The Allen Americans road winning streak was extended to six games last night with a 3-2 shootout win over the Utah Grizzlies before a crowd of 2141 at the Maverik Center. The teams will play their third game in 42 hours this afternoon. In what will be one of the shortest turnarounds ever, just 15 hours and 19 minutes will elapse between the final horn last night and puck drop today (1:10 pm Mountain Time).
- Once again Allen got off to a good start when Josh Lammon scored the only goal of the first period 92 seconds into the game. It was the fifth straight game (all wins) Allen has scored first. The Americans improved their record when scoring first to 10-1. Their record with a first period lead is now 8-0.
- Allen extended their lead to 2-0 early in the second period (2:11) but that was the end of the Americans scoring in regulation time. Allen let Utah back in the game giving up an even strength goal at 14:55 of the second period and a 5-on-3 power play goal in the third period (10:27) to send the game to over time.
- Allen had 26 seconds of power play time carry over from regulation to overtime but couldn't capitalize. Allen had the better opportunities in overtime outshooting Utah 7-2 but could not get the game winner.
- The home team decides who shoots first in the shootout and Utah sent Allen out first. Conner Bleackley was first up and missed but so did Utah. Corey Mackin led off the second round and missed, so did Utah. Jesse Mychan scored in round three and rookie goalie Justin Kaplemaster got the best of Utah's veteran, Pat Connone, who is 34 and playing in his first ECHL season after a long career (497 games) in the AHL, to win the game.
- The goal scorers for Allen were Josh Lammon (4) and Phillip Beaulieu (1). Mychan gets the goal to win the game in a shootout but doesn't get official credit for a goal or the game winning goal. I have never understood that rule. Here are the video highlights with the goals, the fights and the hit of the game. Remember, if you can't open the video you can find it at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q62kMEIFs7o&t=3s
- Here is the game recap issued by the Utah Grizzlies: https://www.utahgrizzlies.com/en/grizzlies-news/grizzlies-fall-in-shootout-3-2
- Allen met all of the keys to the game. They scored first, out shot Utah 33-29, gave up a power play goal but also scored a power play goal and took advantage of extra time. Allen is 2-0 in extra time games, Utah is 0-5 having lost three times in overtime and twice in shootouts.
- Today Allen will have a chance to finish off 10 straight road games with a win. It has already been very successful for the Americans having won eight of nine and six in a row on the road. Playing three games in three days is never easy but with the short turnaround with a 1:10 pm local time start (2:10 pm CST) and playing at altitude it will be a will over skill game for sure. In case you were wondering the difference in elevation between the DFW area and Salt Lake City area is almost 4000 feet.
- One thing working in Allen's favor is they have been playing more players up front (11) than Utah (9) for most of the first two games.
- Coach Martinson plans on a couple of lineup changes today. Defenseman Ben Carroll will play and Jake Paterson will get the start in goal.
OTHER COMMENTS
- The top teams in both conferences (Allen, Wichita, Indy, Florida) all won last night. The only top team to lose was South Carolina who lost to Florida. It is still early in the season but the top five teams have separated themselves from the rest. Five teams have point percentages above .700. Indy (.857), Allen (.800), South Carolina (.731), Wichita (.708) and Florida (.706). The other eight teams are all below .568 in points percentage.
- Here is a great article written by Tony Androckitis of insideahlhockey.com about the AHL return to play. The AHL Board of Governors (BOG) will meet tomorrow to consider the return to play proposals. There is a lot of detail in this story and the decision by the BOG will impact all AHL players including those assigned to Allen now and in the future. A good read: https://insideahlhockey.com/article/details-emerge-on-changes-to-ahls-cba-for-2020-21-season
- Checkout the Jamie Schaafsma interview where he talks about his career, his teams, his coaches, life after playing hockey and coaching his children. You hear a lot about his thoughts on leadership and coaching. He talks at length about playing for Steve Martinson and why Martinson has won so many championships. Toward the end of the interview Jamie talks about the respect he has for guys that fight and his regret he never learned that skill early in his career. This interview is 45 minutes but worth a listen from start to finish. If you can't open the video you can find it on YouTube by searching "Podcast 22 - Jamie Schaafsma"
- There are five games in the ECHL this afternoon and three of them are the third game in three days so you might see some fireworks. Jacksonville is at Greenville, Rapid City at Wichita and Allen at Utah. The other two games have Wheeling at Indy and South Carolina at Orlando. Here is the ECHL preview of all five games today: https://www.echl.com/en/news/2021/1/echl-today-jan-31
- After some tough times with a lot of players going on the Commissioner's Exempt List (CEL) and many games being postponed things are turning around. In the last three days just one player has been added to the CEL and 23 have been activated from the CEL.
DID YOU KNOW: Jamie Schaafsma played three seasons in Allen and won three championships. He was the playoff MVP in 2013-14 and team captain in 2014-15. Jamie signed with Fort Wayne in 2015-16 and was captain of the Komets for four season until he retired after the 2018-19 season.
In his three seasons in Allen (2012-13 to 2014-15) Jamie was the leader in the playoffs in games (61), goals (20), assists (28) and points (48).
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