A Great Celebration & A Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Game

Jamie Schaafsma, Brian McMillin, Tyler Ludwig & Greger Hanson Raise The Banner

It was the perfect night at the Allen Event Center (AEC) last night with the league commissioner in the house, owners in the house, a better than expected crowd of 5006 in the house on Friday night football night, raising of the back to back championship banner, six returning players receiving their championship rings and then they dropped the puck. Not sure if watching the celebration inspires the opposition or it is something that happens to the home team but the Allen Americans followed the lead of two other champions from last year and lost their home opener. The Los Angeles Kings (NHL) lost their Stanley Cup banner raising celebration home opener 4-0, the Alaska Aces (ECHL) lost their Kelly Cup banner raising home opener 3-1 and last night Allen lost their CHL Presidents' Cup banner raising home opener to the Tulsa Oilers by a score of 9-6. Only twice in team history have they allowed more goals at home than they did last night. It was hard to find any bright spots in a game with so many defensive lapses but Allen did control puck possession for much of the game. During the later part of the second period when they came back from being down 5-1 to being down only 6-5 at the end of the period Allen dominated the game. At one point Allen only allowed one shot on goal in over ten minutes of play. The bottom line is you are not going to win hockey games if you allow eight goals (plus an empty netter).


STEVE MARTINSON POST GAME COMMENTS

-  That is an embarrassing start to the the season. We gave up way too many odd man rushes and had way too many defensive lapses. Our defensive game was nonexistent.

- I told the players it looked to me like the only thing they cared about was offense. Right now we are the worst defensive team in the ECHL. We have a lot of work to do.

-  I wasn't pleased with our penalty kill as even our experienced penalty killers had sticks in the wrong lanes time after time.

- It is going to be a long week next week as we will be working full time until we get this squared away. The good thing when you have a disappointing loss like tonight is getting to play again right away. It will be a long night looking at tape and then I will call on some guys to lead by example.

- We know we have a good offensive team and scoring six goals should be more than enough to win a game. We had a lot of puck possession but would then give up easy scoring chances. Defensively it was just a nightmare. There is no excuse for giving up eight goals (plus the empty net goal).

- You can't use the team needs time to jell as an excuse as Tulsa has a lot of new players as well.

- The key to being a good defensive team is simple, it is a matter of caring. Playing good defense is hard work and the number one factor is caring. It looked to me that we had too many guys that had offense as their number one priority. It is unacceptable to have that kind of effort and that kind of game with the experienced team that we have.

- Tomorrow night against Wichita is going to say a lot about our team. If we have another game like we did tonight I will have to look at making some changes. There is no way to sugar coat eight goals against. We need to either make some adjustments or make some changes.


OTHER COMMENTS

- Greger Hanson had a great scoring night in his homecoming after being acquired through trade with Cincinnati. Hanson had a hat trick plus one assist for a four point night. He is tied for the ECHL lead in goals scored at four and he has only played two games.

- Allen scored three power play goals going three for five on the night but the penalty kill allowed two Tulsa goals in just four penalty play opportunities.

- Indianapolis routed Missouri 5-1 in coach Richard Matvichuk's debut as Maverick's coach. Indianapolis is coached by Missouri's prior coach, Scott Hillman.

- In the other "old' versus "new" match up Toledo beat Brampton 6-3.

- Allen has been traditionally a good road team. It will be a difficult task traveling to Wichita to play a well rested Thunder team but this experienced group has something to prove. Look for a much better effort tonight.

DID YOU KNOW: The most goals ever scored by an opposing team against Allen at home was 11. The Colorado Eagles beat Allen by a score of 11-6 on New Years Day in 2011.