Allen vs Tulsa Preview, ECHL Playoffs and the Stats on Players Scoring Four or Five Goals in a Game

It is game day for Allen and the start of another grueling weekend for the Americans. Anytime you play three games in 48 hours it is a grind. Allen plays Tulsa at home tonight then the Americans travel to Tulsa to play the Oilers on Saturday and then head back to Allen to take on Rapid City on Sunday.


- Tonight the Americans try to extend their four game winning streak which is their longest (tied) winning streak of the season. The game tonight will be the 10th of 13 games against Tulsa this season. Allen's record in the first nine games against the Oilers was 2-6-1-0.


- Tulsa arrives in Allen battling for the Mountain Division championship while Allen is battling to escape the division cellar. Tulsa's record is 31-20-4-2, Allen's record is 20-32-4-2.


- When you look at the head to head stats you find some interesting numbers. In the nine previous games Tulsa has the edge in goals 26-23. However, Allen's two wins against the Oilers were both shutouts with C.J. Motte in goal. On November 17 the Americans beat Tulsa 2-0 and on January 25 they beat the Oilers 5-0.


- As I mentioned yesterday the biggest difference between Allen and Tulsa relates to shots. Tulsa is ranked #1 in the ECHL in average shots taken per game (35.95) compared to Allen who is ranked #19 (30.90). To go along with taking the most shots the Oilers are also ranked #1 in allowing shots, giving up an average of 25.88 shots per game. This compares to Allen who is ranked #26 allowing an average of 36.07 shots per game. It computes to a shot differential of  +10.07 for Tulsa and -5.17 for Allen. Tulsa and Allen have played nine times this season and the Oilers have out shot the Americans in all nine. Tulsa's  total shots advantage is a staggering 351-230.


- If you look at the nine head to head games on special teams the Americans power play was 5-32 (15.6%) and Tulsa's power play was 5-43 (11.6%). What is notable in these numbers is Tulsa has had 11 more power play opportunities than Allen. The Americans lead the ECHL with 337 minor penalties, Tulsa has been called for 275 minor penalties. Coach Martinson talks about untimely stick penalties all of the time and that will be a key for Allen if they expect to win.


- If you look at season long special team stats these teams are close. The Oilers road power play percentage is 14.8% compared to Allen's home power play percentage of 15.6%. The Oilers road penalty kill percentage is 85.3% compared to Allen's home penalty kill percentage of 81.3%.


- Scoring first is always key but even more so against Tulsa. The Oilers have one of the best records in the league when scoring first, 20-1-3-1. When Allen allows the first goal their record is 8-27-0-1.


- Tulsa is almost unbeatable with a first period lead on the road with a record of 11-1-1-0. Not so true for the Americans who have managed a first period lead at home only eight times all season but in those eight games have a record of 3-4-1-0. A good start for the Americans is an almost must in the game tonight.


- Fans will have the chance to see the top two goals scorers in the ECHL tonight. Adam Pleskach and Zach Pochiro have a lot in common. They both wear #18, they have both had a four goal game this season and they are #1 (Pleskach, 30 goals)  and #2 (Pochiro, 29 goals) in the league in the goal scoring race. One difference between Pochiro and Pleskach is the number of shots they take. Pleskach is known for shooting the puck from everywhere which is why he leads the league in shots with 247 which is 37 more shots than second place. His shooting percentage is 12.1%. Pochiro has scored his 29 goals on 173 shots for a shooting percentage of 16.8%.


- Zack Pochiro leads the ECHL with 12 power play goals, Adam Pleskach is #5 with 10 power play goals. 


- Another Tulsa player to keep an eye on the is #8 Charlie Sampair. He leads the ECHL in game winning goals. Sampair has only scored 14 goals this season but seven of them have been game winners. Two of his game winning goals have been against Allen.


- If you are looking for positive stats Allen has won four straight while Tulsa has lost three of their last five games. Allen has averaged over five goals per game during this winning streak. Three players that have stood out for Allen are Alex Breton, Dante Salituro and Riley Bourbonnais. All of them had points in every game of the current four game win streak.  Breton had eight points (5G, 3A),  Salituro 10 points (3G, 7A) and Bourbonnais had seven points (3G, 4A).


- It is expected Alex Ranger will be back in the lineup tonight. Joel Chouinard is day to day but has not participated in practice. Chase Lang, who was injured in practice last week, will not be available this weekend.


- C.J. Motte will be in goal tonight but don't be surprised if newly acquired goalie, Lukas Hafner, gets  a start in one of the games this weekend. You don't trade for an experienced goalie like Hafner without giving him a chance to play. He hasn't played for a couple of weeks so if practice went as expected the last few days it would be most likely he would get the start in Tulsa on Saturday.


- The referee scheduled tonight is Jarred Mitrano (#14). The linesmen will be Jordan Solomon (#78) and Brian Bull (#95).



OTHER NEWS

- Former Allen defenseman, Miles Liberati, who was traded to Indy by the Americans at the end of October was traded again yesterday. Indy traded Miles to the South Carolina Stingrays.


-  There are 12 games in the ECHL tonight and a lot of playoff spots are on the line during the last month of the season. The Mountain Division is pretty much decided with the top four teams (Idaho, Utah, Tulsa, Kansas City) separating themselves from the bottom three (Wichita, Rapid City, Allen).  In the North Division just seven points separates third place (Manchester) from last place (Reading). In the South Division three teams (South Carolina, Atlanta, Norfolk) are vying for the last playoff spot and they are separated by two points. In the Central Division third place (Kalamazoo) is only six points ahead of last place (Indy). Here is the ECHL Today with short previews on all of the games tonight. https://www.echl.com/en/news/2019/3/echl-today-march-1


- The best boys high school hockey tournament in the country gets underway this week and I am always reminded of when I was in high school in the 1960's and it was just one big tournament for all schools big or small. Minnesota didn't have two classes of hockey (big schools/small schools) until the early 1990's. It was always great to watch the small schools from northern Minnesota come down to St. Paul and beat the much larger Minneapolis and St. Paul schools for the state championship. Little towns like Roseau, Warroad and Coleraine with populations of 1000-2000 back then have won 15 state championships. The championship games will be a week from Saturday and will sell out the Excel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild, that has a capacity of 17,954.       



DID YOU KNOW: I was doing some research for my ECHL Stats (@ECHLStats) Twitter account this morning and was looking at the number of times players have scored four or five goals in a game. This season four players (Zach Pochiro, Adam Pleskach, Chris Izmirlian, Nick Bligh) have four goals in  a game. The number of four goal games has gone down the last two seasons and there  hasn't been a five goal game since April, 2017.  Here are the number of 4+ goal games over the last six ECHL seasons with the names and dates of the five goal scorers:

2018-19 - 4 times
2017-18 - 3 times
2016-17 - 8 times  Dane Walters (Toledo) had five goals on April 8, 2017
2015-16 - 6 times  Evan Rankin (Toledo) had five goals on February 4, 2016
2014-15 - 8 times  Shawn Szydlowski (Fort Wayne) scored five goals on March 21, 2015
2013-14 - 5 times  Kyle Kraemer (Ontario) scored five goals on January 1, 2014


Dante Salituro had four goals in a game last season when he was playing for Rapid City and Jack Combs had four goals for Allen in December, 2014 when the Americans were still in the CHL.