Between the walking wounded and players wearing the no contact yellow jersey at the Allen Americans practice yesterday, it is amazing how resilient this team has been. I have nothing new to report on the injury update from yesterday and it will be tomorrow before it is known the players that will make the trip to Tulsa.
- The Charlotte Checkers are in Texas playing the Texas Stars and had a rough time last night losing 7-1. Antoine Bibeau played the final 13:22 in a mop up role after Charlotte trailed 6-1. It was Bibeau's first action for the Checkers since February 2. He stopped four of the five shots he faced.
- Charlotte has four goalies on its roster, one has been out with an injury since the end of November. Bibeau doesn't get much playing time because he plays behind the other two goalies.
- Nolan Kneen also played last night. Just looking at the Charlotte roster, it is seems likely he will be back in Allen soon. The Checkers just signed a defensemen from Michigan State and now show a total of 12 defensemen on the roster. By my count they have four out with injuries and eight healthy defensemen. At some point they will have too many defensemen and Kneen should return to Allen.
- Utah beat Kansas City at home last night by a score of 5-4 in overtime. Utah climbed back over the .600 mark in points percentage (.605). The Grizzlies are now ranked #7 in points percentage in the league. Utah and Kansas City play twice more this weekend.
- Rapid City is in the midst of a month long homestand but are idle from March 6 to March 18 so a chance for teams to make up ground on the second place Rush.
- Idaho has to play a three in three game series in Toledo this weekend and is on a four game losing streak. A chance to gain ground on the Steeelheads if they continue to struggle.
- I will have the complete game preview tomorrow but one key to beating Tulsa is getting more shots on goal. Tulsa leads the ECHL in shots, averaging 35.02 per game. Allen is ranked #26 averaging 28.50 shots per game. Allen has lost five of seven games against Tulsa this season (2-3-2-0) and some of shot discrepancies have been very one-sided. Here are a few examples:
- 48-24
- 51-22
- 44-17
One big exception was the Allen 8-0 win in Tulsa on January 16, when the Americans out shot Tulsa 36-27.
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