After a week off between games and plenty of practice time, the Allen Americans should be ready to go tonight when the Tulsa Oilers invade the CUTX Event Center. It will be Allen's third straight game against the Oilers, having lost twice in Tulsa last weekend (4-1 and 4-3 in overtime).
- Tulsa arrives in Allen with a record of 6-4-0-0 (.600) and is on a five-game win streak. Allen's record is 4-3-2-0 (.556), and the Americans have lost two straight. Here is a statistical comparison between the two
teams.
- Goals scored average: Allen (2.9) - Tulsa (2.9)
- Goals allowed average: Allen (3.2) - Tulsa (3.0)
- Shots for average: Allen (31.2) - Tulsa (28.2)
- Shots against average: Allen (37.4) - Tulsa (37.5)
- Power play percentage: Allen (12.5%) - Tulsa (8.3%)
- Penalty kill percentage: Allen (90.2%) - Tulsa (82.9%)
- Allen has averaged 2.89 goals per game over its first nine games, but if you look behind this stat the Americans have scored 12 goals in two games and a total of 14 goals in the other seven games. Here is a breakdown of the number of goals scored in the first nine games and the record:
- 6 goals: 2-0-0-0
- 3 goals: 2-0-1-0
- 2 goals: 0-1-0-0
- 1 goal: 0-2-1-0
Allen's record when scoring 3+ goals is 4-0-1-0, and when scoring two or fewer goals, it is 0-3-1-0. The old adage of the first team to three goals wins is pretty solid.
- Based on what I observed at practice this week, the lines for the game tonight will be as follows. Lineups can always change, but here are the likely lines to start the game:
- McAuley-Gildon-Caron
- Crone-Asuchak-Watts
- Morrison-Hargrove-Katic
- Allen will be without Mark Duarte, who was loaned to Belleville earlier this week. Mark has played in both Belleville games since being loaned, which were road wins over Rochester and Utica. Mark hasn't found the score sheet yet, but I have heard he's taking shifts and killing penalties. Belleville did not allow a power-play goal (0-6) in the two wins. Belleville plays again tonight in Syracuse.
- The game tonight will be a one-referee game, with Tyler Hascall (#8) scheduled. The linesmen will be Michael Miggins (#47) and Aaron Schacht (#51).
RILEY GILL
- I know everyone was excited to hear that Riley Gill will be going into the ECHL Hall of Fame when Allen hosts the All-Star Classic on January 19. The HOF induction luncheon will be at the Marriott Courtyard (next to CUTX Event Center) at noon. If you are interested in attending the banquet/luncheon, you can get tickets at https://www.gofevo.com/event/HOF26 (price is $75).
Riley is the sixth goaltender to enter the ECHL Hall of Fame. The average wait time for selection has been about 10 years, with a range of 4-17 years.
I won't restate all of Riley's stats, but here are a handful of them from when I was making the case that it was time to put Gill in the Hall of Fame back in 2022. All of these records have since been tied or broken, but when Riley retired, he stood alone:
Riley owns almost every Allen goalie record, both regular season and playoffs, and several ECHL all-time playoff records. Unfortunately, his career was cut short when he was injured in his second game of the 2017-18 season on October 21, 2017. That would end up being the last game of his illustrious pro career.
This is from the blog in 2022 - In my view, Riley is a lock to become an ECHL Hall of Famer, and it is time to put him in. Here are the ECHL career goalie records that Riley ranks #1 all-time:
90 - most playoff game appearances: Allen (51), Reading (20), Kalamazoo (19).
5094 - most playoff minutes played: Allen (2771), Reading (1274), Kalamazoo (1049)
53 - most playoff wins: Allen (30), Reading (14), Kalamazoo (9)
11 - most wins in Kelly Cup finals: Allen (7), Reading (4)
Riley played in three Kelly Cup finals and won three Kelly Cups!
- In addition to being a great hockey player, Riley is the type of guy who excels at everything he tries. He was one of the best golfers in the state of Minnesota when he was in high school. I saw a story years ago about Riley making a visit to a Division III college in Minneapolis in hopes of playing college hockey and golf. It turned out the golf coach wanted him, but the hockey coach didn't have room. Gill decided to play junior hockey in Texarkana, TX (his coach was Tampa Bay Lightning Coach Jon Cooper). Based on his play in Texarkana, Riley earned a scholarship to Western Michigan University.
Riley was also the best fisherman on the Americans, something I witnessed many times firsthand. I met Riley in 2014 when he first arrived in Allen along with Aaron Gens, another great fisherman. It didn't take long for the three of us, all avid fishermen from Minnesota, to strike up a friendship. We spent many afternoons fishing for crappies in the 13-acre pond, 150 yards out my back door at Heritage Ranch.
This is from a blog post in 2021: Yesterday, Riley was in a huge bass fishing tournament on Lake Fork. There were 1700 fishermen in the tournament, with prize money of $20,000 being paid out for the 10 biggest fish being weighed in every hour. That's right, $20,000 per hour for seven hours. Riley won first place for the 1:00 pm weigh-in with a 9.37-pound bass. For his big catch (on a super fluke for you bass fishermen), Riley earned $15,000. Now that is a good day fishing!
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| Riley Gill's 9.37 pound bass wins 1st place in Mega Bass Tournament |
- After hockey, Riley and his wife Angie settled in the DFW area. They live in Melissa with their three sons. The Gills own a very successful construction company, Riley Gill's Construction. His dad was a home developer, so he grew up around the business and worked construction during the summers.
Riley is also able to do some coaching with Allen High School.
OTHER COMMENTS
- It has been a long time since every ECHL team was in action on a Saturday night, but all 30 teams play tonight. One thing to watch is whether the three .800+ teams (Wheeling, Atlanta, Fort Wayne) can keep up the torrid pace. Here is the ECHL Today with all of the previews: https://echl.com/news/2025/11/echl-today-nov-15
- Just a reminder, I have reactivated the Allen Americans Blog YouTube channel. If you are on YouTube, do me a favor and subscribe to the channel. There are a couple of new videos I posted about enforcer Jeremy Yablonski, who visited practice yesterday to work with a couple of players. I will talk tomorrow about spending time with Yablonski and Martinson, talking about fighting and leadership. It was a fascinating experience. I will also post the videos here tomorrow.
DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about extra time games. For the Americans, 22.2% (2 of 9) of their games have gone past regulation, both decided in overtime.
28.4% of all NHL games this season have gone past regulation, higher than the all-time NHL record of 25% set in 2013-14. How does the NHL's 28.4% compare to the ECHL and AHL percentages this season?
$75 to see Giller go into the hall is a good deal. I will be going and hope to see a lot of other fans too!
ReplyDeleteThank you for such a wonderful write-up on Riley. He is my nephew and Godson, and I am so proud of him and his accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Gill!
ReplyDeleteSide note, Why oh why did they change the font on the Americans wordmark jersey?! Reminds me of some late 90s early 2000s bubbly Clipart font. Bring back the diagonal!
Need to fix the Flo issues
ReplyDeleteGame unavailable until 5mins into the 2nd period.
Despite the score, Allen played some phenomenal hockey in the 1st period last night.
It’s not Flo is Allen feed to Flo. This does need to be fixed by Allen. Barry you have the inside scoop, what’s the problem and why won’t the team fix the issue?
DeletePretty easy guess what amateur is responsible for allen feed being fouled up.
ReplyDelete