The Allen Americans got the monkey of their back with a 6-4 win in Utah last night. The team was led by Easton Brodzinski's hat trick which included him scoring the first and last goal of the game. He scored unassisted 101 seconds after the opening puck drop and unassisted 25 seconds before the final buzzer. It was Brodzinski's second professional hat trick. His first was also in Utah, last December, in a 5-3 Allen win. The other great performance was by goalie Dylan Wells, who had a 40 save performance.
-The win doesn't mean the team has everything turned around, but any win on the road can be a step in the right direction. With this one win the Americans moved from last place in the ECHL in points to a tie for 25th. They still have a hole to dig out of, but last night was a small ray of light.
- Allen scored first early in the opening period and finally the odds worked in its favor. The Americans had scored first the last two games, but still lost. Last night the 75% odds of winning when scoring the first goal proved true.
- Allen scored three times in the first period on goals by Brodzinski, Watts and Crnkovic and took a 3-1 lead after the first period. Allen never trailed the rest of the game. A big part of the win was winning the special teams battle. Both teams had three power play opportunities after Utah had eight and Allen four in the Americans loss on Friday. Allen not only stayed out of the penalty box, the Americans were 2-3 on the power play while Utah was 1-3. The two power play goals were a first this season and the first power play goal in the last five games.
- One stat that sticks out is the shots. The official count was 44-22, but see the coach's comments below. The 44 shots led to four goals and four goals allowed is too many even though it is fewer than Allen's last place average goals allowed of 5.83 per game.
- Goal scorers for the Americans were Easton Brodzinski (3,4,5), Brayden Watts (2), Kyle Crnkovic (2) and Riley Ginnell (1). Here are the video highlights: https://echl.com/videos/allen-americans-vs-utah-grizzlies-nov-2-2024
- If you want a goal by goal breakdown of the game here is the game recap issued by Utah: https://utahgrizzlies.com/news/2024/11/americans-defeat-grizzlies-6-4-at-maverik-center
COACH'S COMMENTS
I had the chance to ask coach Adams a few of questions after the game. Here is what he had to say:
Q: Are you concerned about the shot discrepancy?
A: No, I am not for two reasons, Utah throws a lot of pucks at the net and both nights we had a lot more shots than we were given credit for.
Q: You made some line changes tonight and scored six goals. Did you like what you saw from the line combinations?
A: The changes didn't last very long as we lost Duarte for the first two periods and had to change them up. We were able to go with the new lines after Duarte returned from the hospital in the third period. I thought the third period might have been our best period of the year.
Q: Any other thoughts on the team or players?
A: I challenged all of them to compete harder tonight and everyone did. Everyone who played tonight made a contribution and it was a great team win. Wells made some big saves for us and it is always great when a guy like Brodzinski gets a hat trick.
- The Americans are now off until Friday when they play at Wichita before traveling back to Allen for a game against Tulsa on Saturday. Wichita has won five straight games and plays again this afternoon in Rapid City.
BLOG COMMENTS
For those of you that have been following the blog for a long time you know I have always considered it a safe place for everyone to share their opinions about everything Allen Americans. The only posts I delete are personal attacks and even then I have let a lot go. Recently the comments have gotten out of hand and I feel compelled to make a few changes.
Impersonating someone else is not okay, even if it is done in jest. It is totally inappropriate and any posts with a member of the staff's name (whole or partial) as the author has been removed. Do not use somebody else's name as your author. This just started happening in the last few days and it has to stop.
The Allen Americans organization is divided into two parts, business operations and hockey operations. While there isn't a bright line between the two organizations they are run separately. Hockey operations is pretty much self explanatory, the on ice product. Business operations includes broadcasting, communications, fan engagement, marketing, sales, service and merchandising.
My blog has always been 95% about the on ice product. I have stayed away, for the most part, topics related to the business operations/front office. However, the comments on the blog have become more and more about the business operations side of the organization. I spend enough time researching, writing, interviewing, talking to sources, players, coaches and communicating with fans, I don't want to add hours as the comment police to my duties as it is no fun and a slippery slope.
Some have suggested to me I block those that make comments as anonymous, but I understand those that don't want their name out in the public. It does make it impossible to tell if certain comments are the view of many readers, or as I expect, a handful of anonymous authors are posting the majority of the anonymous comments. I don't plan on requiring an authors name of some type to post a comments. However, it would be nice if everyone created an author "handle" as some of you have done.
What I would ask is you keep your comments in the blog more about the on ice product than the business operations. At the end of September I asked team president, Jonny Mydra, about his willingness to answer any questions/suggestions you have. Though he is extremely busy dealing with the Zawyer transition and the loss of the Chief Operation Officer, he graciously agreed to have you email your questions directly to him. Thus far, since the end of September he has received no emails from this offer. Jonny is very responsive to emails so if you have a question/feedback and can't get the answer elsewhere, send Jonny an email at jm@allenamericans.com.
From this point forward, I will be deleting many more comments that relate to the business operations part of the organization (broadcasting, in game entertainment, team store, etc) If you have those issues and really want to solve problems, email Jonny Mydra.
I hope the blog comments can still be a place for an active dialogue about the on ice product, no matter your opinion. Thanks, Barry
DID YOU KNOW: ECHL Stats post today. FYI, Allen's record is 1-4-1-0 after six games. Last season after six games Allen's record was 2-4-0-0.
