It was a burn the tape kind of game as the Americans lost to the Rapid City Rush 10-5 last night before a big Wednesday night crowd of 4455 at the CUTX Event Center. It wasn't the worst defeat in franchise history but made the "worst defeats hall of fame" list I have been keeping for years of games the Americans have lost by five or more goals: Here is the list. It is noteworthy that 15 of the 22 times (68%) in franchise history Allen has lost by five or more goals it happened at home.
- 10-5: Rapid City - 12/20/23 (home)
- 6-0: Atlanta - 10/29/23 (home)
- 5-0: Idaho - 3/11/23 (away)
- 6-1: Fort Wayne 2/11/23 (home)
- 8-1: Kansas City - 1/8/22 (home)
- 8-2: Rapid City - 12/3/22 (home)
- 6-1: Rapid City - 11/19/21 (away)
- 7-0: Wichita - 10/23/21 (home)
- 7-2: Wichita - 12/31/20 (home)
- 9-3: Kansas City - 3/8/19 (home
- 6-0: Kansas City - 3/6/19 (home)
- 5-0: Utah - 11/23/18 (away)
- 6-1: Kansas City - 3/24/18 (home)
- 5-0: Idaho - 1/6/2018 (away)
- 6-1: Tulsa - 11/21/15 (home)
- 8-1: Colorado - 11/14/15 (home)
- 6-1: Fort Worth - 2/23/13 (away)
- 5-0: Laredo - 2/25/12 (away)
- 11-6: Colorado - 1/1/11 (home)
- 5-0: Tulsa - 12/18/10 (home)
- 6-1: Laredo - 3/4/10 (away)
- 6-1: Rapid City - 1/15/10 (home)
- The game went south quickly last night as Rapid City scored the first goal less than two minutes into the game and grabbed a 2-0 lead midway through the first period. It appeared Allen had weathered the storm as the Americans outshot the Rush 11-2 in the last seven minutes of the period and closed the gap to 2-1 on a Spencer Asuchak power play goal. When the period ended Rapid City had a 2-1 lead, but Allen had the edge in shots 13-9.
- The second period was all Rapid City as the Rush outshot Allen 20-5 and outscored the Americans 5-1 to put the game out of hand with a 7-2 lead at the second intermission. Allen cut the score to 7-4 with two goals in 38 seconds early in the third period but that is as close as the Americans could get. Each team scored three goals in the final period to make the score 10-5. There was a flurry of penalties with 20 seconds remaining in the game which extended the agony. Have to wonder if any suspensions will come from all of the penalties as there are some specific rules for end of game shenanigans, but it is likely there won't be suspensions.
- The ECHL puts out a daily report each morning and part of that report is a season long list of individual and team game highs which shows the top four or five in each category. The game last night made the list in several categories:
- #1 most goals in a game - Rapid City (10)
- #1 most goals in a game both teams - Allen & Rapid City (15)
- #2 most PIMS in a game both teams - Allen & Rapid City (88)
- #1 plus/minus (-) in a game: Hank Crone, Allen (-7)
- #2 plus/minus (-) in a game: Colby McAuley, Allen (-6)
- Between the odd man rushes and Rapid City crashing the Allen net with little defensive resistance it is no wonder the Americans allowed 10 goals. Allen allowed more than 40 shots (43) for the first time in eight games and were outshot for the 22nd time in 25 games this season.
- Here are the game recaps from both teams. You have to acknowledge the catchy Rapid City headline, "Rush Score 10 in Texas Sized Win."
- Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2023/12/americans-fall-to-rapid-city-10-5
- Rapid City Rush: https://rapidcityrush.com/news/2023/12/rush-score-10-in-texas-sized-win
- Goal scorers for Allen were Spencer Asuchak (5), Bennett MacArthur (2,3), Hank Crone (5) and Easton Brodzinski (5). Here are the video highlights: https://echl.com/videos/rapid-city-rush-vs-allen-americans-dec-20-2023
- Allen's special teams advantage did not come thorough in the game. Both teams were 2-5 on the power play.
- Allen gave up the first goal of the game for the 14th time in 25 games. The Americans record when allowing the first goal is now 2-12-0-0 (.143).
OTHER COMMENTS
- Not an excuse as Coach Costello said after the game, "We were missing some key players tonight, but we can't use that as an excuse. Not good enough. Period! It was an embarrassing showing by our team." I haven't confirmed this with the team but my reporting is food poisoning hit the four players that weren't able to play last night. All should be ready to go on Friday.
- The two contracted players coach Costello has recently acquired have had an immediate impact.
- Blake Murray has four points (2G, 2A) in four games played
- Bennett MacArthur scored two goals last night.
- There are only two teams in the ECHL with point percentages below .400 and they are both in the Mountain Division. Here are the standings by point percentage since games played varies from 23 (Utah) to 27 (Kansas City):
- .780 - Idaho
- .722 - Kansas City
- .604 - Tulsa
- .480 - Rapid City
- .423 - Wichita
- .348 - Utah
- .340 - Allen
- Even with allowing 43 shots last night the Americans have given up an average of 35.6 shots per game over the last eight games which is 10 shots fewer than Allen had been averaging. The perplexing thing is that has not translated to allowing fewer goals per game. Over the last eight games the Americans have given up an average of 4.88 goals per game which is higher then their season long average of 4.68.
- The season long averages tell the story and if these stats don't improve significantly over the next month Allen will not repeat last season's come from behind performance. The goal can't be to barely make the playoffs as the #4 seed in the division, with a losing record, and get bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Here are the current shots and goals stats:
- Allen is ranked #28 in shots allowed (42.00) giving up 5.27 more shots per game then the #27 ranked team (Wichita).
- Allen allows 15.74 more shots per game than the #1 ranked team (Kansas City).
- Allen is ranked #28 in goals allowed per game (4.68) giving up 0.8 more goals per game than the #27 ranked team (Wichita).
- Allen allows 2.14 more goals per game than the #1 ranked team (Norfolk)
Barry this an embarrassment. This team uses excuse after excuse for getting blown out game after game. We’ve heard it all; time to gel, IR, no help from affiliate, blah blah blah. The issue lies at the top in my opinion. This team wasn’t good before injuries, it’s not good with contracted players, its goalies are awful and you can’t rely on them to step up… and you can’t rely on Perry to defend his own team while the RC keeper is throwing hands. THIS TEAM IS SOFT… Chad should resign, sign a player contract and just play hockey it’s not translated into professional coaching. They should beg Gens/Combs to take over.
ReplyDeleteHey now… I’ve been beating the sign toughness/bring back Martinson/this team is just plain putrid bunghole… and I always get clowned on by homers. 😢
DeleteI am not sure I completely understand the assessment of the penalties in the final :20 last night. Because the Fighting happened during the Final Five Minutes, they incurred Game Misconducts. I get that. Rhett Kingston, Jordan-Ty Fournier, Charles Martin and Andrew Jarvis all got 2:00 for Roughing and Jordan-Ty Fournier got 2:00 for Cross-Checking. That is how Rapid ended up on the Power Play. I get that. Matt Radomsky, Jordan-Ty Fournier, Rhett Kingston, Andrew Jarvis were all given Game Misconducts in addition to either a Fighting or Roughing (both in the case of Jordan-Ty Fournier). Final Five Minutes, I get it. Matt Radomsky however was the Third Man In, and while it was not called, it is obvious from film footage. This would make him an Instigator and during the Final Five Minutes, would incur a Suspension. Yet in the Blog you stated "it is likely there won't be suspensions", why is that?
ReplyDeleteGood Assessment, Randomsky was, without a doubt, the third man in and should be suspended!
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