Allen Wins, Schaafsma Scores, Governor's Cup Odds

 Schaafsma Scores Game Winner in Overtime photo by chlphotos.com

The Americans snatched victory from the jaws of defeat last night with a 3-2 win over Rapid City when Jamie Schaafsma scored at the 1:04 mark of overtime. The Americans blew a two goal lead by giving up two goals in the last four minutes of the game. Makes the long bus ride home a much better experience. I say long bus ride home because they lose an hour by switching from Mountain to Central time, an hour because of daylight savings starting, some iffy weather on the way as well as the close to 1100 miles they have to travel. Combine all of that and Tommy Daniel's estimate is an arrival in Allen around 10:00 PM Sunday evening. Feel sorry for Brian McMillin who had the pleasure of the long bus ride and didn't play in either game this weekend. Hope the bus ride doesn't make his injury worse.

- One of the differences last night was the Americans came out strong in the first period not only getting a goal but out shooting the Rush 12-7.

- Same old song on special teams as the penalty kill unit was outstanding as the Rush had no goals on six opportunities. The #1 penalty kill unit in the CHL raised its percentage to 86.69%. The power play continued its ineptness going 0-6. In the last ten games the power play is at 7.14% (4-56) and the PPSSL (power play since Skinner left) has dropped to 10.59%.

- The Americans got the first and second star of the game with Schaafsma number one and Kerbashian number two. Jamie is fourth in the Oakley 3 stars of the game point standings and is only one point out of second.

- Aaron Dell continues to lead the CHL in GAA at 2.17 and save percentage at .924. He is also moving up the leader board in number of wins as his 19 victories rank him 4th in the CHL.

Aaron Dell Leads the CHL in GAA at 2.17 -  photo by chlphotos.com

 - The battle for first place comes down to the last eight games for the Americans. Their fate will most likely come down to head to head battles with Wichita and Texas. Allen has one game in hand over Wichita (that will increase to two today as Wichita plays Missouri this afternoon) and two games in hand over Ft. Worth.

- Wichita has seven games remaining with five of them on the road. They play Allen twice with one on the road (3/19) and one at home (3/22). They do not play Ft. Worth.

- Fort Worth has six games left all against Allen and Arizona. They play their last two home games March 15 & 16 against Allen and then play Allen for a third time in a row on the 17th at the AEC. They finish the season with three games on the road all against Arizona.

- Allen has eight games remaining with four at home and four on the road. If you look at games in hand and home versus road games Allen seems to have the advantage. However, the Americans have the toughest schedule as five of their remaining games are against Ft. Worth (3) and Wichita (2) and three of the five are on the road.

- As they say the ball is in their court or should it be the puck is in their rink. The Governor's Cup will be decided by how the Americans do against their two closest competitors. They don't need help from anyone else, they need to take care of business themselves.  If you are in the North Texas area I would not miss the next three home games as we have Arizona with the return of Kip Brennan on March 12, Fort Worth on March 17 and Wichita on March 19. To add to the excitement the Fort Worth game on the 17th will be the third day in a row we have played the Brahmas.