Repeat Performance, Lose & Fight, Big Lukin Day

Jarret Lukin had a great day with two year end CHL honors & a goal - photo by chlphotos.com

As the song goes, second verse the same as the first, as the Americans got whipped on the ice (not as bad as last time) but won the end of the game fight (not as bad as last time). Before a standing room only crowd at NYTEX Sports Centre the Brahmas scored four straight goals in the third period to blow open a well played 1-1 game and beat the Americans 5-2. With less than a minute left in the game another brawl broke out. Nothing like last time but there were six fighting majors handed out along with a bunch of other penalties. The end result for the game was 111 minutes in penalties (compared with 200 last time) with all but 14 minutes coming in the third period.

 - Congrats to Jarret Lukin who had a big day by winning two year end awards as the CHL's best penalty killer and also the best defensive forward and then in the game showing some offense by scoring the final goal of the game as #32 got point #32 on the year. It was his 17th goal of the year and he accomplished this in front of his dad and uncle who are here to watch the three games with the Brahmas this weekend.

- Jarret's dad  (Jay) and uncle had traveled all day to get to the game so were not aware of the two CHL awards when Tommy Daniels interviewed them during the first period intermission. It was great radio when Tommy informed  Jay that his son had won not one but two year end awards. You could sense the surprise and pride in Jay's voice.

- There is a YouTube video of the fights at the end of the game: http://youtu.be/uldIe5p9QpI

Garrett Clarke is now the all time leader in penalty minutes in a season -  photo by ScenesByKimberly.com

-  With the 21 penalty minutes Garrett Clarke picked up in the game he becomes the all time single season leader in penalty minutes. His 197 penalty minutes surpasses Brandon Straub's 185 from 2009-2010.

- When I checked the stats on the blog yesterday afternoon I was astounded by the numbers as it was an all time high for page views with over 1000 for the day. When I looked into the detail I found over 700 people came to the blog to read the player profile I had posted about Garrett Clarke on December 6, 2012. Finishing third in the league as the best pound for pound fighter and most annoying player sure got a lot of people interested in reading about Garrett's story. It is a great story so check it out if you haven't read it. You can find it in the archives or at the bottom of the blog page where it lists most popular posts.

- The Americans had trouble generating offense when five on five. They were out shot by Fort Worth in all three periods and only generated  six shots in the first period and didn't get a shot on goal until a power play with five minutes left in the period. In the second period Allen had five shots on goal and the third period nine shots on goal.

- On a positive note the power play was 2 for 6 which is the first time the Americans have had more than one goal on the power play since February 10th  against Tulsa. Two games doesn't make a streak but the Americans are 3-8 on the power play in the last two games. With the success we have had on the power play against Ft. Worth this year (28.9%) look for the power play to continue to do well this weekend.

- While Allen gave up their first power play goal in six games the penalty kill was still great as they killed seven of eight power plays. Their league leading penalty kill percentage increased to 86.80%

- Arizona did Allen a favor by beating Wichita last night 4-3. Allen has a three point lead over Wichita and five point lead over Ft. Worth with a game in hand over both of them.

- Arizona, Denver & Quad Cities are all tied for sixth through eighth place in the standings with 64 points. The number one versus eight  matchup in the first round of the playoffs is not going to be easy no matter which of these teams finishes in eighth place.

 I assume everyone has seen the results of the Best of the Best awards that were announced yesterday so I won't post them here. If you want to see all of the detail you can find it on the CHL web site. I have some thoughts on the results:

- The Ice Angels have won the best cheerleaders/dance team for the last three years but this year they got the highest number of first place votes of all 50 categories. Congrats!!

- Congrats to Wally & Kacee for finishing third in the best training/equipment category. They are always in the top three in this category and if you polled the players they are the best.

- I mentioned earlier Garrett Clarke finished third in the most annoying player category. Did you know as a player Dan Wildfong, coach of the Brahmas, was the winner of this award.

- Darryl Bootland won the award for the best power forward. The Americans won this award last year as well as Bruce Graham was voted best power forward. Bruce also won best stick handler last year.

- Congrats to Tommy Daniels for finishing second in the best broadcaster category after winning the category last year.

- We lost our best logo crown to the new guys in town as the Denver Cutthroats won best logo, an award the Americans have dominated in the past.

- Congrats to Aaron Dell on being selected the best goaltender. If you remember last year we had the unusual happen as the Americans finished second (Marco Cousineau) and third (Rejean Beauchemin) in this category.

- Did you know in their first year of existence (2009-2010)  when the Americans finished second to Rapid City for the President's Cup they did not win a single year end award in any of the player categories.

- The most under appreciated person in this year end award process is announcer Lee Hastings who does an outstanding job and has never finished in the top three. COME ON, MAN!!