Deja Vu All Over Again

Two third period unassisted fast break goals by Chad Painchaud (above) & RG Flath sealed Allen's fate  - photo by chlphotos.com

For the third series in a row the Allen Americans score only one goal in the opening game at home and lose the game. Last night it was the Wichita Thunder who out shot, out played, out hustled, out hit, and yes out scored the Americans 4-1 before a crowd of 4647 at the Allen Event Center (AEC).

Here are my thoughts on the game last night and game two on Thursday at the AEC:

- The Americans came out blazing and had lots of pressure the first part of the opening period and had a couple of great opportunities that they didn't cash in on.  Wichita weathered the storm and the momentum seemed to change midway through the first period when Allen took a "too many men on the ice penalty" followed by a "charging goaltender" penalty. Wichita did not score on either of these power plays but they seemed to switch the momentum in the game.

- Here is how Jason Deitsch described the game: "We didn't play good enough. We had a good start took a few penalties and they grabbed the momentum. We need to get many more shots on net and more traffic in front of their goalie. We need to play a much more physical game on Thursday."

- I mentioned in the blog post yesterday the balanced scoring Wichita is getting in the playoffs as there were six players with three or four goals. After last night they now have one player (Flath) with five goals but the total with 3,4,or 5 goals is now seven. And the first two goals last night were scored by Todd Griffith who got his first two goals of the playoffs. Now that is what I call balanced scoring.

- I aways say special teams will tell the story of most games. Not the case last night as Allen got their only goal (Trevor Ludwig from McMillin and Robinson) on the power play and held Wichita scoreless on their four man advantages. It was even strength where we had all the trouble.

- I thought Wichita really showed how explosive they are on the two unassisted fast break goals in the third period. The first of these two unassisted goals by RG Flath was the back breaker in my opinion. The Americans scored a power play goal to make the score 2-1 and got the crowd back in the game. And then what seems to have happened several times in the playoffs happened again. The opponents scored 23 seconds later to quiet the crowd.

- With the win last night Wichita has won nine straight games which is the longest post season win streak in CHL history.

- For all of the predictions of a penalty fest because of using two referees I thought the referees (Zak Blazic & Peter Tarnaris) did a good job of letting the guys play and decide the game on the ice. You can always quibble with a call here or there but the penalties were even with Wichita having seven infractions for fourteen minutes and Allen with five infractions for ten minutes.

- With the scrum after the game was over and the increased physical play that will happen in game two I would take the over on penalty minutes in game two compared to the 24 minutes in game one.

- I am an admitted homer and proud of it as an original season ticket holder and I will always believe in our guys. With that said I thought all of the talk I heard after the loss from the radio broadcasters to the most ardent fans to the casual fans to the media that we are fine and this series will go like the last two is worrisome to me. In the first series we lost the first game to Denver 2-1 but we out shot them by a margin of 35-16. In the second series against Missouri we lost the first game 5-1 but out shot them by a margin of 37-24. Last night we lost to Wichita 4-1 and they our shot us by a margin of 30-16.

- My point is Wichita is a much better team than we have played thus far and we can't continually get in these must win situations which is what is coming on Thursday.  I still think we will win on Thursday but it will be a much harder task than in the first two series.

- I think another telling statistic that should be of concern is the record of these two teams in the last half of the regular season and the playoffs. Allen has a record of 22-24 for a winning percentage of 48% while Wichita has a record of 29-14 for a winning percentage of 67%.

- With all of this seriousness thought a good way to end the post today was with the following which I found while doing some research yesterday. Did you know there was a CHL franchise in Macon, Georgia from 1996-2001 and the team name was the Macon Whoopee?