Rookies Lead Allen to Shootout Win, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Stats and More

 

The Allen Americans finished the first half of their six game road trip with a 5-4 shootout win over the Fort Wayne Komets last night before a disappointed crowd of 7717 at Memorial Coliseum. Allen returns home today before heading to Idaho on Tuesday for the final three games of the road trip. 

 

- Splitting with division leading Cincinnati while playing shorthanded and beating Fort Wayne, who had won three straight, was a great result for the Americans to get them back to the .500 mark. Allen has now won three of its last four games.

- Allen scored the first goal of the game last night but it took until the 5:46 mark of the second period. Liam Finlay scored the first of his three goals. Scoring first has been an almost perfect predictor of Allen's success this season. Here are the stats:

• 5-0-1-0: When Allen scores first
• 0-5-0-0: When Allen doesn't score first

 

-  There were eight goals scored in this game (plus a shootout goal) and seven of them were scored in the second period. Allen took a 2-0 lead on Zachary Massicotte's first professional goal before Fort Wayne scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead. Allen responded with two more Liam Finlay goals at 18:09 and 18:58 to take a 4-3 lead into the second intermission

 

- Fort Wayne tied the score 4-4 midway through the third period on a power play goal and that was the end of the regulation scoring. Allen did a great job of getting the game to a shootout. The Americans were out shot 4-0 in the overtime period which included killing off a full two minute 4-on-3 power play.

- Hank Crone was the hero in the shootout. Both teams missed in the first round with the Komets going first. Fort Wayne missed in the second round before Crone went forehand, backhand, forehand and slid the puck in the net. Luke Peressini stopped the third Komets shooter to give Allen the win. Peressini had to play Friday night in Cincinnati and Saturday night in Fort Wayne since Allen was using an EBUG. In the two games, Luke faced close to 100 shots (95) including the three shootout attempts and compiled a save percentage of .916. 

 

- Liam Finlay led Allen with four points including a hat trick. It was the first Allen hat trick since late last season when Josh Winquist (who scored a goal for Fort Wayne last night) and Branden Troock both had hat tricks just 10 days apart. 

 

- The line of Combs-Finlay-Crone had three of Allen's four goals plus the shootout goal which doesn't get included in official stats. They also had six of the seven assists awarded in the game. It is a dynamic trio with the oldest player on the team and two rookies. The trio lead the team in points, goals and assists and are moving up the ECHL leader board. Here are a few of their stats:

• 15 points (7G, 8A) - Jack Combs (#6 in the ECHL
  
• 14 points (6G, 8A) - Hank Crone (#9 in the ECHL)
  
• 14 points (5G, 9A) - Liam Finlay (#9 in the ECHL)
• The trio has scored 56% of Allen's goals (18 of 32)
• The trio has 52% of Allen's assists (43 of 82)
• Crone and Finlay are tied for #4 in ECHL rookie scoring

- How much faith does coach Costello have in these two rookies? They accounted for three goals and four assists in regulation. Finlay was out with Combs to start the overtime and Crone was out with Hargrove in the second group. When the game went to a shootout, the first shooter for Allen was Finlay and the second was Crone. I would say that is a lot of faith!

- Here is the game recap from the Allen Americans:  https://allenamericans.com/media/americans-win-in-a-shootout-2/

 

- Here is the game recap from the Fort Wayne paper: https://www.journalgazette.net/sports/professional/komets/ice-chips/we-need-to-stay-out-of-the-box-komets-know-in-wake-of-shootout-loss/article_a9c40c06-688c-11ed-89d6-affe9d94730c.html

 

- Here are the video highlights posted by Fort Wayne: https://youtu.be/bKosENU5Z9o

 

 

 

OTHER COMMENTS

 - Allen played with a full group of skaters last night (6 defensemen, 11 forwards) for the first time in a long time. The Americans are still playing with an EBUG. Last night Nico Blachman returned from a two game suspension and center Joe Widmar played in his first game since being claimed off waivers from Norfolk. He played 13 games with Norfolk and scored nine points (5G, 4A). The well traveled Widmar has played for eight ECHL teams since joining the league in 2017-18.

- Four ECHL teams are averaging over 7000 in attendance in 2022-23:

• 7946 - Jacksonville
• 7670 - Fort Wayne
• 7663 - Tulsa
• 7235 - Toledo

- There are seven ECHL games scheduled today with all Mountain Division teams except Allen in action. Rapid City is at Tulsa, Kansas City visits Wichita and Idaho will be at Utah. Here is the ECHL Today with the previews: https://www.echl.com/en/news/2022/11/echl-today-nov-20

 

- If  Utah doesn't win today, Allen will move into a playoff spot (by points percentage). The current standings by points percentage to account for various numbers of games played:

• .792 - Idaho
• .750 - Wichita
• .650 - Kansas City
• .500 - Utah
• .500 - Allen
• .417 - Rapid City
• .400 - Tulsa 

 

DID YOU KNOW: A reminder, by 3:00 pm EST today, ECHL active rosters are reduced from a maximum of 21 players and a $14,610 salary cap, to 20 players and a $14,100 salary cap. 

 

In addition to the 20 player active roster, teams can have two players on reserve and an unlimited number of players on injured reserve. Players on IR must stay on IR a minimum of 14 days (no maximum). Players on reserve and IR don’t count against the salary cap.