Eight Games Remaining, The Outlook, The History, Meet Allen Forward Malcolm Gould, Minnesota Hockey All Hair Team and Martinson Milestones Revisited

The anticipation of Steve Martinson's 1000th win is now in the rear view mirror and it is back to the grind of trying to win as many of the remaining eight games of the season as possible. Yes, there will be Martinson bobble head night, media appearances and other events to acknowledge his 1000 wins but his focus will remain winning the next game.


- What is left of the season is six straight home games with Tulsa (3/12), Wichita (3/17 & 3/30) and  Utah (3/22,23,29) followed by the final two games on the road in Wichita (4/5&6).


-  Back in November, based on the standings and history, I predicted Allen, Wichita and Rapid City would not make the playoffs and things have headed that way ever since. However, recently the teams at the bottom of the standings are playing better and those at the top are playing worse. Could some team make a run up the standings or down the standings in the last month? It is possible but not probable. The good team playing poorly is Utah who has lost 10 of their last 11 games but still has a five point lead over fourth place Kansas City. Allen is tied for the best record in the division over the last 10 games but is still a long shot to escape the cellar. Here are points earned in the last 10 games for all seven Mountain Division teams.

12 points - Allen
12 points - Tulsa
11 points - Kansas City
10 points - Wichita
10 points - Rapid City
10 points - Idaho
5 points - Utah

Here are the current Mountain Division Standings with games remaining in parentheses:

75 points - Idaho (11 games remaining)
74 points - Tulsa (11 games)
72 points - Utah (12 games)
67 points - Kansas City (13 games)
58 points - Rapid City (10 games)
57 points - Wichita (11 games)
50 points - Allen (8 games)



 - You can see from the points earned (above) it has been hard to gain points on other teams. Utah has only lost six points to fourth place Kansas City even though they have lost nine of their last 10 games with a record of  1-6-0-3. The odds still favor the top three teams staying on top and the bottom three teams staying on the bottom with Kansas City staying in the middle.


- Allen's fate as the worst team in the Mountain Division is almost sealed. To get out of last place is not mathematically out of the cards yet but it is close. If the Americans finish the season with a record of 8-0-0-0, which is highly unlikely since their longest win streak of the season is five games, they would still finish in last place if Wichita finishes 4-6-1-0 and Rapid City finishes 4-6-0-0.


- Unless something out of the ordinary happens over the last eight games, this season will end with the fewest goals scored and most goals allowed of any team Steve Martinson has coached in his 23 years as a coach. It will also be the fewest goals scored and most allowed in Allen Americans history.


- If you were at the game on Saturday you saw Mitch Maloney take a hard hit when he crashed into the goal post head first. He barely made it to the bench and left the ice shortly there after and did not return to the game. All indications are he will be out a while dealing with an upper body injury.


- When Maloney left the game on Saturday newly acquired forward Malcolm Gould got more ice time. Gould was acquired last week at the trade deadline from the Newfoundland Growlers. He is a 5'11" 185 pound right shot forward who is 26 years old. After finishing his collegiate career at Michigan Tech, Gould played overseas (France & Scotland) for two seasons before returning to North America this season. He has not played much this season after suffering a broken jaw. At Michigan Tech Malcolm became the voice of the team when they would do activities and wanted to share a video about the activity with the fans. Gould was given the mic and told to go with the flow and it was a hit with fans so it became a recurring act. Here is an example of "Good Times With Gouldy"

- The Minnesota boys high school hockey tournament took place this past week. A tradition that has grown out of the tournament is the selection of the "all hair team" and it is always accompanied with bad humor that is a lot of fun. Here is the 2019 edition of the Minnesota State High School All Hockey Hair Team, the full 10 minute version of frivolity.

- If you had trouble with the link in the blog yesterday to the story Rick Gosselin wrote about Steve Martinson's 1000 wins here it is again. The website had some technical problems so if you tried accessing the story with your phone you may have had a problem. All is okay now. Here is the link to a must read story: https://footballmaven.io/talkoffame/nfl/steve-martinson-becomes-third-pro-hockey-coach-with-1-000-victories-BmzS1E-wf0-BnmK8RSXWSw/




DID YOU KNOW: Here is when and where Steve Martinson won his milestone games on his way to 1000 wins. Martinson is #3 in pro wins as a coach and will pass John Brophy (1027 wins) for second place next season and then set his sights on #1 Scotty Bowman with 1244 wins.

100 - San Diego (1998)
200 - San Diego (2000)
300 - San Diego (2002)
400 - Rockford (2004)
500 - Rockford (2006)
600 - Elmira (2008)
700 - Chicago (2012)
800 - Allen (2014)
900 - Allen (2017)
1000 - Allen (2019)