The Americans got off to a rough start last night in the first game of their three game series in Rapid City. The Rush snapped a six game losing streak beating Allen 3-2 before a crowd of 1892 at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. The Americans never led in the game even though they out shot the Rush 36-28 and won the special teams battle. Allen's two goals came on a shorthanded goal by Josh Lammon with nine seconds left in the first period to tie the score 1-1 and a power play goal by Jake McGrew with less than three minutes left in the game to make the score 3-2. Where the Americans struggled was even strength as the were outscored by the Rush 3-0 when playing 5-on-5 hockey.
- Here is the game recap issued by the Rapid City Rush with all of the details: https://www.rapidcityrush.com/en/news/2021/1/rush-end-skid-with-win-against-americans
- If you are interested in video highlights the only ones I could find were on the Rapid City website and they only show the three Rush goals.
- Tyler Sheehy assisted on Josh Lammon's shorthanded goal to keep both of his str eaks alive. Tyler has the longest streak in the ECHL this season for points (8 games) and assists (6 games). Joe Garreffa had his three game streak of scoring a goal and an assist broken but he did get an assist on Jake McGrew's power play goal. Garreffa leads the Americans in points with 11 (5G, 6A) followed by Sheehy with 10 (2G, 8A). McGrew's goal was his sixth of the season. Jesse Mychan is the team leader with seven.
- The Americans have the day off today before game two of the series tomorrow (Friday 8:05 pm Allen time). There will be a light practice today for most of the players. Some players that are banged up will not practice but everyone should be available for the game on Friday. Coach Martinson told me practice will primarily be drills to work on getting pucks through from the point, an area that was lacking in the game last night. I will have a complete game preview tomorrow but it is clear two keys will be to get off to a better start and be more competitive even strength.
OTHER COMMENTS
- The Americans power play has now scored a goal in each their last four games going 4-23 (17.4%). Overall Allen's power play is now ranked #6 (14.6%). The penalty kill has also been improving. In the last four games the Americans killed 15 of 17 opportunities for a penalty kill percentage 88.2%. Overall they are now ranked #6 (84.8%).
- Jesse Mychan was selected yesterday as the ECHL Player of the Month for December. Here is the ECHL press release with the details: https://www.echl.com/en/news/2021/1/allen-mychan-named-warrior-hockey-echl-player-of-the-month
- Average ECHL attendance (48 games played) is 2180 ranging from Florida who is averaging 3425 per game to Wheeling who is averaging 924 per game. The Allen Americans are ranked #8 with an average of 1968 per game.
DID YOU KNOW: A total of 321 players have played for Allen since the franchise started in 2009-10. Here are the nationalities of every player that has played for the Allen Americans (data from eliteprospects.com) :
189 - Canada
121 - United States
3 - Czech Republic (Patrick Valcak, Josef Fojtik, Pavel Jenys)
2 - Italy (Brian Ihnacak*, Devin DiDiomete*)
1 - Sweden (Greger Hanson)
1 - Belarus (Stepan Falkovsky)
1 - Germany (Konrad Abeltshauser)
1 - Latvia (Nikita Jevpalovs)
1 - United Kingdom (Dallas Ehrhardt*)
*Canadians with dual citizenship
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