Allen Loses Rubber Match, Game Recap, Video Highlights and More

The Allen Americans lost the rubber match of their three game series against the Rapid City Rush last night by a score of 3-2. A crowd of 4859 left happy as the Rush scored the game winning goal with less than three minutes left in the game. Allen was forced to play shorthanded when their top two scorers (Tyler Sheehy and Olivier Archambault) had to sit out with injuries.


- Allen gave up the first goal at the 1:52 mark of the first period but battled back by breaking their 0-18 power play streak. The Americans scored on their first two power play attempts to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.


- The second period started like the first period with the Rush scoring an early goal. This time it was just 36 seconds into the period. That was the only goal of the second period as the Americans struggled to create even strength opportunities and finished the period with just six shots on goal.


- Allen had the better of the third period with plenty of chances to score, out shooting Rapid City 12-6 but a defensive breakdown gave the Rush the game winner at the 17:31 mark. The Americans power play was great in the first period but could not capitalize on three opportunities in the third period which included power plays just before and just after the game winning goal by the Rush.


- Goal scorers for Allen were Alex Guptill (22) and Alex Breton (9). Here is a link where you can view the video highlights: https://www.echl.com/en/tag?id=5bb763bdd3bc0f20ed973ef0&name=ECHL%20Video


- Here is the Allen Americans game recap: https://allenamericans.com/americans-fall-3-2-in-rapid-city/


- Here is the Rapid City game recap:  https://www.rapidcityrush.com/en/news/2020/romanko-s-pair-gives-rush-the-series-against-echl-s-1


- It had to be a pretty somber group that boarded the bus after the game last night for the long (17+ hour) trip back to Allen. The team should arrive home late this afternoon or early evening. To get only two points from the three games in Rapid City is disappointing. The Americans have now lost three of their last four games. Hopefully they can get things turned around this coming week with three home games on Tuesday (Tulsa), Friday (Tulsa) and Saturday (Wichita).


- I talked briefly with coach Martinson this morning and he commented that the team had plenty of chances to score in the game last night but didn't get the job done. There is a tried bunch on the bus heading for Allen. 



OTHER COMMENTS


- Tyler Coulter, who made the hit to the head that injured Tyler Sheehy in the game on Friday, was suspended for two games for the hit. There was no penalty called in the game but coach Martinson sent in the video clip and after a review the league made the decision to suspended Coulter. You may remember Coulter was in training camp with Allen in 2017-18.



- Newfoundland finally lost at home last night (3-1 to Maine) to end their home winning streak at 19 games. It is the longest home win streak in ECHL history. Here are the top five all-time:

19 - Newfoundland (2019-20)
18 - South Carolina (1994-95)
17 - Wheeling (1994-95)
15 - Louisiana (1999-2000)


- The deadline for players in Europe to return to the ECHL passed yesterday. If you track transactions you probably noticed there were a lot more players heading to Europe in the last two weeks than returning. I mentioned yesterday that former Allen player, Chris Crane, had left the Wichita Thunder. Chris is headed to play for Storhamar in the top league in Norway. The team is located in Hamar, Norway, which has a population of just over 30,000. It is located at the 60th parallel north which in North America would put it between the northern border of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the southern border of the Northwest Territories. Chris is going to a good team that has won seven Norwegian championships, the most recent in 2018. Storhamar is currently in second place in the 10 team league.


- Despite losing three of their last four games the Americans have earned more points over the last 10 games than any other team in the Mountain Division. Here are points earned over the last 10 games:

13 points - Allen
12 points - Utah
12 points - Idaho
12 points - Tulsa
11 points - Rapid City
9 points - Kansas City
4 points - Wichita  



DID YOU KNOW: For my ECHL Stats and Information post today, which you can find at ECHL Stats and Information on Facebook and @ECHLStats on Twitter, I posted the ECHL players with the most multiple point games this season. It is another stat that Tyler Sheehy leads the league. Here is the list of players with the most multiple point games this season:

21 - Tyler Sheehy, Allen Americans
17 - Griffen Molino, Utah Grizzlies
16 - David Vallorani, Brampton Beast
15 - Daniel Leavens, Brampton Beast
15 - Brett McKenzie, Fort Wayne Komets

Doing the research for this post made me wonder how many multiple point games did Chad Costello have back in 2014-15 when he had 125 points and won the scoring title by the largest margin in ECHL history (45 points). What I found was jaw dropping. Chad had multiple points in 38 games and even more amazing he had three or more points in 20 games. Chad had at least one point in 64 of 72 games that season.