Allen Coughs Up 5-0 Lead But Prevails, Game Recap, Rematch Preview, Video Highlights, Former Players Strike Again, Pierro-Zabotel's Ironman Stats

I thought it was a perfect plan. The Allen Americans finally had the breakout game everyone was looking for when they took a 5-0 lead against the Rapid City Rush at the 5:33 mark of the second period. The Americans scored first, won the first period 3-0 and had three power play goals on four opportunities. It was going to be a blowout so I decided to go to sleep, get up at 2:45 am and write the blog before I headed out hunting at 5:45 am. It would be quick and easy writing about a lopsided victory. But as Keith Jackson would say, "Whoa, Nelly!" Unless you come from the train of thought that any road win is good, the Americans had a huge collapse but managed to win the game 6-5 in overtime.


- First the good news. Allen scored on three of their first six shots on goals with by Spencer Asuchak (3), David Makowski (1) and Miles Liberati (1). They took a 3-0 lead in the first eight minutes (8:33) of the game and chased starting Rush goalie Micheal Bitzer. When the Americans scored twice early in the second period on goals by Braylon Shmyr (7) and Zach Pochiro (4) the rout was on or at least it seemed the rout was on.


- From the point Allen took a 5-0 lead to the end of regulation Rapid City outscored the Americans 5-0 and out shot them 37-15. To give up 37 shots in an entire game is not good but to do it in half a game is inexcusable, especially when it was mostly five on five hockey. I didn't have a chance to talk to coach Martinson after the game (remember I was sleeping) but I can almost hear him saying after Allen got the 5-0 it became more important to the players to score than to win. That is one of the downfalls when you get a big lead early.


- You can't lose sight of the fact Allen did have the composure to win the game in overtime after blowing the 5-0 lead. The game winning goal was scored by Joel Chouinard, his first of the season, on a back door pass from Chad Butcher at the 1:49 mark of the overtime.


- Here is the game recap issued by the Rapid City Rush with all of the details about the game: https://rapidcityrush.com/en/news/2018/9/rush-salvage-another-point-in-5-goal-comeback


- The #1 star of the game for the second straight night was Allen goalie C.J. Motte. You don't find the goalie getting selected as the #1 star very often in a game that ends up with a score of 6-5. It is a tribute to Motte keeping Allen in the game during the 37-15 onslaught the last 30 minutes of the contest and making 46 saves on the night.



REMATCH PREVIEW

- It hasn't been easy but the Americans have garnered four points in the first two games in Rapid City. Game three of the series takes place this afternoon (4:05 pm Allen time) with a chance for Allen to come away with six points for the weekend. The game this afternoon will be the third game in less than 48 hours for these teams so it will be a test of who wants it more and which team is in better shape with fresher legs.


- It is expected Jeremy Bordeur will get the start in goal for Allen.


- To put it simply the key to victory today is for the Americans is play the way they did in the first 30 minutes last night. They scored first and are still undefeated when scoring first. Allen won the first period (3-0) and are still undefeated when leading after the first period.


- Special teams have been great and it starts with staying out of the penalty box. Last night Allen had three minor penalties for a game total of six minutes. The Americans were 3-4 on the power play and killed all three Rush power play opportunities. If the Americans can come anywhere close to that performance today they will win.


- Winning is more important than scoring and hopefully that will be the message today. The Americans were out shot last night 51-34 and cannot expect to win if they don't play better defense and limit the number of shots.


OTHER COMMENTS

- Allen played last night without Casey Pierro-Zabotel and missed his leadership the last half of the game. Casey has been one of the ECHL's ironmen having not missed a single game over the past two seasons. He had played in 187 straight regular games before his injury on Friday night. You have to go back to December of 2015 for the last time he missed a game prior to missing the game last night. He will be missed while he is out and it will not be known how long that will be until he is evaluated by the team doctor when Allen returns home but the hope is it won't be too long. In the meantime, hats off to the ironman.


- Allen's power play was 0-19 to start the season but has scored in the last three games and is 6-15 (40%) over those three games. The overall power play percentage is now a respectable 17.6%. The penalty kill continues to do well and is ranked #8 at 89.2%.  


- I included this in the blog yesterday about the games on Friday night,  "Some former Allen Americans scored goals last night. Mike Brodzinski had a goal in Orlando's 3-0 win over Florida and Peter MacArthur scored in Adirondacks 3-1 win over Maine. Chris Crane had a goal for Norfolk in their 5-2 loss to South Carolina and J.C. Campagna scored in a losing cause as Fort Wayne lost to Toledo 7-3." When I was checking the box scores this morning I thought I had pulled up the wrong date because Brodzinski, MacArthur, Crane and Campagna all scored goals. I wasn't looking at the wrong date as they all had a goal for the second consecutive night. Now that is a coincidence. Last night only Campagna's goal was in a losing cause.


- There are no highlights posted to the ECHL website from the game last night but if you haven't seen the highlights from Allen's shootout win on Friday here is the link. Just click on highlights. This highlight package shows some great saves by both goalies in addition to all of the goals: https://www.echl.com/en/matches/c024f095f788e5a11fcf1123#tab_match=highlights&tab_match-stats=player-statistics


- Fort Wayne lost again last night, their fifth straight loss after winning their opening game. They are now ranked last in the league with a winning percentage of .167. Captain Jamie Schaafsma has been out of the lineup with an injury since game two.


DID YOU KNOW: I am sure it seems to Allen fans the Americans are off to a slow start but if they win the game today it will be their best start (and only winning record) after eight games in the past three seasons. Here are the records:

2018-19   3-3-0-1 (after seven games)
2017-18   3-3-2-0
2016-17   4-4-0-0


- So there you have it. It is 5:45 am and I managed to "Git-R-Done" as Larry the Cable Guy would say. Excuse the errors as no proofreader today and I am going hunting!