Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Party is Over, Stats Leaders, Denver Blog, Upcoming Milestones, Luongo/CHL Trade

The party is over as the Allen Americans come back from a three day break and will practice today and tomorrow before they leave for Missouri after practice on Thursday. Hopefully the three days rest allowed some guys to get healed up enough to participate in practice. The games this weekend will start a series of three games in three days weekends that will determine the playoff seeding for the Americans. Rapid City beat Wichita last night  to vault back into second place in the standings. Missouri sits comfortably in first place with 72 points and a five point lead on Rapid City who has 67 points. Allen and Denver are tied for third with 66 points. Of their 13 remaining games Allen has three with Denver, two with Rapid City and one with Missouri so clearly their fate is in their own hands.

- Playing three games in three days as the Americans will be doing the next three weekend is always difficult especially if travel is involved. Took a look at how Allen has performed in these situations so far this year and there is no pattern whatsoever. Allen has played three games in three days five times this year with the following results: 2-1, 1-2, 2-1, 3-0, & 0-3. If you look at the results in just the third games in these five three in three weekends Allen's record is 3-2.

- Here are the team leaders 53 games into a 66 game season. The "ironmen" are down to four with Asuchak, Berube, Lavoie & Tetrault the only players to play in all 53 games.

Goals: Lavoie (24), Lessard (22), Ludwig (17)
Assists: Lavoie (46), Kerbashian (33), Schaafsma (26)
Points: Lavoie (70), Lessard (44), Ludwig (41)
Plus/Minus: Berube (+19), Schaafsma (+17), Ludwig (+13)
Penalty Minutes: Klotz (216), Hendrikx (114), Bootland (105)
Power Play Goals: Ludwig (10), Lessard (7), Tetrault (6)
Power Play Assists: Lavoie (17), Kerbashian (12), Ludwig (10)
Shorthanded Goals: Asuchak (4), five tied with one
Game Winning Goals: Kerbashian (5), Lavoie & Lessard (4)
Shots: Lessard (161), Lavoie (154), Hanson (135)
Shooting Percentage: Lavoie & Fox (15.6%), Klotz (15%)
Goals Against Average: Pitton (2.72)
Save Percentage: (.918)

- The Oakley Three Star competition awards points for players if they are selected as one of the three stars of the game. #1 star gets five points, #2 star gets three and #3 star gets one point. Alex Lavoie is in fifth place overall with 41 points and Kale Kerbashian is in sixth place with 39 points. Lavoie's 41 points is tops by a rookie by 11 points. Tyler Ludwig with 30 points leads all defensemen by 11 points.

- Rapid City won last night in a shoot out. Rapid City is close to unbeatable when they go to overtime or shootout. Their record is 9-1 on the year. If you want to beat Rapid City, best you do it in regulation time.

- You may have seen this trade in the NHL yesterday which has a connection to the CHL. The winningest goaltender in Florida Panthers history is heading back to his former team.
The fading Vancouver Canucks kicked off a potential fire sale at the NHL trade deadline by dealing Roberto Luongo to the Panthers, where the three-time All- Star spent five of his 14 seasons from 2000-06. Included with Luongo in the trade was forward prospect Steve Anthony, a seventh round draft choice of Vancouver in 2009, who is currently playing for the St. Charles Chill of the Central Hockey League. Anthony obviously has a sense of humor as he tweeted this after the trade, "Must say I think I'm the real prize for Florida in this Luongo trade."  

- Found this blog that is being written by Denver equipment manager, Trevor Heinzerling, on Denver's current road trip to Brampton and Quad City. If you recall, one of the Wichita players did a similar thing last year and these often give you a view from the "inside" that is interesting. If you want to follow Heinzerling's blog during this road trip you can find it at: denvercutthroats.blogspot.com

Editor’s Note: Hi, this is Trevor Heinzerling, equipment manager of your Denver Cutthroats. For the next ten and half days I will be writing about the daily lives of your Fish on our four game road trip. You’ll see the behind the scenes of life on the road and the day to day of a CHL player.
We left from sunny Colorado around 3:45 pm for chilly Brampton, Ontario. It is the beginning of a two-day, six-state journey. We will be stopping in North Platte, Nebraska for dinner, and then driving through the night. On Tuesday, we will stop for meals and then spend the night in Port Huron, Michigan. If everything goes according to plan, we should be crossing the Canadian border around noon on Wednesday and head straight to the arena for practice. We are nice and loaded up with plenty of food and water, thanks to our awesome new booster club.
It is about 12:15 am CT as I am typing this. Brad (or Shooter as we call him), Rusty, and I are at the front of the bus winding down and watching Captain Phillips. We are on a sleeper bus, which has two tables in front that can be converted to beds, bunks all the way back, and a bathroom, fridge and microwave. The coaches are in front, rookies in the back (the bumpiest part of the bus), and the seasoned vets pick their spots. It isn’t the smoothest ride, but it is a long trip, so we’ll all take advantage by getting lots of rest.
A handful of the guys are still up hanging out. Red (Aaron MacKenzie), Schwaby, Galer, Bemmer, and Moff are in the back having some laughs, while others are getting zzzs. A lot of players will go through seasons of TV shows, such as Chabby who is currently on season four of Grey’s Anatomy, or the league leading scorer, who brings his set of 40 DVDs on every trip for anyone who needs something to stay occupied.
We stopped in North Platte around 9:00 pm for dinner. The boys went to Applebee’s while the coaches, Rusty, and I went to Ruby Tuesday. We loaded up on the salad bar and had a good meal. We were back on the bus by 10:30 pm, ready for the night on the road. We're stopping for breakfast around 9:00 am. We are aiming for the IHOP in LaSalle, Illinois and then back on the road. Time to hit the sack, but stay tuned for more from the road.
Army, Rusty, and Shooter at Ruby Tuesday.

A few of the guys passing time on the bus. I Wonder what's on Bemmer's phone.

- DID YOU KNOW: The Americans have several players/coach who are approaching career milestones including:
Phil Fox - 100 points (96), 
Darryl Bootland - 400 points (398)
Ross Rouleau - 300 games (298)
Jamie Schaafsma - 200 goals (195)
Steve Martinson - 800 wins (796)

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