The Allen Americans won their sixth straight game last night, defeating Tulsa on the road by a score of 4-1. The win, combined with a Tahoe loss in Wichita, moved the Americans into third place in the Mountain Division (by points percentage).
- The Americans scored the first goal of the game, but it took until there were nine seconds left in the second period. Danny Katic scored his 16th goal of the season on the power play to give Allen a 1-0 lead after the second period. The Katic goal was a great sign for two reasons. Allen's record when scoring first is 13-1-2-0 (.875). Even better, Allen's record when leading after the second period is a perfect 14-0-0-0.
- Allen broke the game open in the third period. Danny Katic scored his second goal of the game and 17th of the season at the 9:34 mark. Hank Crone gave Allen a 3-0 lead at 11:56 on the power play, his ninth goal of the season. After Tulsa scored to make the score 3-1, Danny Katic scored into an empty net for his hat trick and the team leading 18th goal of the season. Katic is scoring at a pace that would give him over 50 goals if he played all 72 games in Allen. Danny is #3 in the league in goals (2 behind the leaders), even though he missed nine games when he was called up to Belleville.
- Allen's special teams shone again. The Americans' power play was 2-3, which raised the power play percentage to 21.1%, ranked #4 in the ECHL. The penalty kill was perfect (0-2), which raised the penalty kill percentage to 85.5%, ranked #5 in the ECHL. If you add the two percentages together, the total is 106.6%. A total above 105% is considered excellent special teams play. Only three other ECHL teams (Toledo, Tahoe, South Carolina) meet this standard.
- Here are the game recaps from both teams and the video highlights:
- Allen Americans - "Americans Win Sixth Straight" - https://allenamericans.com/news/2026/01/americans-win-sixth-straight
- Tulsa Oilers - "Oilers Spoil Shutout Late But Unable to Complete Comeback Against Americans" - https://tulsaoilers.com/news/2026/01/oilers-spoil-shut-out-late-but-unable-to-complete-comeback-against-americans
- Video Highlights: https://echl.com/videos/allen-americans-vs-tulsa-oilers-jan-16-2026
- Here is the lineup tonight. The only change from last night is in goal. Parsons gets his first start for Allen since October 24th. Costantini will be the backup:
- It would be nice to end the first half of the season and go into the All-Star break with a win. Allen has six straight wins, and if they get the seventh tonight, it will be the first seven-game win streak since the 2016-17 season.
MARTINSON COMMENTS
"The way Katic is scoring, we need to get him the puck more. He is so good around the net because the puck isn't on his stick very long around the net."
"We had several great chances in the first period with open nets or breakaways, but just couldn't convert."
"Watts got a high stick from behind, and the referees said they didn't see it, so no penalty. Watts went down as soon as he was hit, needed stitches, and chipped a tooth. It was definitely one of those marginal high sticks. He missed the third period.
"Things are going good, but we still need to work on avoiding odd man rushes and breakaways."
"I look at puck possession, and if you are getting outshot, but have the advantage in puck possession, that is not an issue. Also, when you are scoring five or six goals, you are not getting rebound shots."
OTHER COMMENTS
- Here is the odd stat of the day. Allen has beaten Tulsa five straight games, outscoring the Oilers 28-10, but the Americans been outshot by Tulsa in all five games. The Americans have more wins (15) than any team in the league, when they are outshot by their opponents. Allen has been outshot in 63% of its games (22 of 35), with a record of 15-5-2-0 (.727). So much for the idea that you have to take more shots.
- If you have listened to Coach Martinson's pre-game interviews, he has mentioned a couple of times that the power play is better than the current percentage because of a poor start. I decided to break the season into three parts and compute the power play percentage. It shows steady improvement:
- 10.1% - 10 games from October 18 to November 15
- 14.7% - 11 games from November 19 to December 12
- 26.0% - 14 games from December 13 to January 16
- The point a game club is still going strong, and of the six original members, four had points last night. Here is the latest, which is now up to points in the last 14 games:
- 19 points (13G, 6A) - Katic (1.36)
- 18 points (5G, 13A) - Hargrove (1.29)
- 17 points (9G, 8A) - McAuley (1.21)
- 17 points (6G, 11A) - Watts (1.21)
- 17 points (2G, 15A) - Sedley (1.21)
- 17 points (3G, 14A) - Crone (1.21)
- Allen has won 12 of its last 15 games, and averaged 5.33 goals per game in the 12 wins. With all that offense, it is not surprising that Allen players are moving up the ladder of overall leaders in the league. Here is the list from the ECHL daily report:
- #1 - Katic leads the league in shooting percentage (30.0%).
- #1 - Sedley leads the league in power play points (18).
- #1 - Sedley leads the league in power play assists (18).
- #3 - Katiic is #3 in goals (18)
- #3 - Sedley is #3 in assists (26)
- #3 - Crone is #3 in power play assists (13)
- #4 - Crone is #4 in power play points (15)
- #4 - Watts is #4 in points (35)
- #10 - Katic is #10 in points (32)
- #10 - Crone is #10 in points (32)
- Danny Katic's hat trick last night was his second of the season; both were against Tulsa. Allen has a disproportionate share of the hat tricks this season. The Americans have almost 20% of the ECHL hat tricks (6 of 33).
- Harrison Blaisdell vs Rapid City (November 1)
- Mark Duarte vs Wichita (November 5)
- Brayden Watts vs Tulsa (November 9)
- Hank Crone vs Utah (December 3)
- Danny Katic vs Tulsa (December 19)
- Danny Katic vs Tulsa (January 16)
Allen could shatter the all-time record for most hat tricks in a season. There is only one team with more than six. The 2022-23 team had a total of eight hat tricks, led by Hank Crone with three and Colton Hargrove with two.
- It is a big Saturday night in the ECHL with all 30 teams in action. Here is the ECHL Today with all of the previews: https://echl.com/news/2026/01/echl-today-jan-17
- The Mountain Division standings continue to show the top four teams separating themselves from the bottom four teams. Here are the standings by points percentage, with points in parentheses:
- .765 - Kansas City (52 points)
- .681 - Tahoe (49 points)
- .615 - Allen (43 points)
- .608 - Tahoe (45 points)
- .515 - Rapid City (35 points)
- .500 - Wichita (34 points)
- .426 - Utah (29 points)
- .324 - Tulsa (22 points)
DID YOU KNOW: Here are the ECHL leaders in average goals per game (minimum 12 goals). In parentheses is the goal total for a full season (72 games) based on the player’s average, to give you an idea of the pace at which they are scoring goals:
LFG RED!
ReplyDeleteMarty strong!
Martinson = winner. Everywhere he goes.
ReplyDeleteIs FanFest outside or indoors tmrw?
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