Allen vs Tulsa Preview, Roster Update, ECHL Scoring First Stats and More

Welcome to another one of those dreaded weekends when the Allen Americans play three games in 48 hours with a little bus time thrown in for good measure. The Americans are at home tonight (Friday) to take on Tulsa and Saturday to take on Wichita. Then they travel to Tulsa for a game against the Oilers on Sunday afternoon.


- The roster changes seem to come fast and furious these days. The three players assigned by Iowa (Matt Register, Mitch McLain, Kyle Bauman) will play tonight and Saturday before heading back to Iowa on Sunday. Jake Doty, who has been with the Ontario Reign (AHL) all season, arrived yesterday afternoon and will play all three games this weekend before heading back to Ontario.


- Brett Pollock, who was injured in the game on Tuesday, will not play tonight and will likely be out all weekend. Stepan Falkovsky, will be out of the lineup tonight as he will be serving the second game of his two game suspension. Les Lancaster has been loaned to an AHL team. Cole Fraser, who has been out with an injury and hasn't played since January 30, will be back in the lineup.


- Tonight Allen will be missing the top point scorer in the ECHL (Tyler Sheehy), the top goal scoring defenseman in the league (Stepan Falkovsky) plus Pollock's 42 points. They still have plenty of firepower in the lineup and watching Register, Doty, McClain and Bauman may be worth the price of admission and a preview of who may be on the playoff roster.


- Coach Martinson announced after the game on Tuesday that Dereck Baribeau would get the start tonight.  Baribeau has had back to back shutouts as a starter. The last time Dereck allowed a goal was in the third period back on February 1st. Since that time he has appeared in four games (started two) and has gone 156:31 without allowing a goal.


- It is a sign of the times that more and more AHL contracted players are on ECHL rosters. Allen will probably have nine contracted players in uniform tonight with three more (Sheehy, Boka, Falkovsky) on the sidelines.  


- The game tonight will be game number seven of 13 Allen will play Tulsa this season. Allen is 5-1-0-0 in the six games these teams have played thus far. Tulsa has been battling to get back in the playoff picture after a poor start to the season. The Oilers are three points behind Rapid City for the fourth and final playoff spot (Rapid City has three games in hand) with 16 games remaining. The games against Allen are very important in their quest to make the playoffs. 


- Scoring first is so important (see Did You Know below) and the stats bear that out. Allen is 23-3-1-1 when scoring first while Tulsa is 17-7-1-1. In their six head to head games this season Allen has scored first in five of them.


- Another key to look for tonight is shots on goals. Tulsa is #1 in the ECHL in shots on goals (36.09) but in the 4-0 win on Tuesday, Allen out shot the Oilers 36-34. If the Americans can keep the shots close it will give them the edge because they have a much better shooting percentage (12.2% vs 8.5%) than Tulsa.


- Head to head Allen has the advantage on special teams. The Americans have scored power play goals in three of the six games for an overall percentage of 15.4% (4-26). Tulsa scored two power play goals in the only game they have beaten Allen this season but were blanked in the other five. Their power play percentage is 10.0% (2-20). 


OTHER COMMENTS

- Utah is idle tonight so Allen will have the opportunity to lengthen their seven point lead over the Grizzlies. Utah is at home and will play Kansas City on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The Grizzlies then travel to Idaho to play the Steelheads on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. With six games in eight days Utah will have the chance to gain some ground on the Americans.


- Here is the ECHL Today with a preview of all 10 games in the ECHL tonight.  https://www.echl.com/en/news/2020/2/echl-today-feb-21


- Two University of Minnesota alums are at tho top of the ECHL rookie charts. Tyler Sheehy leads all rookies in points (64), goals (25) and assists (39). Jack Sadek is the leader in plus/minus (+27). 

 


DID YOU KNOW: Here is the ECHL Stats and Information post from this morning which shows the importance of scoring first: 

How important is scoring the first goal of a game? Five ECHL teams are almost unbeatable when scoring first with winning percentages above .850. All of these teams are in the top seven in the ECHL in points:

.911 - Reading Royals
.909 - South Carolina Stingrays
.865 - Cincinnati Cyclones
.857 - Allen Americans
.854 - Utah Grizzlies