Chad Butcher scored his second goal of the night with 1:49 left in the game off a perfect back door pass from Les Lancaster to lead Allen to a 3-2 comeback win last night over the Kansas City Mavericks. A Wednesday night crowd of 1891 watched the Americans fight back from an early 2-0 deficit to win the opening game of a four game series with the Mavericks.
- There was no scoring in the first period but plenty of excitement. As predicted the Americans had not forgotten that one of the Maverick's tough guys had jumped one of Allen's skill players the last time the Americans were in Kansas City. The long memory resulted in two fights by the midpoint of the first period. Allen out shot the Mavericks 14-8 in the first period but the game was scoreless at the first intermission.
- The tight game turned quickly as Kansas City scored twice in the middle of the second period in just 48 seconds. The first goal was scored on the power play and the second on a turnover off a clearing pass from behind the net.
- Allen was able to cut the score to 2-1 at the 14:33 mark of the second period on a great individual effort by Chad Butcher. Chad won a puck battle along the wall, skated to the slot and put a wicked backhand top shelf past the Mavericks goalie.
- Allen completed the comeback with two third period goals. The tying goal was scored by Zane Franklin after Tim Doherty made a great pass to Colby McAuley to send him in all alone on a breakaway. Colby was stopped but managed to pass the puck from behind the net to Franklin who used a backhand to bury the puck.
- The game winning goal came with under two minutes remaining in regulation time. An Allen power play had just expired when Lancaster made a sweet pass from the side boards to Butcher who was skating toward the net on the weak side. Two things to note when you watch the replay on this game winning goal. Notice the Kansas City player coming back into the play after his penalty expired couldn't quite get to Lancaster before he passed the puck. Also notice Butcher slapping his stick on the ice to show he was open. A nice play at both ends to complete the Allen comeback.
- Again the goal scorers for Allen were Chad Butcher (1,2) and Zane Franklin (5). Here are the video highlights from the Allen Americans YouTube channel with the goals and the fights:
- Here is the game recap from the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/general/americans-rally-back-to-beat-kansas-city-3-2/
- I checked in with coach Martinson this morning and here are some of his comments:
"Anytime you can come back from a 2-0 deficit is a good night."
"We are playing better team defense recently."
"The forwards are consistently coming back hard on defense."
"I am still working on adding another defenseman, something could happen as soon as today."
- Les Lancaster's assist on the game winning goal was his 20th of the season to go along with his league leading 11 goals among defensemen. Les has six points (2G,4A) in his last six games. His 31 points rank him #2 in points by defensemen just one behind the leader.
- Goalie Francis "Frank" Marotte stopped 31 of 33 shots to improve his record to 3-1-0-1. Marotte's GAA is now 2.50 and his save percentage is .919. Frank gave up five goals in his lone regulation loss but in his other four starts he allowed just two goals in each game.
- Two players that don't get enough credit, maybe because they rarely show up on the scoreboard, are defensemen Ben Carroll and Will Lochead. Blocking shots, killing penalties, dropping the gloves and putting their bodies on the line were keys to Allen's win last night. Both of these guys have improved as the season has progressed.
OTHER COMMENTS
- Was asked about suspensions for too many fights and how close is Zane Franklin to getting suspended? As a reminder the rule (23.7) states, "A player who incurs a total of 10 fighting major penalties shall be suspended automatically for the next league game of his team." For each subsequent fighting majors the player gets a one game suspension until they reach 14 when the suspension increases to two games for each fighting major. Franklin is in good shape as he has had five fighting majors thus far with 57% of the season completed.
- The Western Conference standings have a different look with Wichita now in first place and Tulsa in last place.
.670 - Wichita
.667 - Fort Wayne
.646 - Allen
.558 - Utah
.523 - Kansas City
.500 - Rapid City
.489 - Tulsa
DID YOU KNOW: Here is my ECHL Stats post from today which shows Allen is one of the top ECHL teams in both shorthanded goals scored (#3) and shorthanded goals allowed (#1).
Interesting article about the Americans Police jersey from this past weekend. https://deadspin.com/in-one-texas-town-a-dead-black-man-and-a-hockey-team-s-1846643677
ReplyDeleteJeremy, thanks for sharing. I was oblivious to this issue and totally unaware of the controversy. No matter anyone's point of view this article is food for thought.
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