You could blame Allen's 5-3 loss last night to Reading on the Saturday night, big crowd, specialty jersey curse and there is little doubt one exists. However, that would be unfair to the largest crowd of the season (5604) on Wizarding World Night who watched Allen lose their 38th game of the season. With the loss, Allen passes last year's loss total of 37 which was the most losses in team history and the scary part is the Americans still have 18 games remaining to add to their loss total.
- Allen gave up the first goal which they have done in 63% of their games this season. Their record when they don't score first now stands at 6-27-0-1. The Americans gave up the first two goals and Reading took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. The Royal's record on the road with a first period lead is 9-1-1-1.
- To Allen's credit they made a nice comeback early in the second period on goals by Riley Bourbonnais, his 14th of the season and Emerson Clark's first since joining the Americans.
- The same thing happened last night as on Friday night, the Americans were not competitive in the third period. Not sure if it is a lack of conditioning or lack of will but the team had no energy in the third period. They managed only four shots on goal and were outscored 3-1. Josh Atkinson scored his first goal of the season (shorthanded) with 20 seconds remaining in the game to make the final score 5-2.
- The third period totals from Friday and Saturday tell tale. The Americans were outscored 8-1 and out shot 28-12. The only thing they did better than their opponents was in penalty minutes (41-18).
- Here is the game recap issued by the Reading Royals with an apt headline, "Royals Smack Americans in Third" https://royalshockey.com/en/news/2018/9/game-51-preview-reading-at-allen
- Here are the video highlights posted by the Americans. Some of the goals are out of sequence and repeated:
- Here are coach Martinson's post game comments:
- I had a chance to spend some time with Martinson after the game and as usual he was already looking at video and breaking down the game to help plan for the next game. He showed me the defensive breakdowns that are both physical and mental. On one play a forward with full possession of the puck passes cross ice to a player going off the ice on a change and is facing the bench. The puck gets turned over and leads to a Reading goal. In another instance a player with full possession of the puck turns the puck over in the offensive zone that leads to a breakaway. Two things were abundantly clear after spending 30 minutes with the coach after the game. First, he is sick and tired of losing and second, he will work and grind to win each and every game for the next 18 games.
REMATCH PREVIEW
- There is no magic to what Allen needs to do to get out of what is starting to look like their poor play at the beginning of the season. They have now lost three straight games and nine of their last 12. Sure they need to have better starts, they need to stay out of the penalty box which they did last night, they need to avoid costly turnovers and they need to get pucks in deep. Most importantly they need take some pride and outwork Reading. The Royals have proven they are a better team by beating Allen four times this season and all four wins have been by two or more goals. Reading is clearly a faster team than the Americans. Make this game about will over skill. Sure it will be the third game in less than 48 hours for Allen but today is a day to show everyone what hard work looks like.
- Reading goalie Andrew D'Agostini has six wins this season and four of them have come against Allen. You may remember Andrew came to Allen's training camp this year and performed well but was released in favor of Jeremy Brodeur as the backup goalie for C.J. Motte. D'Agostini has certainly gotten revenge winning four straight against the Americans. You can expect he will be in net this afternoon to try and make it five in a row against the Americans.
- There is no doubt who will start in goal for Allen as they continue to use an EBUG while Motte is in Iowa. Kyle Hayton will start and be in goal no matter what happens. After not starting a game for over a month, today will be Kyle's fifth in a row. It is a lot of work piled on the rookie. His first two games were great as he stopped 50 of 51 shots for a .980 save percentage. The last two games he has stopped 68 of 78 shots for a save percentage of .871.
- Allen has not out shot Reading in any of the four games they have played this season. The head to head stats favor Reading in goals (19-10), shots (144-114) and power play goals (5-4).
- If you liked the officiating crew on Friday and Saturday you will like them today. It doesn't happen very often but the exact same crew is working all three games this weekend. The referee today is Andrew Bruggeman (#25). The linesmen will be Jordan Solomon (#78) and Michael Miggans (#47).
OTHER COMMENTS
- C.J. Motte has been in Iowa since being recalled two weeks ago. Motte is serving in a back up role and has not played. Iowa has a game today, Tuesday and Thursday. My reporting indicates the goalie Motte is replacing is close to returning. Would be nice to get C.J. back in Allen before the Americans play Utah three times in three days next weekend.
- The alumni game turned out to be the highlight of the day as Team Red came back from a 5-1 deficit to beat Team White 10-7. The boys did a great job of making the game fun and entertaining for themselves and the fans. I am by no means a scout but the players that looked like they are still in good shape, play plenty of hockey and still have lots of skill include Tobias Whelan, Justin Bowers, Trevor Ludwig, Mathieu Aubin and Austin Smith.
- The winners in the Mountain Division last night were Rapid City and Utah and both teams won on the road. The losers were Allen, Idaho, Utah and Tulsa. Here are the current Mountain Division standings based on winning percentage with games remaining in parentheses.
.670 - Utah (22 games remaining)
.635 - Idaho (20 games)
.604 - Tulsa (19 games)
.563 - Kansas City (24 games)
.463 - Rapid City (18 games)
.452 - Wichita (20 games)
.352 - Allen (18 games)
- It is difficult to make huge changes in winning percentage late in the season. With seven weekends remaining in the season it will be very difficult for teams to gain more than .050 in winning percentage. What the stats say if you look at the winning percentages above is Allen will not escape last place and neither Rapid City or Wichita have a chance of catching Kansas City for the final playoff spot. Here is the change in winning percentage over the last five weeks from biggest improvement to biggest loss.
+.052 Allen
+.025 Rapid City
+.007 Kansas City
-.011 Tulsa
-.018 Utah
-.027 Idaho
-.035 Wichita
DID YOU KNOW: With the two losses this weekend the Americans home record is now 6-14-1-0. It is far and away the worst home record in the ECHL. Only one other team (Greenville) has fewer than 10 home wins. Allen's home winning percentage is a lowly .295. It is a long way from just two season ago (2016-17) when Allen's home record was 25-8-2-1 for a winning percentage of .736.
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