The Allen Americans won their 35th game of the season last night with a 4-0 win over the Tulsa Oilers, led by goalie Dereck Baribeau's 34 save shutout and Kayle Doetzel's first two goals of the season.
- Baribeau has had back to back shutouts as a starter, has improved his record to 8-1-0-0, his GAA to 2.57 and his save percentage to .920. 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 now gone 156:31 without allowing a goal. I had the chance to speak with Frederic Chabot, the Minnesota Wild's Goaltending Development Coach, after the game. Chabot works with goalie prospects throughout the Wild organization and is in Allen to work with Baribeau. I was struck by something Frederic said about goalie prospects which was something like, it is easy to find big goalies and it is easy to find fast goalies but it is hard to find big, fast goalies and that is what makes the 21 year old Baribeau a prospect. Chabot also mentioned how fortunate Allen is to have goalie coach Chris Johansen helping out as most ECHL teams do not have a goalie coach.
- Despite his shutout, Baribeau was not selected as the #1 star of the game. That honor went to Kayle Doetzel who had his first two goals of the season including the game winning goal plus an assist to earn the #1 star. To put it in goalie terms, Kayle went just over 2884 minutes to score his first goal of the season and just over 40 minutes to score his second. One of the highlights of the game from my perspective was watching the joy on the face of Kayle and his teammates when he scored his goals.
- The third story line of the game was watching the three players from Iowa (Matt Register, Mitch McLain, Kyle Bauman) perform. They seemed to give the Americans energy and plenty of jump. When you consider Register sat out Iowa's last six games, Bauman the last seven games and McLain the last 11 games, they sure didn't look rusty. Only McLain figured in scoring with a goal but they all had their moments and they should be even better Friday and Saturday before they head back to Iowa on Sunday. The hope is they enjoy their three game stint Allen and would prefer to be with the Americans for the playoffs rather than being in Iowa and not playing.
- Goal scorers for Allen were Kayle Doetzel (1 & 2), Mitch McLain (1) and Les Lancaster (5). Here are the video highlights with all of the goals as well as some great saves by both goalies:
- Here is the game recap issued by the Tulsa Oilers: https://tulsaoilers.com/oilers-fall-to-americans-for-fifth-time/
STEVE MARTINSON'S POST GAME COMMENTS
"How about our goalie with back to back shutouts. He has gone seven periods with out allowing a goal because he played in relief for a period in Kansas City."
"Jake Doty is coming and will be here for the three games over the weekend. I will be interested to see how he plays. We will see him almost 20 pounds lighter than last season. He will return later to get his five games in to qualify for the playoffs."
"I thought the new guys from Iowa all looked good. I think their timing is a little off because they haven't played for a while. What I liked about McLain's goal is he was a beast around the net. He got knocked down but kept moving those defensemen around.
"In the first period our defensemen were not getting the puck to the net even when we had guys in front. We did do that on McLain's goal."
"We get Tulsa again on Friday night and Baribeau will be back in goal looking for his third straight shutout."
"After the NHL/AHL trade deadline next week we will have a better idea of the players we will get from Iowa later in the season and for the playoffs."
"I am going to ask the league to review the hit on Pollock. He had his back completely turned and the guy came up and hit his head into the glass. Pollock was not feeling well after the game."
OTHER COMMENTS
- You may have seen the press release issued by the ECHL on the tour the Kelly Cup is taking to Cincinnati, Maine, Idaho, Greenville and Atlanta. The Americans are well represented in the press release starting with the photo used which is captain Jamie Schaafsma accepting the 2015 Kelly Cup when Allen won their first ECHL championship. There is a lot of good historical info included on the press release including the six players in ECHL history who have their name engraved on the Kelly Cup three times. Riley Gill and Matt Register are two of the six.
- Three former Allen Americans are on the move. Ben Owen was released by Norfolk yesterday so hopefully he will be claimed off waivers by another ECHL team. Dante Salituro was traded from Worcester to Rapid City. Salituro has been well traveled this season. He originally signed with the Indy Fuel and then went overseas to play in Finland. That didn't work out so he returned to Indy and played for two games before being traded to Worcester. After 33 games in Worcester he was traded yesterday to Rapid City for two players, one of them is former Allen forward Tyler Poulsen.
- Four ECHL teams have winning percentages above .700. Fifth place is Cincinnati at .660. Here is the list:
.774 - South Carolina
.730 - Newfoundland
.722 - Allen
.721 - Florida
- The Americans have certainly picked it up defensively in recent games. Allen has allowed a total of four goals over their last four games. After the 4-0 win over Tulsa last night Allen is ranked #12 in average goals allowed at 3.11 and #1 in average goals scored at 4.06.
DID YOU KNOW: A big reason for Allen's great record this season is they have not lost more than two games straight in regulation all season and they have only lost two in a row twice. Allen's record is among the very best in the league when they score first (23-3-1-1), when they lead after the first period (20-3-2-0) and when they lead after the second period (25-1-1-0). Allen is also real good in the third period. Allen is #1 in goal differential in the third period at +20. The Americans have outscored their opponents in the third period 76-56.
It will be fun to see Dante Salituro on the ice again...I just wish it wasn't with him playing against us. At least I am assuming we will play Rapid City again before the end of the regular season...
ReplyDeleteAnd I hate to see that Ben Owen was released. Hopefully a team will pick up our 'hometown boy'. I enjoyed watching him play in the preseason last year (18-19) and was disappointed that he didn't get to stick around. When he was signed this season, I was happy for him getting to play in his hometown. That so rarely happens for professional athletes. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he signs on somewhere else for the remainder of the season.
I missed the game last night because I had to go to class but had the game on and was trying to catch what I could while my instructor was lecturing. I am so excited to see Matt Register play again and in an Allen sweater...I hated it when he went to play for the dreaded Colorado Eagles.