The Allen Americans have two road trips this week which means a lot of bus time. The team left yesterday for the 360 mile trip to Wichita. After the Americans play the Thunder tonight they will head back to Allen, take the day off on Wednesday, get back on the bus on Thursday for the 475 mile trip to Kansas City, play the Mavericks Friday night and return to Allen after the game. You add it all up and you have around 28 hours of bus time in 90 hours for two away games.
- The good news is after theses two road games the Americans will spend 52 of the next 53 days at home. One same day road trip to Tulsa is the only time the team will spend away from Allen between February 9 and April 4.
ROSTER UPDATE
- There are a lot of moving parts related to the roster so here is a run down of what is happening with the team.
C.J. Motte - Motte was recalled by Iowa yesterday and the hope is he will not be gone a long time but you just never know. That means Kyle Hayton will carry the load for Allen, starting with the game tonight in Wichita. Thomas Hodges accompanied the team on the trip and will be the EBUG (emergency backup goalie). Hayton has appeared in 13 games for Allen and has a record of 2-8-0-0. His GAA is 3.79 and save percentage is .886. Kyle played the third period the last time Allen was in Wichita (January 13) after the Americans took a 8-1 lead after the second period. Hayton's last start was on December 16.
Throwers - Dalton and Josh are not with the team. They were given permission to travel home (British Columbia) to take care of a family matter.
Emerson Clark - Clark did not travel with the team to Wichita and is not expected to make the trip to Kansas City on Thursday.
Thomas Frazee - Frazee hasn't played since the end of November and will be out for the remainder of the season.
Kevin Sundher - Sundher has been out of the lineup since the beginning of January but is getting closer to returning.
Casey Pierro-Zabotel - Casey will not play again this season but did hit a milestone yesterday. For the first time since he was injured in early November and had a season ending surgery he was back on the ice as a coach yesterday. He is a one armed coach at this point and he said he felt wobbly skating for the first time in over three months but it was great to see him back on the ice.
Gary Steffes - You may have heard that Gary got married this weekend so congrats to him and his bride (Michelle). Gary and Michelle will be moving back to Texas. Coach Martinson reports he and Gary have had discussions about the possibility of Steffes coming out of retirement to join the Americans. Nothing has been decided at this point but discussions are ongoing.
ALLEN VS WICHITA GAME PREVIEW
- The game tonight will be number 10 of 14 against Wichita this season. In their nine previous meetings Allen's record against Wichita is 5-2-0-2. Allen swept Wichita three straight games the last time they played (January 11, 12, 13) winning 7-3 at home before beating the Thunder 4-3 and 8-3 in Wichita.
- Head to head Allen has the edge in goals (39-31) and shots (321-316). The Americans are ranked #21 in the ECHL in shots, averaging just over 30 per game but against Wichita have averaged 36 shots per game.
- Allen dominated special teams in the three games they played against Wichita in January. The Americans were 7-15 (46.7%) on the power play and 100% on the penalty kill (0-10). It is hard to expect those kind of stats tonight but if Allen can win the special teams battle it will go a long way in securing a win. If you look at season long special team stats these team are fairly close. At home the Thunder are at 20.0% on the power play and 79.1% on the penalty kill. On the road Allen is 18.4% on the power play and 84.0% on the penalty kill.
- Allen has been playing better hockey but has struggled over the last 10 games losing in overtime four times. The Americans record in the last 10 games is 4-2-4-0. Wichita's record over their last 10 games is 4-5-1-0.
- Penalties will play a big part in the game tonight. With these team's history you never know what will transpire. In their nine head to head match ups this season they have had as few as nine penalties for a combined 18 minutes and as many as 33 penalties for 112 minutes. What is true is 36% (9 of 25) of Allen's fights this season have been against Wichita.
- Two of the best rookie defensemen in the ECHL will be in action tonight. Wichita's Keoni Texeira has 31 points (5G 26A) to rank #3 among ECHL defensemen and Allen's Alex Breton ranks #4 with 30 points (8G, 22A).
- The referee schedule for the game tonight is Stephen Reneau (#17) and the linesmen will be Chris Provost (#50) and Addison Brush (#80).
OTHER COMMENTS
- It is a light schedule around the ECHL tonight with four games on the schedule. The only other Mountain Division action is Tulsa at Kansas City. The Mavericks are chasing the Oilers for third place in the division.
- I mentioned above that Gary Steffes got married this weekend in California. Here is a photo from the wedding. Thanks to the Allen fan that sent the photo and to Gary for saying it was okay to share.
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| Gary & Michelle Steffes |
- Atlanta is ranked #25 in the ECHL in points but has the top power play in the league at. 23.7%. Indy is ranked #12 in the league in points but is #1 in penalty kill percentage at 87.0. The best overall special teams leader is Utah, their combined power play and penalty kill percentage is 108.0%. Anything above 105% is considered excellent. Anything below 100% is considered poor. Allen's combined percentage is 100.7%
DID YOU KNOW: If Allen wins all their remaining 22 games they would finish with 80 points. Here are the number of points it took to make the playoffs in Allen's division since they joined the ECHL.
76 points - 2017-18
79 points - 2016-17
84 points - 2015-16
80 points - 2014-15
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