six with games played in parenthesis:
- 1.38 - Hank Crone (37 games)
- 1.17 - Colton Hargrove (12 games)
- 1.17 - Matt Marcinew (18 games)
- 1.00 - Chaz Smedsrud (6 games)
- 1.00 - Tarun Fizer (10 games)
- 1.00 - Phillippe Daoust (5 games)
Exciting 3 days of hockey coming up.
ReplyDelete7 of 8 points in the last week - phenomenal.
You could see the excitement in the players this weekend and how pumped up they were.
Would be great to get 4-5pts out of the Tulsa series.
Don't see Utah winning 2 against Idaho.
You must be new here. Only negative comments are allowed. J/K :)
DeleteWithout Marco we don’t make playoffs.
ReplyDeleteUnless Belleville sends someone :-)
ReplyDelete13 Games with Allen - Leevi Meriläinen
ReplyDeleteLeevi has qualified.
Merilainen played this evening with Belleville, got the W.
ReplyDeleteFizer also played this evening.
Mandolese was backup goalie.
Mandolese has not qualified for Allen if they make the playoffs.
Will be interesting to see the commitment of Belleville to help Allen. Could speak volumes as to where the relationship goes for 24/25.