The Allen Americans moved their record to 3-1 last night as they defeated the Utah Grizzlies 5-4 in overtime. A Saturday night crowd of 4805 at the Allen Event Center (AEC) watched the Americans come from behind in the third period and win in overtime on a goal by Gabe Gagne. The moniker of "come back kids" has applied to the Americans thus far this season as all three of victories their have involved a third period comeback.
- Unlike Friday night when Allen was outplayed, outworked and outscored 4-0 in the first period, last night the Americans came out with great energy and jumped on Utah with an early goal (3:58 mark) by Shawn O'Donnell. After Utah's Josh Dickson scored his fourth goal in four periods against Allen to tie the score 1-1, Olivier Archambault scored late in the period to give Allen the lead 2-1 going into the first intermission.
- Everything changed in the second period especially after Allen took a 3-1 lead on Gabe Gagne's first goal of the season. When the dust settled on the second period the Americans were out shot 21-6 and out scored 3-1. Utah took a 4-3 lead into the second intermission.
- The third period was a stellar one for the Americans. The only goal of the period was the game tying goal on a great individual effort by defenseman Stepan Falkovsky. What saved the day for Allen was two long 5-on-3 penalty kills with some great saves by goalie Jake Paterson.
- It took just 78 seconds into the overtime period for Gabe Gagne to take a pass from Les Lancaster and rifle a shot passed the Utah goalie. Here is the Sporfie highlight where you can see how an odd man rush for Allen was set up when a Utah player slid into Jake Paterson.
- Here are the complete game highlights with all of the goals and some great saves by the goalies:
- Here is the game recap issued by the Utah Grizzlies: https://www.utahgrizzlies.com/en/grizzlies-news/grizzlies-lose-5-4-in-overtime-at-allen
STEVE MARTINSON'S POST GAME COMMENTS
- Here is coach Martinson's post game interview:
- Here are some comments from coach Martinson's post game meeting with the season ticket holders:
"We have some work to do, we have to get in a little better shape. Utah's small and fast, speedy forwards did some damage to us."
"We had a great start and scored some good goals and then we had trouble getting pucks and made too many turnovers and that gave them momentum."
"Killing off two 5-on-3 penalties in the third period was huge."
"I don't think we have worked enough on our down low game, getting pucks in and working the corners."
"With all of the turnovers and not getting the pucks in deep we made their good forwards look very good."
"The good news is we are 3-1 and we have some work to do and can play a lot better. We have the guys capable of doing that."
"One advantage of playing so many home games this early in the season is we have a lot of practice time to work on things. We will have drills all four days next week getting the puck in deep and grinding out shifts. We want to carry the puck and make plays but if there is no play to be made we have to get pucks in deep."
OTHER COMMENTS
- Goalie Dereck Baribeau has been placed on injured reserve so he will be out a minimum of 14 days. Baribeau has been replaced Evan Weninger who cleared waivers and has been re-signed by Allen.
- Matt Register and Josh Atkinson were in the lineup for Iowa last night as the Wild beat Manitoba 4-2. Turner Ottenbreit was a healthy scratch.
- Les Lancaster leads all ECHL defensemen in scoring with six points (0G, 6A). Stepan Falkovsky is tied for second with five points (2G, 3A).
- Three ECHL teams remain undefeated. Idaho is 4-0 and will be in Allen for games on Saturday and Sunday next weekend. Florida and South Carolina are 3-0.
- Florida leads the ECHL, taking an average of 37.67 shots per game while allowing the fewest shots per game at 23.33. A shot differential of +14.34 says the Everblades will be a team to beat again in 2019-20.
- No blog tomorrow (Monday) but will post a blog Tuesday morning.
DID YOU KNOW: Allen is yet to take a major penalty this season but is averaging six minor penalties per game. Last season the Americans led the ECHL in minor penalties (423), 10 minutes misconduct penalties (23), game misconduct penalties (30) and match penalties (7).
What I like about the team is that they don't "give up." I think the difference last night is the team started to play a little more physical and that got Utah off their game.
ReplyDeleteOne thing we were commenting on during Friday and Saturday night's games, is the fact that Utah puts on a 'full court press', for lack of a better way to describe it. We just don't seem to put pressure down the entire length of the ice. Utah seemed to force a lot of turnovers in our zone and in the neutral zone by putting pressure on us all the way up the ice. I don't recall Allen ever making that a part of the regular game plan like Utah does. I don't know why and I'm curious as to why we don't...
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