Shots From The Point, Kerbashian Returns, Penalty Stats, CHL Memes & More

- It will be an interesting day at practice today as the Americans prepare to take on the Wichita Thunder Wednesday night. With the possibility that several injured players may be ready to play, decisions will have to be made. The status of Lukin, Klotz, Kerbashian, and Zion will determine what roster moves take place. Final decisions will most likely not be made until Wednesday morning. Kale Kerbashian, who was going to meet the team in Denver on Sunday but had his flight cancelled will definitely play against Wichita.

- Thanks to Richard Matvichuk and Kale Kerbashian for spending time with the Heritage Ranch Allen Americans fan club last night teaching Hockey 101 and talking all things hockey. Fun, entertaining and informative. Over 250 Heritage Ranch residents will be in attendance at the games on Wednesday and Saturday.

- The game tomorrow will be the fourth time Allen and Wichita have played at the Allen Event Center this year. Wichita has won two of the three previous games.

- An indication of how balanced the scoring is for the Americans this year is the fact that after Alex Lavoie's team leading 74 points there are six players who have scored between 44 and 49 points.

- MavsFanJoe over on the CHLforums message board posted some interesting data on penalties with all kinds of details. I found it interesting that even though Allen is the most penalized team in the league they do not lead in any of the severe penalty categories. Arizona has the most major penalties, Brampton the most misconduct penalties, St. Charles the most game misconduct penalties, Missouri the most match penalties, Brampton the most abuse of official penalties, and Arizona & Missouri the most attempt to injure penalties. Missouri also has the most kneeing, diving and obscene language penalties.  The Americans do lead the CHL in cross checking, holding and interference penalties which are the type of penalties Coach Martinson talks about avoiding.



- The CHL puts out something they call "Shots from The Point" twice a week and the one published yesterday has some good information. Here it is:

1.)  Cutthroats Dramatic in Continuing Streak- The Denver Cutthroats (35-15-10) extended their win streak to nine games, one shy of the CHL-best 10-game streak Rapid City had earlier in the season, thanks to a remarkable 5-0 week.  Denver played five games in seven days starting in Brampton on Monday, continuing to Quad City for Wednesday and then finishing with a three-in-three at home over the weekend versus Quad City and Allen.  In Saturday’s win over the Mallards, the Fish tied the game with just four seconds remaining with a Steve Kaunisto goal and then won in a shootout.  On Sunday, the Cutthroats went to a shootout again, this time against Allen, and won again ending their home season with a 22-6-5 record.  Denver will finish the season with three games in Arizona this week and then two games in Allen and one game in Tulsa next weekend to finish the regular season.  Denver is just two points behind the conference leading Missouri Mavericks (40-17-2) in the chase for the Bud Poile Governors’ Cup.

2.)  Thunder Making Final Stand- The Wichita Thunder (25-27-7) will not go quietly as they went head-to-head with the Tulsa Oilers this past weekend earning five of a possible six points.  The Thunder are now five points behind Arizona for the final playoff spot and just six points behind Tulsa for the seventh spot.  Wichita has made it to each of the last two CHL final falling in 2012 to Fort Wayne and in 2013 to Allen and to get back to that stage, they will have to come close to winning out but at least taking care of business in their two head-to-head games remaining with the Oilers and the three games in Arizona to finish the season.  Wichita is 2-0-3 in their last five games with Tomas Klempa (2-4=6), Matt Summers (3-3=6) and RG Flath (1-5=6) all totaling six points in those five games.                             

3.)  Rush and Beast to Get Familiar- The Rapid City Rush (36-22-2) and the Brampton Beast (30-24-7) could be on a collision course for a post-season series and the two clubs could get a preview of that with a five-game series to close out the regular season.  After hosting the Quad City Mallards on Monday night, the Rush will host Brampton on Friday and Saturday and then the two teams will play three times in Ontario in the season’s final weekend.  The Beast trail the Rush by just seven points meaning a switch in positioning could be in the making with a big series by the expansion club.  The Rush are currently in third place with 74 points and the Beast are in fifth place with 67 points.                       

By the Numbers
9: The number of consecutive games that Denver goaltender John Griggs has won to start his pro career with the Cutthroats.  Griggs joined the team in late February after Kent Patterson was re-called to the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters and flashed a sign of things to come in his very first game, a 35-save shutout over Rapid City.  Griggs does not have enough minutes to qualify for the league leaders but if his numbers with Denver were in the mix, he’d lead the league with a 2.38 GAA and a .927 save percentage.

One-Timers
-Allen Head Coach Steve Martinson won his 800th game on Saturday in Rapid City.  Martinson is now 800-343-117 in his pro career with seven championship seasons, including last season with Allen.
-Denver’s Vincent Arseneau had his goal scoring streak come to an end on Sunday after striking in the previous eight games.  Arseneau is third among all rookies with 23 goals and his eight-game goal scoring streak is the longest in the CHL this season.
-The Arizona Sundogs (28-26-6) got off to a great start to their eight-game season-ending home stand winning both games against the St. Charles Chill.  The Sundogs got a hat trick from Shawn Limpright on Saturday and have received eight goals with two assists from the veteran in the nine games he has played with the Sundogs.
-Allen’s Bruce Graham has made an immediate impact scoring four goals with 10 assists in just eight games with the Americans.  He has made a huge difference on the power play for Allen scoring three PP goals while dishing out four PP helpers.  Allen is nine for their last 23 with the man advantage (39%) and are third overall in the CHL at 19.9%.
-Missouri saw their seven-game win streak come to an end in Brampton on Sunday after blowing a 3-2 third period lead to fall 4-3 to the Beast.  Eric Castonguay has scored goals in five straight games for the Mavs and has eight goals and five assists (13 points) over his last eight games.
-The Quad City Mallards (28-20-9) have gone 2-5-1 in their last eight games and despite sitting in sixth place have reason to be optimistic with four games in hand on the fifth place Brampton Beast.  The Flock do have a tough road ahead with four games versus Missouri and a contest versus Rapid City and Allen included in their remaining nine games.  Only three of their remaining nine games are on home ice.
-Tulsa forward Blair Macaulay is having a very good rookie campaign scoring 17 goals with 23 assists in just 53 games.  He has been unstoppable over his last two games scoring a hat trick in a loss on Saturday and then putting up two goals and an assist in Sunday’s win over Wichita.

Courtesy CHL Memes - follow on Twitter @CHL_Memes

Courtesy CHL Memes

DID YOU KNOW: With seven games remaining in the season the Americans have already scored 217 goals compared with scoring 210 for the full season last year. They have already allowed 195 goals compared to only allowing 176 goals for the full season last year.