The Allen Americans lost 3-2 in overtime last night to the Idaho Steelheads before a sellout crowd of 5259 in Boise. It was a valiant effort by the Americans who came out on the wrong end of overtime for the second straight game. It was a gutsy performance by Allen who played shorthanded (13 skaters) after three players were suspended, Curt Gogol (five games), Emerson Clark (five games), Zach Pochiro (two games) and Etienne Boutet sat out with an injury.
- With the overtime loss Allen picked up one point to finish the three game series in Idaho coming away with four of a possible six points. This against the top team in the division. The Americans have earned points in six straight games. Allen's record in January now stands at 5-1-2-0. How good have the Americans been recently? Very good as 40% of their points (12 of 30) for the entire season have come in the last three weeks.
- One thing that has coincided with Allen's recent success is scoring first. That happened again last night as it did in all three games against Idaho and in five of the last six games. Last night Braylon Shmyr deflected a shot from the point by Dalton Thrower at the 7:32 mark of the first period. Allen would take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
- The second period would produce five goals starting with a shorthanded goal by Riley Bourbonnais. After Idaho cut Allen's lead to 2-1 Braylon Shmyr scored his second goal of the night on the power play to give the Americans a 3-1 lead midway through the second period and it looked like an upset in the making. However, the Steelheads answered back and the second period ended tied 3-3.
- There was no scoring in the third period so the game headed to overtime. Both teams had good opportunities early in the overtime but could not get the puck in the net. At the 3:28 mark Allen was called for a penalty and Idaho scored a 4-on-3 power play goal with 39 seconds remaining in overtime. It is ironic that a no call along the boards on Friday night, when Josh Atkinson went down, led to a breakaway and Idaho's game winning goal and last night a tripping call along the boards against Allen led to the game winning power play goal.
- Despite giving up the game winning overtime goal on a Steelhead's power play (4-on-3), Allen still won the special teams battle which they have done in every game in their six game points earning streak. Last night the Americans were 1-4 on the power play while Idaho was 1-5 but Allen also scored a shorthanded goal. The Americans had killed 23 straight power plays over the last six games prior to giving up the one last night. Here is a stat to ponder, over the last six games the Allen penalty kill percentage is 95.8% and the penalty kill unit has outscored their opponents 2-1. That's right, over the last six games the penalty kill unit has given up one goal and scored two shorthanded goals.
- Here are the video highlights from last night which includes Shmyr's ninth and tenth goals of the season and the ninth goal of the season (fifth with Allen) by Riley Bourbonnais.
- Here is the game recap issued by the Idaho Steelheads: https://www.idahosteelheads.com/en/articles/steelheads-take-second-ot-thriller-over-americans-4-3
- Here is the post game press conference with the #1 and #2 stars of the game:
- I had a chance to check in with coach Martinson this morning and his comment to me was, "It is disappointing to have the effort the team put in last night playing shorthanded with only 13 skaters and have the game end that way. I could go on but it doesn't change anything. We will be back to 15 skaters by Friday."
- The Americans will fly home today and won't play again until next weekend when they visit Tulsa for three games (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). It will be another big challenge for the Americans as Tulsa has the best record in the division over the last 10 games. The Oilers lost 4-1 last night in Utah but have won six of their last seven games and 10 of their last 12 games.
OTHER COMMENTS
- There was a lot of discussion on social media when the ECHL handed down suspensions yesterday after the 127 penalty minute game Friday night. If you listened to Steve Martinson's pregame interview with Tommy Daniels last night he explained that yes you could take issue with how and why the penalties were or were not called in the game but you can't take issue when players get suspended for leaving the penalty box or leaving the bench to engage in the fracas.
- Alex Breton will fly home with the team today only to turnaround and head to Toledo to participate in the ECHL All-Star game. One of Alex's all-star teammates is Idaho goalie Thomas Sholl who Breton scored on Friday night. Here are the details on the All-Star game which takes place Monday night at 7:10 EST. https://www.echl.com/en/news/2019/1/rosters-set-for-2019-ccm-echl-all-star-classic
- For those of you not on social media you may not have heard that Bruce and Whitney Graham welcomed baby number four into the world on Friday. Oakley Benjamin arrived weighing in at 9lbs.12oz. Oakley joins big sisters Harper (8) and London (7) and big brother Beckett (3) in the Graham clan. The Graham's plan on being in Allen for the Alumni weekend.
- Allen gained another point in their quest to escape the Mountain Division cellar. Rapid City lost to Florida (5-1) so Allen now trails the Rush by seven points. The Americans have gained 10 points on Rapid City in the last month. I know the Americans have much higher goals than escaping the cellar. They now stand seven points out of sixth place, 11 out of fifth place and 12 points out of a playoff spot. Just to keep things in perspective, even with earning four of six points this weekend, Allen will have to have a record of about 23-4-1-0 in their final 28 games to make the playoffs.
- Allen will play nine straight games including the three in Idaho this past week, the three in Tulsa next weekend and the three at home the week after with Idaho against division foes with winning percentages above .600.
- It is always eye opening to compare the two ECHL conferences. Here are a few facts.
There are seven ECHL teams with 50 or more points, five of them are in the Western Conference (Cincinnati, Idaho, Tulsa, Toledo, Utah).
The leading team in the Eastern Conference in penalty minutes is Orlando with 691. The leading penalty minute team in the Western Conference is Allen with 947.
The Western conference has no teams with less than 500 penalty minutes. The Eastern Conference has six teams with fewer than 500 penalty minutes including Reading with 398 and Manchester with 376.
Both conferences have just three teams with winning percentages below .500.
The difference in points between the top and bottom teams in the North Division is 17 points, the South Division 31 points, the Central Division 20 points and in the Mountain Division 23 points.
The Western Conference has won the last five Kelly Cups.
DID YOU KNOW: So far, this season has been just the opposite of last season for the Allen Americans. If you remember last season the Americans had a good start but then struggled after January and barely made the playoffs. This season Allen struggled early but have played better in January. Allen fans can only hope the rest of this season matches 2016-17 when the Americans came from way behind to win the division. The final 37 games of that season Allen's record was 29-4-3-1 and they won 15 of their last 16 games with the only loss coming in overtime.
"It is ironic that a no call along the boards on Friday night..."
ReplyDeleteI was thinking moronic, but I don't want to quibble. It would have been great to come away with the win and split the weekend's points, but I'm just excited to see the team playing Americans hockey, at last.