Sunday, December 21, 2014

Allen Wins Ugly, Martinson's Post Game Comments, Dell in Goal Today, Kevin Young Will Not Play

In the books the game last night against the Tulsa Oilers will show a 5-4 Allen victory and a shots on goal advantage for the Americans of 44-24 however the game was much more difficult than that sounds. Any win is great and the win over Tulsa allowed Allen to increase their point lead in the Central Division over the second place Oilers to seven points. Steve Martinson described it as an ugly win and that is what it was. For the second night in a row Allen allowed a goal in the first minute of the game. This time it was at the 30 second mark and to make matters worse Tulsa scored a second goal to take a 2-0 lead before Allen got on the board at the end of the first period. It seemed as if Allen was falling back into some of the bad habits from early in the season where they were thinking score first, trying to manufacture plays that were not there, cheating and taking too many risks which led to way too many odd man rushes for Tulsa. It says a lot about how good this team is that on a night where they did not play their best hockey they were able to find a way to win. It took a five on three power play that the Americans converted with a Chad Costello goal with just 21 seconds left in the game to finally seal the victory. Costello had two goals on the night with the others being scored by Gens, Schwartz and Steffes. The two teams battle again this afternoon (Sunday) in Tulsa with a 4:05 start. The team was scheduled to leave for Tulsa at 10:00 am this morning.

STEVE MARTISON'S POST GAME COMMENTS:

- I would just call that an ugly win. We gave up more odd man rushes tonight than we have given up in probably a month. It looks to me that we have gotten used to winning and now want to score more than we want to win. There is just not enough discipline when we don't have the puck.

- We struggled on the power play other than the five on three at the end of the game. We did a better job of taking shots from the point but we need to be crowding the net to start and then try to make plays.

- Sometimes if we don't get a bunch of goals early and have to play from behind we start pressing and cheating. We need to keep playing our puck possession game.

- Justin Baker made a great play on the Steffes goal.

- Aaron Dell will be in goal on Sunday against Tulsa and Kevin Young, who was hit by a shot, will not play. Nolan Descoteaux will replace Young in the line up.

- Counting the game today seven of Allen's last thirteen games have been against Tulsa. Since November 25 Allen and Tulsa have played six times with Allen winning five of the six games. Tulsa's one victory came in a shootout on December 5.



OTHER COMMENTS:

- Jack Combs was awarded Allen's first penalty shot of the season in the second period when he was hooked on a breakaway. He failed to convert. There have been nineteen penalty shots awarded in the ECHL thus far and six have ended up with goals for a conversion rate of 32%.

- Tulsa coach Bruce Ramsay was given a game misconduct penalty after Allen scored the game winning goal with 21 seconds left in the game. Not sure if he was upset by the referee giving Allen the five on three at the end of the game or he thought the referee missed a penalty on Allen. He was very irate and took his time leaving the ice while telling the referee what he thought. Understand he had more to say to the referee after the game.

- All three members of the top line had multiple point games led by  #1 star Chad Costello with two goals and two assists. Ian Schultz had three assists and Jack Combs had two assists. Combs and Costello continue to widen their lead in the ECHL scoring race. Combs is #1 with 42 points, Costello #2 with 37 points and Tyler Barnes of the Toledo Walleye is third with 33 points. No other players have more than 28 points.

- The attendance last night of 3638 was undoubtedly held down because Allen High School was playing in the state football championship game which they won handily for the third straight year. The last two times the Allen Eagles won the state football title the Allen Americans went on to win their championship. Maybe it is an omen for this year.

- Tommy Daniels was not on the air last night because of equipment problems. It really adds to the experience to listen to Tommy Daniels broadcast the game while watching it live at the Allen Event Center.

- Greger Hanson had another assist last night in a losing cause as Worcester lost to Portland 4-3 in overtime. Greger has an assist in both games he has played for Worcester and is a +2.

DID YOU KNOW: Former Allen defenseman Drew Daniels who now plays for Fort Wayne leads the ECHL in plus/minus with a +25.  Chad Costello is second with +21 and Greger Hanson third with +20.


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