Allen Gets Big Opening Night Win, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Costello Comments, Rematch Preview and More

If you were watching the pregame ceremonies in Idaho last night it may have been a tell on how the night would go for the Steelheads. Idaho was raising a banner to the rafters to acknowledge the team winning the Brabham Cup (regular season champion) and Taylor Cup (Western Conference playoff champion) last season. In a scene reminiscent of Allen raising banners on opening night in 2015-16 after winning its first Kelly Cup in 2015, the Idaho banner would not unfurl which caused an awkward situation as the arena crew had to get involved to fix the problem. The banner snafu was a bad sign for Allen's opening night in 2015 as the Americans lost to the Quad City Mallard and it turned out to be a bad sign for Idaho last night.

 

Oops, failure to unfurl!

 

 

- Led by three players assigned to Allen by Ottawa/Belleville, the Americans beat Idaho 5-2 last night to break an eight game regular season losing streak against the Steelheads. The #1 star of the game was goalie Leevi Merilainen who helped Allen overcome a 45-19 shot disadvantage with some spectacular saves and a .956 save percentage. Equally impressive was the play of defenseman Donovan Sebrango who met the team in Idaho, jumped into the lineup and scored Allen's first goal of the season. Not to be outdone, forward Phillipe Daoust, who arrived in Allen Wednesday night, flew with the team to Boise early Thursday morning, scored Allen's second and third goals (one shorthanded, the other power play) and was named the #2 star of the game. Daoust's two goals gave the Americans a 3-0 lead after the second period and they never looked back. 

- Idaho scored two goals in the third period, but every time the Steelheads scored Allen responded. Brandon Puricelli and Matt Marcinew added goals for Allen to make the final score 5-2. Yes, it is only one win, but when you beat the team that has 15 players back from the record setting team last season, that had a record against Allen of 12-1 (regular season and playoffs) it has to be a big confidence booster.

- Allen nailed two of the three keys to the game I mentioned in the game preview yesterday. The Americans got off to a great start and avoided having to play from behind. Allen scored first, led 1-0 after the first period and 3-0 after the second period. Idaho never got closer than two goals. 

 

- The second key was to win the special teams battle. The Americans were 1-4 on the power play (25%) and the penalty kill was better than flawless. Idaho was 0-8 on the power play and Allen added insult to injury with a shorthanded goal. 

- The one key to the game that was not achieved was to avoid getting outshot by a wide margin. You don't win many games when you are outshot 45-19. You hear all the time it is not the shots but the opportunities that count and Allen made the most of its opportunities scoring five goals on 19 shots for a shooting percentage of 26.3%. It is not likely Allen can win the rematch tonight yielding so many shots.

 

- Here are the game recaps from both teams:

• Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2023/10/goaltending-and-special-teams-lead-the-americans-to-a-5-2-win-in-idaho
  

•  Idaho Steelheads: https://idahosteelheads.com/news/2023/10/steelheads-drop-home-opener-5-2-to-allen

 

- Here are the video highlights with the most of the goals and a fight: https://echl.com/videos/allen-americans-vs-idaho-steelheads-oct-20-2023

 

- Here is the comment I got from coach Costello after the win, "I was proud of our team's compete level and will to win. We have a few things to clean up and we will. We got a huge game from Leevi in net. Everyone contributed and we have a lot to build on." 

REMATCH PREVIEW

- Allen's special teams and goaltending carried the team last night. You have to expect Leevi Merilainen will get the start again tonight. What has to change for Allen on special teams is staying out of the penalty box. Idaho's power play will not go 0-8 again tonight. The Americans have to limit the number of penalties that result in power play opportunities. 

 

- Shots on goal have to be much closer tonight if Allen expects to win. Allen needs to take more shots and Idaho has to be held to fewer shots. The Americans are ranked last in shots allowed and second to last in shots on goal. The Americans shooting percentage was 26.3% (5-19) last night. When you consider the Allen shooting percentage the last three seasons was 10.4%, 11.7% and 10.3% you can't expect a repeat of last night. 

 

- Allen got off to a good start last night and that will be necessary again tonight. Idaho was the best team in the ECHL last season when scoring first with a record of 39-5-1-1. It is tough to play from behind against the Steelheads.

 

- Maybe the most sobering stat related to the game tonight is Idaho has not lost back-to-back regular season home games since December of 2019. A challenge and opportunity for the Americans tonight. 

 

OTHER COMMENTS

 - It is only a handful of ECHL games thus far but Allen is well represented in the daily report:

• Leevi Merilainen leads the league in save percentage at .956.
• Phillipe Doust leads the league in shooting percentage at !00% (2 shots, 2 goals).
• Allen is the only ECHL team with a shorthanded goal. 
• Allen leads the ECHL in minor penalties (9).

 

- Odd stats of the day:

• There have been  nine ECHL games played thus far and the team that scored first won eight of them for a .889 points percentage. 
• Road teams are 6-2-0-1 in the nine ECHL games played for a points percentage of .722.
• Road teams have outscored home teams 35-28. 

- It is a big night in the ECHL with 13 games being played. Here is the ECHL Today with the previews:  https://echl.com/news/2023/10/echl-today-oct-21

 

-  My bad in the blog yesterday as I had the jersey numbers wrong for the three new players. Made the mistake of going with the numbers on the ECHL websites under rosters after getting the correct numbers directly from the Americans. Here are the correct numbers:

• #10 - Phillipe Daoust 
• #11 - Brandon Yeamans
• #27 - Donovan Sebrango
  

 

DID YOU KNOW: The Allen Americans all time opening night record is 8-7. They are 4-4 at home and a 4-3 on the road. No matter when you started following the Americans, opening night games always bring back memories. Here is a recap of all opening night games. 

2009-10 - In the first game in team history Allen won 1-0 in Arizona. Christian Gaudet scored the only goal of the game late in the first period assisted by Bruce Graham and Nino Musitelli. Charlie Effinger was in goal for Allen and Chris Whitley was on the bench. Allen started on the road the first season because the Allen Event Center was not completed. The Americans played their first seven games in franchise history on the road. They returned to Allen after those first seven games 5-1-0-1.

2010-11 - Allen opens at home against Texas, scores three goals (Alexandre Quesnel, Dustin Donaghy, Judd Blackwater) in the first four minutes of the game and coasts to a 5-2 win.

2011-12 - Allen opens at home against Tulsa and gets beat 4-1 with Jim McKenzie getting the Americans only goal with just over a minute left in the game. Most notable in that game was a Gordie Howe hat trick by Tulsa's Gary Steffes who had a goal, an assist and a fight with Allen's Scott Langdon.

2012-13 - Allen opens the season at home and shuts out Arizona 4-0. Scott Howes had two goals in the game. The other goal scorers were Adam Pineault and Darryl Bootland. Steve Silverthorn was in goal and the backup was a rookie by the name of Aaron Dell. Dell would play sparingly the first few weeks of the season but eventually take over the starting role and lead the Americans to their first championship. What ever happened to that Dell guy?

2013-14 - Allen opened the season in Wichita and beat the Thunder 4-3 in a shootout. Allen had a 3-0 lead midway in the game on two goals by Darryl Bootland and one by Jonathan Lessard but let Wichita come back. The hero in the shootout was Kale Kerbashian who scored in the fifth round to win the game.

2014-15 - The worst opening night ever for Allen as they opened at home and got beat by Tulsa 9-6. Greger Hanson was the lone bright spot for Allen with a whopping 11 shots on goal, four points and a hat trick. Aaron Dell was in goal for the Americans and gave up seven of the nine goals. Whatever happened to that Dell guy? Actually, it was Dell's only regulation loss in the 12 games he played for Allen that season. By the end of January he was in the AHL on his way to the NHL.

2015-16 - Another opening night loss as the Quad City Mallards came to the Allen Event Center and beat the Americans 2-1. Allen's lone goal was scored by Garrett Clarke with assists going to Justin Courtnall and goalie Joel Rumpel. You didn't see those three in the boxscore very often let alone on the same play.

2016-17 - It was an opening night win as Allen was at home and beat Missouri 6-3. Kale Kerbashian had two goals and Riley Gill was peppered with 47 shots.

2017-18 - It was an opening night like no other as the Americans went on the road and beat the Rapid City Rush 8-3. The eight goals is the most ever scored by the Americans in a season opener. The five goal margin of victory is the largest ever in a season opener and the first goal of the season was a shorthanded goal scored by Jonathan Lessard. Lessard and Zach Pochiro each had two goals for the Americans.

2018-19 - Allen opened the season in Kansas City and took it on the chin with a 5-1 loss while being out shot 43-21. The game was tied 1-1 after the first period as Casey Pierro-Zabotel scored the Americans only goal of the game. Over the last two periods the Mavericks out shot Allen 32-14 and outscored the Americans 4-0. The #1 star of the game with a goal and two assists for the Mavericks was Jared VanWormer who would go on to become captain of the Allen Americans.

 2019-20 - Allen opened the season at home against Rapid City and came away with a 3-2 overtime victory. Jordan Topping tied the score 2-2 with 91 seconds left in the game and then got the game winning goal at 2:58 of overtime.

2020-21 - It was the latest opener in the history of the team as COVID delayed the season until December 12. Allen opened on the road and lost to Tulsa 4-3 before a restricted crowd of 2590 at the BOK Center which has a capacity of  of over 17,000. Allen scored first (Jake McGrew) but Tulsa took a 3-1 lead early in the second period. Allen tied the score 3-3 by the end of the second period on goals by McGrew and Zane Franklin. Tulsa scored the only goal of the third period to take the win 4-3. McGrew played 11 games in Allen and scored six goals after being loaned to Allen by its affiliate at the time (San Jose). He returned to San Jose after his great start in Allen and played the rest of the season with the Barracuda.      

2021-22 -  Allen opened the season at home against Wichita and got shellacked 7-0, the worst shutout in the history of the team. The excitement of having Chad Costello and Jack Combs back in Allen was quickly tempered as the Americans allowed 39 shots on goal, gave up three power play goals (3-5) and were 0-6 on the power play. 

2022-23 - Allen opened the season in Tulsa and lost to the Oilers 4-3. Allen never led in the game after giving up the first goal early in the opening period. Allen's first goal of the season was scored by Hank Crone giving fans a glimpse of what would be come a historic season (team record 49 goals). After falling behind 3-1 early in the third period the Americans came back to tie the score 3-3 on goals by Liam Finlay and Zach Pochiro but ended up losing the game 4-3.