- The game tonight will be the seventh and last time these two teams will meet this year. Missouri has a 4-2 advantage in the previous six games. Allen did win in Missouri the last time these teams played (February 25) by a score of 4-1.
- Special teams are always important but in the game tonight it will almost certainly be the deciding factor. If the Americans continue the trend of giving to their opponent more power plays than they receive it will spell trouble against the #1 power play in the league. The Mavericks also have the #1 penalty kill percentage in the CHL.
- Allen special teams are ranked #5 on the power play and #6 on the penalty kill.
- The referee for the game tonight is Jake Brenk, a familiar name to the Americans, as he has had many controversial Allen games this year.
- Scoring the first goal is a good predictor of the outcome of the game as both of these teams have excellent records when scoring the first goal.
- And the Americans don't want to be behind after the second period as Missouri is 26-1-1 when leading after two periods.
- Looking at goals scored by period for the season Missouri outscores it opponents in every period. Allen out scores its opponents by a large margin in the second period (73-51) but gets outscored in the third period (60-64).
Here is the team comparison:
COMPARISONS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Missouri Mavericks Allen Americans
RESULT OF LAST GAME WIN 5-2 vs QDC WIN 6-4 vs ARZ
GAMES PLAYED 54 53
RECORD 36-16-2 31-18-4
POINTS 74 66
HOME RECORD 16-8-2 16-8-3
AWAY RECORD 20-8-0 15-10-1
SHO RECORD 2-1 4-3
LAST 10 GAMES 7-3-0 5-5-0
LAST 5 GAMES 3-2-0 5-0-0
OCTOBER 4-0-0 5-0-1
NOVEMBER 8-3-1 7-6-0
DECEMBER 8-4-0 5-4-1
JANUARY 5-5-1 8-1-2
FEBRUARY 9-4-0 5-7-0
MARCH 2-0-0 1-0-0
SCORING FIRST 21-6-2 18-6-3
LEADING AFTER 1ST 18-5-0 13-6-0
LEADING AFTER 2ND 26-1-1 19-2-3
TIED AFTER 1ST 9-2-2 10-4-3
TIED AFTER 2ND 7-4-1 10-4-1
TRAILING AFTER 1ST 9-9-0 8-8-1
TRAILING AFTER 2ND 3-11-0 2-12-0
WHEN OUTSHOOTING OPPONENT 19-8-0 14-10-1
1 - GOAL GAMES 13-5-2 13-3-4
GOALS FOR PER GAME 3.59 3.66
GOALS AGAINST PER GAME 2.81 3.25
SHOTS FOR PER GAME 30.81 33.23
SHOTS AGAINST PER GAME 31.22 32.74
POWER PLAY RECORD 48 - 214 22.4% 50 - 266 18.8%
PENALTY KILLING RECORD 30 - 225 86.7% 50 - 284 82.4%
SH GOALS FOR 10 9
SH GOALS AGAINST 4 8
PIM AVERAGE 16.20 23.25
SCORING BY PERIODS 1ST 2ND 3RD OT TOTAL
Missouri 56 64 72 2 194
Opponents 44 49 57 2 152
Allen 56 73 60 5 194
Opponents 53 51 64 4 172
- Look for Bryan Pitton to get the start in goal tonight. Eric Levine should get his first start for the Americans either Saturday or Sunday in St. Charles.
- No update any players coming in to help out the depleted defense. Coach Martinson has identified some guys who are playing in Europe that could help but the leagues in Europe are just finishing their seasons so nothing is imminent.
- It was a tough day at the Minnesota High School Hockey tournament yesterday as all three teams with a connection to the Allen Americans lost in the first round of the eight team tournament. Brian McMillin's high school (Roseau Rams) lost 2-1 in overtime in the best game of the day. Phil Fox's high school (Stillwater Ponies) was trounced 6-1 by by perennial power house Edina, who is coached by former Minnesota North Star player Curt Giles. And the star for Edina with four goals was Tyler Nanne, the grandson of Lou Nanne who played for the North Stars and was also general manager of the team before they moved to Dallas. Mike Montgomery who played for Allen last year also had his high school team (Centennial Cougars) in the state tournament and they also lost in the first round. The first round losers now compete for a consolation championship as Centennial will play Roseau and Stillwater will play Duluth East so the guys still have something to cheer for. And as a reminder of how big this tournament is, the opening night crowd was just under 18,000 and the TV broadcasters for this high school tournament were national sportscaster Gary Thorne (MLB,NHL,ESPN,Fox) and Lou Nanne.
- Phil Fox never got the chance to play in the state tournament as Stillwater made the tournament for the first time in school history this year. They had two huge upsets along the way just to make the state tournament. When he was a senior, Brian McMillin played in the state tournament in 2006 but his team lost in the first round. Brian did score two goals. His Roseau team came back in 2007 and won the state championship. Mike Montgomery played in the state tournament in 2004 and had the ultimate thrill as his team (Centennial Cougars) not only won the state championship, Mike scored the only goal in the championship game.
- Norovirus has attacked nearly half of the roster of the St. Charles Chill hockey team.
The team got sick after a charity bowling event at Harvest Lanes Monday night. Other people attending a party at the same bowling alley on Saturday also got sick.
The St. Charles Health Department suspects they all have the norovirus. The symptoms include nausea and fever. It's highly contagious and most often connected to illness on cruise ships.
The hockey team isn't practicing, and hope they are better before the next game, which is scheduled for Saturday against the Allen Americans.
"I'm such a wimp because I had to call it quits in the middle of a broadcast last night (Wednesday) and then I find out three guys are toughing through it in the middle of the hockey game, you know what I mean," said Justin Troop, manager of communications for the St. Charles Chill.
DID YOU KNOW: The Minnesota High School Hockey tournament will draw as many people this weekend as the CHL average attendance for the entire year.
Prayers & a speedy recovery for the St Charles team & staff.
ReplyDeletePrayers for a win tonight, the St. Charles Chill, and hope our guys don't catch it! Hope they are using plenty of Lysol.
ReplyDelete