Idaho owned the Allen Americans for the last two regular seasons, 6-0-0-1 this season and 6-0-0-0 last season. Regular-season frustration turned into playoff domination when the Allen beat the Steelheads 6-3 last night and eliminated Idaho 4-1. The Americans will now wait for the winner of the Kansas City vs Tahoe series to see their opponent for the Division Finals.
- Resilience and refusal to allow Idaho to gain momentum is the storyline of the win last night. Three times Allen fell behind (1-0, 2-1, 3-2) and three times they answered. Danny Katic scored to tie the game 1-1, and Brayden Watts scored to tie the score 2-2.
- The emotional turning point came with seven seconds remaining in the second period when Allen tied the score 3-3. Coach Martinson put Spencer Asuchak out with Hargrove and McAuley to take an offensive zone faceoff with 18 seconds remaining. Spencer has been one of the best faceoff players in the ECHL for years. He won the draw and went to the front of the net along with Hargrove. McAuley took a shot from the high slot, and it went in off Asuchak into the net to tie the score 3-3. If you watch the replay, notice all the traffic in front of the net. The goal was an emotional gut punch to Idaho that lifted the Americans and drained the building. That late-period goal proved to be the backbreaker.
- The Americans were not going to be denied in the third period. As one player texted me, "There was never a doubt on our bench that we were going to get it done." Mark Duarte gave Allen the lead (4-3) at 8:20, Danny Katic scored an insurance power-play goal at 14:38, and tallied his fourth hat trick of the season with an empty-net goal at 15:54 to make the final score 6-3.
- Goal scorers for Allen were Katic (3,4,5), Watts (4), Asuchak (1), and Duarte (1). Sedley had three assists, McAuley two. The home team is supposed to post highlights to the ECHL website, but for some reason, Idaho hasn't done that.
- Here are the game recaps from both teams:
MARTINSON COMMENTS
I had a chance to check in with Coach Martinson this morning as he was celebrating the victory by working out at the fitness center. He was on the bike as he shared these thoughts:
"Going into this series, we were playing good hockey and added some first-line players from Belleville We will be even better in the next round as the team has more time to work together."
"The goal at the end of the second period was a real backbreaker. The plan worked great. I put Asuchak out to win the draw, and then we had big bodies going to the net. Asuchak and Hargrove were both in front of the net, screening the goalie. When those two guys get set up in front, you can't move them. After five games in six days, Idaho gave up the lead with seven seconds left in the period. All of the momentum swung to us on that goal.
"Everybody played well, but the guys you count on in an elimination game really stepped up."
"We made some adjustments to the power play, and it worked for two goals. We had some things we wanted to try, and the guys did a great job incorporating those ideas."
"Our power play will get better for the next round because we will have time to work on it over the next 10 days. We haven't had time to work on the power play very much with all the new guys."
"With so much time before the start of round two, there is a need to balance rest and practice. I will talk to the strength and conditioning coach in Ottawa, who is an expert on dealing with rest, conditioning, and recovery, and we will come up with a schedule. There will be one day with a competitive game for lunch, where the players pick the teams. I will have the players run practice by themselves without me one day, with all new drills. I have learned over the years that you want to stay active but not overwork the players. There is a lot more science in conditioning and recovery now than when I played. Getting advice from the Ottawa strength and conditioning coach, a real expert in the field, will drive our schedule."
"It is fun to see a group of guys, many of them have not played with each other very much, come together and excel. It is a fun group of guys to coach. It was nice going into the locker room after the game last night and seeing them enjoying themselves."
OTHER COMMENTS
- The Americans will have to wait up to 10 days for the start of the second round. The league sets the start and end dates for each series, and the participating teams must determine how to fit up to seven games within that time frame. The earliest the second round can start is May 8th. Kansas City is leading Tahoe 2-0 with the next three games in Tahoe (tonight, Thursday, and Saturday). If the series goes past five games, the sixth and seventh games, if necessary, would be in Kansas City on Monday, May 4th, and Wednesday, May 6.
I will go out on a limb and make the assumption that Kansas City, the best team in the ECHL during the regular season, will win this series against Tahoe, the 16th-ranked team during the regular season. That would mean the Kansas City vs Allen series, which will be a 2-3-2 series, would start in Kansas City. Since the series can't begin before May 8, it is likely the first two games will be the weekend of the 8th. The teams would then travel to Allen for games 3, 4, and 5. Since teams try to maximize weekend games, you could expect the Allen home games to include a couple of weekend games. For sure, Allen will have to play its three home games between May 12 (Tuesday) and May 17 (Sunday).
- Danny Katic's hat trick last night covers a lot of milestones.
- First-ever playoff hat trick.
- Fourth hat trick this season, all-time single-season record.
- 11th team hat trick this season, breaking the all-time record of 8.
- Danny's four hat tricks also tie him for Allen's career hat tricks with Costello and Crone.
- Here is the updated list of hat tricks this season.
- 4 - Danny Katic
- 3 - Harrison Blaisdell
- 1 - Hank Crone
- 1 - Mark Duarte
- 1 - Colton Hargrove
- 1 - Brayden Watts
- During his Allen coaching career, Steve Martinson has been involved in 21 playoff series. His record after the series win last night is 17-4, with four championships.
- Six of the seven first-round playoff series still being contested are in action tonight. South Carolina vs Atlanta is idle, and Allen has already advanced. Toledo is leading Bloomington 3-0 and is the only team that can punch its ticket to the second round tonight. Here is the ECHL Today with the previews: https://echl.com/news/2026/04/echl-today-april-29
- Danny Katic leads the playoffs in points with 10 (5G, 5A). Brayden Watts is second with eight points (4G, 4A) and has at least one point in all five playoff games. Sam Sedley leads all defensemen with six points (1G, 5A).
DID YOU KNOW: Nine playoff teams don’t have playoff-eligible players in the AHL (ADK, ALN, BLM, FLA, FW, IND, REA, SAV, TOL). Here are the six teams that are waiting for players once their affiliates are eliminated from the playoffs. The first number is the number of players on the playoff-eligible list. The second number is the number of ECHL slots being saved for a playoff-eligible player. For example, Wheeling has six playoff-eligible players in the AHL, but can only add one when they become available.
Wheeling, 6 players, 1 slot
Kansas City, 5 players, 4 slots
South Carolina, 4 players, 1 slot
Atlanta, 2 players, 1 slot
Maine, 1 player, 0 slots (already at max 25 player roster)
Tahoe, 1 player, 1 slot
Idaho, which was eliminated by Allen last night, had one slot saved for their top goalie, but he never became available. The Steelheads ended up playing one goalie for five games in six days and lost the series 4-1.
