Game Three Preview, Allen Playoff Scoring Leaders, Surprise Coming at the AEC

- It is another game day on the long road to the Presidents' Cup as the Allen Americans take on the Quad City Mallards tonight at  7:05 pm with the series tied 1-1. You can find all kinds of data relating to seven game series in sports and most of it says game three is a very important game in deciding which team will win the series. In their five year history, Allen has been in seven games series on nine different occasions and their record in game three of those nine series is 6-3. The six times they have won game three Allen went on to win the series five times. The exception was in 2010 in the championship finals when the Americans won game three against Rapid City but still lost the series. Conversely, the three times Allen has lost game three they have lost the series twice. The exception was last year against Wichita in the finals as Allen lost game three but still won the series. So based on past history as well as data from other sports the game tonight is really important.

- The team leaders now that Allen has played seven playoff games this year are as follows:
Goals - Graham, Hanson, Bootland (4),  Maiani, Schaafsma (3)
Assists - Maiani (7), Graham, Schaafsma,  Ludwig (6)
Points - Graham, Maiani (10), Hanson, Schaafsma (9)
Plus/Minus - Schaafsma (+9), Ludwig (+8), Tetrault (+7)

- Gregor Hanson leads the entire CHL with three game winning goals and Jamie Schaaafsma leads the league in plus/minus with his +9.

- The two best goalies thus far in the playoffs have been Quad City goalie Thomas Heemskirk (GAA 1.67 & SV% .943) and Allen's Bryan Pitton (GAA 2.01 & SV% .933). It is interesting that Quad City coach Terry Ruskowski was quoted as saying Ty Rimmer will start in goal for the Mallards tonight.

- The Americans and Mallards are very close when it come to killing penalties. Allen is #1 at 90.3% and Quad City is #2 at 90.0%. On the power play Allen is #2 at 24% and Quad City is #5 at 13.5%.

- Whether Kale Kerbashian is in the line up tonight has still not been decided. A decision will be made after the pregame skate this morning.

- Here are the team comparisons as provided by the CHL:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Quad City Mallards           Allen Americans  
RESULT OF LAST GAME               LOSS  0-2 vs ALN             WIN  2-0 vs QDC  
GAMES PLAYED                      9                            7                
RECORD                            5-4                          5-2              
POINTS                            10                           10               
HOME RECORD                       2-1                          3-1              
AWAY RECORD                       3-3                          2-1              
LAST 10 GAMES                     5-4                          5-2              
LAST 5 GAMES                      3-2                          3-2              
SCORING FIRST                     4-0                          3-1              
LEADING AFTER 1ST                 3-0                          2-1              
LEADING AFTER 2ND                 4-0                          3-0              
TIED AFTER 1ST                    2-1                          2-0              
TIED AFTER 2ND                    0-1                          2-1              
TRAILING AFTER 1ST                0-3                          1-1              
TRAILING AFTER 2ND                1-3                          0-1              
WHEN OUTSHOOTING OPPONENT         1-1                          5-2              
1 - GOAL GAMES                    1-1                          0-0              
GOALS FOR PER GAME                2.33                         3.71             
GOALS AGAINST PER GAME            2.11                         2.14             
SHOTS FOR PER GAME                25.22                        38.86            
SHOTS AGAINST PER GAME            28.67                        30.00            
POWER PLAY RECORD                 5 - 37   13.5%               6 - 25   24.0%   
PENALTY KILLING RECORD            3 - 30   90.0%               3 - 31   90.3%   
SH GOALS FOR                      1                            0                
SH GOALS AGAINST                  0                            1                
PIM AVERAGE                       14.89                        12.43            


SCORING BY PERIODS    1ST  2ND  3RD  OT  TOTAL  
Quad City             6    5    9    1   21     
Opponents             6    7    6    0   19     
                      
Allen                 10   9    7    0   26     
Opponents             7    5    3    0   15 

- Here are the "series notes" published by the CHL:
Series Notes:
-Allen goaltender Bryan Pitton joined Denver’s Kent Patterson as the only netminders in this post-season to record shutouts thanks to his 23 save performance in Game 2’s 2-0 win over the Mallards.  Patterson’s shutout came in Game 5 of the Opening Round in Denver’s win over Tulsa.
-Quad City has been outshot 65-49 in the series so far and in the playoffs have outshot their opponent only twice in nine games.  Allen leads the post-season clubs by outshooting their opponent in all of their games thus far (5-2 in those contests).
-Mallards forward Jordan Mayer saw his goal streak come to an end in Game 2 of the series (three straight games) but he still is having a solid post-season with four goals and three assists (+3) in seven games.  During the regular season, Mayer scored two goals with six assists in 13 games.
-Allen forward Bruce Graham netted the game winning goal in Sunday’s 2-0 win over the Mallards and in the post-season has recorded at least a point in all seven Americans games.  The veteran has totaled four goals and six assists with his four strikes coming over the team’s last five games.
-The Flock were without their leading post-season scorer, Thomas Frazee, on Sunday.  Frazee has scored points in six straight games totaling five goals with five assists during that stretch.
-Allen has been a great finisher in this year’s post-season holding teams to just three third period goals so far.  The Americans are a +4 in the final period scoring seven goals of their own including a pair in Sunday’s win.



- The Arizona Sundogs lost, in their third overtime game of the post-season being narrowly edged out by the Denver Cutthroats 5-4 last night (Tuesday) at Tim’s Toyota Center in Arizona in front of 3,326 fans. The Sundogs trail the Cutthroats in the series, 2-1. Game four is tonight in Arizona and then the teams travel back to Denver for game five on Saturday.

Courtesy CHL Memes

 DID YOU KNOW: The Allen Event Center received a new shipment. Can you guess what this is? You will be pleased!

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