Western Conference Stat Comparison Continues, Playoff Bracket Update, Allen's All-Time Games Played List

Nothing new to report from practice as the Allen Americans continue to prepare for the second round playoff matchup with Colorado. Who will play and who will sit out the game for Allen on Friday still has to be determined. Coach Martinson's plan was for a video session before practice today.

- Yesterday I showed how the four Western Conference teams remaining in the playoffs (Allen vs Colorado & Toledo vs Fort Wayne) compared across 11 statistical categories during the regular season. Today I want to add the same data for the first round of the playoffs. The playoff sample size is very small with Allen, Colorado and Fort Wayne playing only five first round games and Toledo seven. With that caveat and caution that the playoff stats may be skewed because of the small sample size, in parentheses below are the playoff numbers so you can compare playoff performance to regular season performance.

Goals Scored (average per game)
4.19 - Toledo          (3.71)         
4.08 - Allen            (3.60)
3.68 - Colorado      (4.00)
3.67 - Fort Wayne  (3.20)

Goals Allowed (average per game)
2.65 - Toledo          (3.57)
2.82 - Allen            (2.00)
2.86 - Colorado      (3.00)
2.92 - Fort Wayne  (2.40)

Shots For (average per game)
34.39 - Fort Wayne  (36.20)
32.94 - Colorado      (29.60)
32.17 - Toledo          (28.86)
31.44 - Allen            (32.40)

Shots Against (average per game)
28.39 - Fort Wayne  (27.40)
28.63 - Toledo          (30.57)
29.75 - Colorado      (25.80)
34.93 - Allen            (28.20)

Shooting Percentage (goals as a percent of total shots)
12.9% - Allen            (11.1%)
12.9% - Toledo          (12.9%)
11.1% - Colorado      (13.5%)
10.6% - Fort Wayne  (8.8%)

Power Play Percentage
25.1% - Toledo          (25.0%)
24.8% - Colorado      (26.3%)
24.4% - Allen            (30.0%)
21.4% - Fort Wayne  (40.0%)

Penalty Kill Percentage
86.8% - Toledo          (82.6%)
84.4% - Allen            (92.6%)
83.4% - Colorado      (73.7%)
82.3% - Fort Wayne  (88.9%)

Plus/Minus
+334 - Allen            (+20)
+309 - Toledo          (-7)
+273 - Fort Wayne  (0)
+148 - Colorado      (+21)

Goals Against Average (GAA)
2.60 - Toledo          (3.57)
2.76 - Allen            (2.00)
2.80 - Colorado      (2.98)
2.86 - Fort Wayne  (2.25)

Save Percentage
.920 - Allen            (.929)
.908 - Toledo          (.883)
.905 - Colorado      (.884)
.898 - Fort Wayne  (.912)

Record Last 10 Games (regular season)
9-0-1-0 - Allen            (4-1 in first round)
7-2-1-0 - Fort Wayne  (4-1 in first round)
6-3-0-1 - Toledo          (4-3 in first round)
5-5-0-0 - Colorado      (4-1 in first round)


Drawing any conclusions from this data has to be taken with a grain of salt but here are a few observations:

- Toledo gave up almost a goal per game more (2.65 vs 3.57) in the first round of the playoffs than they did during the regular season.
- Fort Wayne's shooting percentage against Quad City in the first playoff round was very low (8.8%) but their power play was almost double (21.4% vs 40.0%) their regular season percentage.
- Colorado struggled on the penalty kill in the first round with a percentage of 73.7%.
- Toledo had a plus/minus during the regular season of +309 but in the first playoff round was -7.
- Colorado had the worst plus/minus (+148) during the regular season of the four remaining teams in the Western Conference but the best plus/minus (+21) in the first round of the playoffs.
- Allen had the best save percentage of the four teams in the regular season (.920) and that continued in the playoffs (.929).
- Toledo and Colorado had save percentages below .900 in the first round of the playoffs much lower than the regular season numbers. Toledo went from .908 to .883 and Colorado went from .905 to .884.


PLAYOFF UPDATE

- Florida became the final team to make it to the second round of the playoffs by beating Orlando at home last night by a score of 7-4. After trailing in this series 3-1 Florida became the sixth team in ECHL history to comeback and win. Florida will now take on South Carolina in the South Division finals. If you didn't follow this series it turned around on a brawl that started at the end of game four with 46 seconds remaining. Florida was trailing 3-0 and instigated a fight that ended up with two Florida players getting suspended. The Orlando goalie (Ryan Massa) was injured in the brawl and missed the final three games of the series. I don't pretend to know all of the details but it is clear with the game out of hand Florida wanted to start something. Massa made an ill advised choice to leave his crease and enter the fray. It does appear if you watch the video the Florida players continue to hit Massa in the head while he is at the bottom of the pile. The bottom line is Florida lost two players to suspensions but Orlando lost their goalie for the rest of the series. Massa had led the Solar Bears to a 3-1 series lead with a save percentage .938. With Massa out an untested rookie goalie had to step in for the last three games. Florida scored 14 goals in those three games to complete their comeback. I have seen in the past where a coach was held responsible and fined for a deliberate fight at the end of a game that was already lost but the league apparently didn't take any issue with the end of game four other than the player suspensions. It is sad the way this series ended. If you haven't seen this fight here is a fan video from YouTube which gives a better view of Massa leaving his crease to get involved which was a big mistake. This video is lengthy so you might want to advance it to the one minute mark in the game.  If you watch closely you can also see Massa being hit after he is down on the ice.

- The second round of the playoffs which are the division finals are now set. The games start tonight (Thursday) in the North Division with Manchester at Brampton. The division finals could go as long as May 10. Here is an updated bracket with special thanks to Robert Ciccotelli of the Allen Americans front office who went above and beyond to update the bracket to include the Florida vs Orlando results. Congratulations to all eight teams that made it to the elite eight. I know making it to the second round is not the goal for the remaining eight teams but it is quite an accomplishment in and of itself. The 19 teams sitting at home would all agree.

- Many fans are using social media and other methods to get the word out about the Allen Americans and make sure there is a big crowd this weekend and for the rest of the playoffs. Here is the second round schedule for the Allen vs Colorado series. All start times are central daylight time, that is the time in Allen when all the games will start. Tell all your friends and relatives they have to get tickets for this series. It should be epic. If you know anyone that has never been to an Allen playoff game and would like to attend I will provide free tickets for Friday and Saturday. I have six tickets (two together & four together) for each game. First come first serve until they are gone. Just email me at janssenfamily@msn.com.

Game 1 at Allen - Friday April 28th (7:05 pm)
Game 2 at Allen - Saturday April 29th (7:05 pm)

Game 3 at Colorado - Wednesday May 3rd (8:05 pm)
Game 4 at Colorado - Thursday May 4th (8:05 pm)
Game 5 at Colorado - Sunday May 7th (4:05 pm)

Game 6 at Allen - Tuesday May 9th (7:05 pm)
Game 7 at Allen - Wednesday May 10th (7:05 pm)


DID YOU KNOW: Since the Allen Americans franchise started in 2009-10 they have played 544 regular season games. Yet with the nature of AA hockey, players come and go all the time. Only 24 players in the history of the Americans have played 100 games with the team and just six have played 200 games. Here are the six that have played 200 or more games in Allen.

247 - Tyler Ludwig
238 - Jarret Lukin
229 - Mike Berube
216 - Chad Costello
215 - Brian McMillin
200 - Gary Steffes