Allen Sweeps Wichita with Another Big Comeback, Game Recaps, Video Highlights, Allen Scoring Streaks, 1st Period Defensive Troubles, Duarte News and More

 

Allen finished off the week with a fourth straight win against Wichita yesterday afternoon. The Americans won 7-6 after falling behind 3-0 in the first period. It was the second time in this four-game series that Allen came back from a 3-0 first-period deficit. It was also the first time since 2021 that Allen has swept a four-game series in five days against the same team. From April 7-11 in 2021, Allen beat Kansas City four straight, all four games were at home.

 

- Wichita scored two goals in 12 seconds early in the first period (2:42 & 2:54) and added a third goal at the 8:41 mark on the fifth shot of the game. At that point, it looked like Allen had run out of gas in the last game of a long week, as happened frequently earlier in the season. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Allen came roaring back, scoring twice (Danny Katic & Spencer Asuchak) before the first period ended to go into the locker room after the first period trailing 3-2. 

 

- In the second period, Wichita scored first to take a 4-2 lead at the 4:11 mark. Allen responded just 11 seconds later (Brayden Watts), and then the Americans exploded for three more second-period goals (Gursoy, McAuley, Hargrove) to take a 6-4 lead into the second intermission. At that point, you had to like the Americans' odds; their record when leading after the second period was a perfect 12-0-0-0.  Allen did manage to improve that record to 13-0-0-0, but it wasn't easy.

 

- Wichita scored just 21 seconds into the third period to cut Allen's lead to 6-5, and two minutes later (3:38) tied the score 6-6, and it was game on. The Americans' potent offense prevailed when Brad Morrison scored the game-winner to make the final score 7-6. Brad was the seventh different player to score. 

 

- Once again, the goal scorers for Allen were Danny Katic (15), Spencer Asuchak (8), Brayden Watts (15), Kevin Gursoy (1), Colby McAuley (12), Colton Hargrove (8), Brad Morrison (4). Watts and Blaisdell had three assists, and Crone had two. Here are the video highlights with all of the goals and some great saves when Wichita pulled the goalie for an extra attacker: https://echl.com/videos/allen-americans-vs-wichita-thunder-jan-11-2026 

 

Here are the game recaps with more goal-by-goal details:

• Allen Americans - "Americans Win Wild Game in Wichita" - https://allenamericans.com/news/2026/01/americans-win-wild-game-in-wichita
• Wichita Thunder - "Thunder Drops High Scoring Sunday Matinee to Allen" - https://wichitathunder.com/news/2026/01/thunder-drops-high-scoring-sunday-matinee-to-allen 

 

 

OTHER COMMENTS 

 

- Mark Duarte has been released from his tryout agreement (PTO) by the Belleville Senators, but is not headed back to Allen. I haven't confirmed this, but I expect this is the first step in Duarte signing a standard player contract (SPC) in Belleville. PTOs are for a maximum of 25 games, which Duarte has reached, but nothing is preventing Belleville from signing him to another PTO. If Duarte does get signed to an SPC by Belleville, that would be great news for Mark and the Allen Americans.

 

 

 

- Allen scored 22 goals in the four-game sweep of Wichita, averaging 5.5 goals per game. Here are the point totals for the six players who tallied at least one point in all four games:

 

• 7 points (3G, 4A) Colton Hargrove
• 7 points (1G, 6A) - Sam Sedley
• 7 points (3G, 4A) - Brayden Watts
• 6 points (1G, 5A) - Spencer Asuchak
• 5 points (3G, 2A) - Danny Katic
• 4 points (4G, 0A) - Colby McAuley

Here are the players who scored in three of the four games:

• 7 points (1G, 6A) - Hank Crone
• 5 points (0G, 5A) - Harrison Blaisdell 
• 4 points (2G, 2A) - Brad Morrison  

 

 

 

- The six players who have been averaging a point a game for the last month all hit the scoreboard again yesterday. Including this list in the blog has guaranteed they will all score in the next game. I am not going to jinx this by omitting the list. Here is the updated list of players averaging a point or more per game, which is now up to the last 13 games. With three assists yesterday, Blaisdell has now made the list. With a goal and an assist yesterday, Asuchak is just one point from the list. Spencer has 12 points (5G, 7A) in the last 13 games:

• 17 points (9G, 8A) - McAuley (1.31)
• 17 points (6G, 11A) - Watts (1.31)  
• 16 points (5G, 11A) - Hargrove (1.23)
• 16 points (10G, 6A) - Katic (1.23)
• 16 points (2G, 14A) - Sedley (1.23)    
• 15 points (2G, 13A) - Crone (1.15)
• 13 points (5G, 7A) - Blaisdell (1.00) 

 

- Clearly, Allen has the hottest offense in the league right now. Over the last 13-game stretch, the Americans have averaged 4.69 goals per game. If you look at the 10 games Allen has won in this 13-game stretch, they have averaged 5.60 goals per game. In a game in Tahoe on January 4, Allen had 63 shots on goal, a franchise record and the most shots in a game in the ECHL this season by six shots.

 

- With all of the offense, Allen needs to clean up some things on the defensive end of the ice, especially in the first period. Here are Allen's goals for and against, plus goal differential by period:

• 1st Period
• 32 Goals scored
• 39 Goals allowed
• -7 Goals differential

• 2nd Period
• 47 Goals scored
• 33 Goals allowed
• +14 Goal differential

• 3rd period
• 42 Goals scored
• 34 Goals allowed
• +8 Goals differential 

 

- Next up for the Americans are two games in Tulsa on Friday and Saturday, followed by the All-Star game on Monday. Allen players will be split up between the two All-Star teams, Stars and Stripes. A draft will determine which All-Stars go to each team. Here are some other details:

• The game will feature three 5-on-5 regulation periods. 
• A skills competition will precede each period.
• The skills competition includes fastest skater, hardest shot, and accuracy shooting.
• The winning team in each skills competition earns a power play opportunity to start the next period.

 

 - A gap has started to appear between the top four teams in the Mountain Division and the bottom four teams after the games last week. Kansas City has also started to pull away from the rest of the division. The Mavericks have won nine straight games. Here are the standings by points, with points percentage in parentheses:

• 50 points - Kansas City (758)
• 45 points - Idaho (.662)
• 45 points - Tahoe (.625)
• 41 points - Allen (.603)
• ---------------------------------
• 34 points - Rapid City (.515)
• 32 points - Wichita (.485)
• 29 points - Utah (.439)
• 22 points - Tulsa (.333)

 

 

DID YOU KNOW: Here is a breakdown of the ECHL by current points percentage categories, with one-word descriptions. Do you agree? Make your case. The 2026 Kelly Cup champion will definitely come from the top two categories and very likely from the Elite group:

 

Elite

.700-.773: Wheeling, Florida, Atlanta, Toledo, Kansas City

 

Strong

.600-.699: Idaho, Fort Wayne, South Carolina, Adirondack, Tahoe, Allen

 

Average

.500-.599: Maine, Bloomington, Reading, Savannah, Indy, Cincinnati, Rapid City, Greenville

 

Weak

.400-.499: Wichita, Worcester, Trois Riviéres, Jacksonville, Kalamazoo, Utah, Orlando

 

Dire

.313-.399: Norfolk, Greensboro, Tulsa, Iowa