Another opportunity squandered by the Allen Americans last night as they lost to Cincinnati 4-3 in overtime before a big crowd of 6050 at Heritage Bank Center. Friday night the Americans gained ground in the playoff hunt by not playing while Tulsa, Wichita and Kansas City lost. Last night Allen earned a point in the overtime loss and lost ground in the playoff race as Tulsa, Wichita and Kansas City all won.
- Allen has one of the worst overtime records in the ECHL and it showed again last night. The Americans were outshot in the overtime 6-2 but were saved time and time again by Antoine Bibeau. It took until the 5:31 mark of the overtime period for the Cyclones to hand Allen its sixth overtime loss in seven overtime decisions.
- Allen played better last night than in the loss on Thursday:
- Allen scored first just 2:34 after opening puck drop.
- Allen had a 2-1 lead midway through the second period.
- After trailing 3-2, Allen tied the score 3-3 on a goal 49 seconds into the third period.
- Allen matched Cincinnati in shots (30-30) in regulation time.
- Allen was 1-2 on the power play.
- Goal scorers for Allen were J.C. Campagna (5), Spencer Asuchak (18) and Branden Troock (14). The scoring was balanced with eight different players getting a point and just one (Phil Beaulieu 2 assists) had multiple points. Here are the video highlights: https://youtu.be/ZuE3QZc09_A
- Game recap from the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/media/game-recap-americans-fall-in-overtime-2/
- Game recap from the Cincinnati Cyclones: https://cycloneshockey.com/news/2022/02/mcleod-lifts-cyclones-to-4-3-overtime-win
- Allen must now try to salvage the series with a win in the final game this afternoon, which has a 2:00 pm (Allen time) puck drop. This team is a lot better than how they are performing. It is difficult to watch such a talented team not get the job done. They have now lost four straight games for the fourth time this season. Since January 8, the Americans have lost two thirds of their games (16 of 24). Allen is quickly running out of time to show they are as good as their resumes.
- The referee scheduled for the game this afternoon is the same as last night, Matt Menniti (#10). Allen fans will remember Menniti was the referee earlier this month in Tulsa that called a penalty on Allen in overtime. The penalty led to the game winning goal.
COACH'S CORNER WITH STEVE MARTINSON
"We played better last night and had great chances to win the game in the last two minutes and in overtime."
"We were more physical in the game last night, Josh Winquist and Chad Costello led the way with several hits."
"On two of their goals we had bad changes and allowed them to pass the puck through the neutral zone."
"We need to get the two points this afternoon and I believe we will be a better team next week when we get Chad Butcher back and players who hadn't played a lot recently get more games under their belt."
"Luke Peressini will get the start in goal today."
"In the first two games of this series we have been called for eight penalties compared to four against them. There have been a lot of non-calls in the games."
OTHER COMMENTS
- Three of the four teams battling for the final playoff spot in the Mountain Division are in action today. In addition to Allen at Cincinnati, Utah is at Kansas City and Rapid City is at Tulsa. Wichita is idle. Here are the Mountain Division standings:
- .675 - Utah
- .575 - Idaho
- .557 - Rapid City
- .530 - Tulsa
- .500 - Allen
- .500 - Wichita
- .490 - Kansas City
- Allen's last five games have been decided by one goal. Unfortunately for the Americans, they lost four of the five. For the season Allen's record in one goal games is 9-7-6-1.
- Jack Combs has a five game road assist streak, it is the second longest current assist streak in the ECHL right now.
- Allen's four game winless streak is the second longest in the league right now. The longest current winning streak belongs to Iowa at six games. Many predicted Iowa would be the worst team in the ECHL this season, especially when they started out losing 14 of the first 18 games. Iowa has fought back and now has a points percentage of .500, the same as the Allen American.
- It was a big night around the ECHL for attendance last night as 12 games averaged almost 5500 fans. Three teams drew over 8000:
- 11,525 - Tulsa
- 8476 - Jacksonville
- 8129 - Toledo
- ECHL average attendance has climbed to 3811 after 663 games. Allen's average attendance is 3081 which is ranked #19 in the league.
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