Steve Martinson earned his 996th win as a coach last night as the Allen Americans beat the Utah Grizzlies 7-5 before a crowd of 3444 at the Allen Event Center (AEC). As Forrest Gump would say, the game was like a box of chocolates because you never knew what you were going to get.
- The game started with the Americans playing their best first period of the season. Allen came out flying and really took it to a very good Utah team. When the dust settled on the first period the Americans had out shot the Grizzlies 19-3 and outscored them 3-0.
- The great first period was followed by the worst start to a period in memory. It took Utah just 11 seconds into the second period to record their first goal, 19 seconds later they scored their second goal and by the 5:32 mark the score was tied 3-3 and all of Allen's hard work in the first period seemed wasted.
- The fun was just beginning as Allen took a 4-3 lead by being handed the best piece of chocolate in the box. The Americans scored two seconds (a record) after Utah had been called for a penalty when the Grizzlies won the ensuing face off and former Allen player, Jake Marchment, put the puck in his own net. Here is the video of that play. You can see Jake and the goalie communicating about rimming the puck around the back of the net. Riley Bourbonnais, who lost the draw on the face off, got credit for the goal.
- Adam Miller would score at the end of the second period to give the Americans a 5-3 lead going into the third period. Gary Steffes scored early in the third period to restore Allen's three goal lead but no lead was safe last night. Utah scored twice to make the score 6-5 with six minutes left in the game.
- C.J. Motte made some key saves down the stretch. Zach Pochiro put the game away with an empty net goal with 20 seconds remaining after Utah pulled their goalie for an extra attacker but ended up with seven players on the attack and took a too many men on the ice penalty.
- Here is the game recap from the Utah Grizzlies: http://www.utahgrizzlies.com/team-news/headline-news/?article_id=3628
- The goal scorers for Allen were Dante Salituro (12), Riley Bourbonnais (16 & 17), Alex Breton (13), Adam Miller (14), Gary Steffes (1) and Zach Pochiro (27).
- Here are the video highlights from the game with all of the goals plus some saves from both goalies.
Here are the Sporfie highlights of the Allen goals:
Salituro
Bourbonnais
Breton
Miller
Steffes
Pochiro
STEVE MARTINSON'S POST GAME COMMENTS
"I am thinking good things about that first period. It reminded me of the old Allen Americans."
"On Utah's first goal we cheated over to a guy that has two goals and left a guy with almost 30 goals wide open."
"Our goalie must just shake his head on all of the 2-on-1 opportunities we give up."
"It was fun to get that good start and painful to see Utah come back. When we got the second three goal lead my thought was Utah couldn't come back twice."
"We had spurts of good and entertaining hockey tonight, we just have to limit the defensive mistakes for tomorrow."
"We have to fix a couple of things defensively and Motte will be better tomorrow because he is back in the groove. He has only played one game in the last two weeks and he is used to playing every game."
"Joel Chouinard and Chase Lang will not be available this weekend. Goalie Lucas Hafner will be here next week. He had a death in the family and is spending the weekend at home."
ALLEN VS IDAHO REMATCH PREVIEW
- Allen did a lot of good things last night that they can build on in the game tonight. The Americans got off to a great start with a 3-0 first period lead. The seven goals Allen scored is the second best goal production all season. The Americans had a lot of shots (40) and out shot Utah 40-30. They have out shot their opponents in only 15 of their 56 games.
- It was a mixed bag on special teams last night. The best news was the Americans stayed out of the penalty box with only three minor penalties the entire game. The bad news is Allen gave up two power play goals on those three minor penalties. Allen was 2-6 on the power play and also scored a goal right after a power play expired. After being held scoreless the last five games the power play looked good last night.
- As coach Martinson said post game the Americans will have to play better defensively tonight. It is hard to see Allen winning again tonight if they give up five goals against a team as good as Utah.
- If you play the percentages Utah has an advantage in the game tonight. The Grizzlies have lost their last three games and haven't lost four in a row all season.
-Two of the top goal scorers in the ECHL, Caleb Herbert from Utah and Zach Pochiro didn't disappoint last night as they each had a goal. They are tied for #2 in the ECHL in goals with 27 trailing Tulsa's Adam Pleskach who has 28 goals.
- The same referee as last night, Matt Menniti (#10) will work the game tonight. The linesmen will be Connor Bohl (#0) and Michael Miggans (#47).
OTHER COMMENTS
- All seven Mountain Division teams were in action last night. The winners were Allen, Kansas City and Idaho. The losers were Tulsa, Rapid City, Utah and Wichita.
- There are 11 games on the ECHL schedule tonight with all seven Mountain Division teams in action. Here is the ECHL Today with a preview on all 11 games. https://www.echl.com/en/news/2019/2/echl-today-feb-23
- Rapid City coach Daniel Tetrault was ejected from the game last night in the second period for abuse of officials as the Rush fell to Atlanta 4-0. Tetrault was upset by a non call and started throwing water bottles in the direction of the referee. The rule sighted in the box score (39.5) for abuse of officials for throwing objects in their direction is the lesser of the rules for throwing objects. The more severe rule (40.4) is an automatic suspension. The Commissioner always has the option to suspend for abuse of officials but the 40.4 rule is an automatic three games. I would assume it is likely Tetrualt will get at least a one game suspension.
DID YOU KNOW: Gary Steffes scored his 92nd goal last night as an Allen American and passed teammate Spencer Asuchak for fourth place on the all-time list. With 16 games remaining in the season both Steffes and Asuchak have an outside chance of becoming the all-time leading goal scorer for the Allen Americans. Greger Hanson and Chad Costello are tied for the top spot with 98 goals. Here are the players with 50 or more goals for the Allen Americans:
98 - Chad Costello
98 - Greger Hanson
97 - Bruce Graham
92 - Gary Steffes
91 - Spencer Asuchak
74 - Jarret Lukin
67 - Colton Yellow Horn
62 - Jamie Schaafsma
59 - Nino Musitelli
54 - David Makowski
53 - Brian McMillin
51 - Tyler Ludwig
If you combine regular season and playoffs the top five all-time in goals are:
135 - Greger Hanson
121 - Bruce Graham
121 - Gary Steffes
117 - Chad Costello
115 - Spencer Asuchak
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