Allen played arguably its best game of the season last night in beating the Kansas City Mavericks 4-1 before a crowd of 3814 at the Cable Dahmer Arena. The Americans were led by Colby McAuley who scored a goal in each period and recorded Allen's third hat trick of the season (Matt Marcinew & Easton Brodzinski the others). Since Allen lost top scorers Colton Hargrove to injury and Matt Marcinew to Europe, McAuley has stepped up to carry the goal scoring load. Over the last nine games here are Colby's stats:
- A point in eight of the nine games.
- 10 goals in nine games for a goal per game average of 1.11.
- 16 points in nine games for a points per game average of 1.78.
- Allen checked all of the boxes of what they needed to do to win last night:
- Allen scored the first goal of the game.
- Allen led 1-0 after the first period and improved its record with a first period lead to 6-0-1-0.
- Allen led 3-0 after the second period and improved its record with a second period lead to 6-1-0-0.
- Allen held Kansas City to 28 shots, the first time all season holding an opponent to less than 30 shots in a game.
- Allen was 1-2 on the power play, Kansas City was 0-3.
- Allen held Kansas City's top line to zero points after the line had all six goals and all 10 assists on Wednesday.
- Here is the game recap from the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2023/12/americans-hand-kc-4-1-loss
- Here are the video highlights: https://echl.com/videos/kansas-city-mavericks-vs-allen-americans-dec-15-2023
- The big question is can the Americans repeat the performance from last night in the rubber match tonight which has a early start (6:05 pm CST). Inconsistency has plagued Allen this season so stringing good performances together is the next step in getting things turned around. Injuries certainly haven't helped, as I wrote yesterday Allen has twice as many players on IR than any other ECHL team. The Americans have already used 38 players this season. In all of the 2022-23 season the total was 40 players.
- A repeat of last night would be the singular key to the game tonight. Allen doesn't have to hit them all to win tonight. It should be noted over the last 10 games the Americans and Mavericks have the exact same record of 5-4-1-0. Coach Costello's post game comment after the decisive win last night sums it up, "We need more where that came from on Saturday."
- The one area that could be better tonight is shots on goal by Allen. The Americans scored four goals on just 21 shots last night for a 19% shooting percentage. It is impossible to shoot that percentage consistently. Allen's shooting percentage for the season is 11.2% which is ranked #6 in the league.
- Allen held Kansas City to a season low 28 shots but were still outshot 28-21. Allen has been outshot in 20 of its 23 games. Ironically the Americans are 0-3-0-0 in the three games they outshot the opponent. The Americans are the only ECHL team winless when outshooting the opponent.
TONIGHT'S LINEUP
- Forwards
- 21 Murray-29 McAuley-67 Crone
- 10 MacArthur- 26 Asuchak-19 Puricelli
- 9 Provost-23 Bakich-18 Brodzinski
- 11 Gould-14 Fournier
- Defense
- 4 Myllari-44 Orzeck
- 5 Demin-16 Gatenby
- 28 Jarvis-20 Williams
- Goalies
- 34 Meriläinen
- 31 Sinclair (backup)
COACH'S COMMENTS
"That was one of the first times this season we played 60 minutes of good hockey."
"We know we can do it, so finding consistency is critical if we want to get back in the fight.'
"Roster changes and commitment to playing a team game has us in a spot to succeed,"
"Colby McAuley has really been carrying the load for us. His line with Hank Crone and Blake Murray was really good tonight."
OTHER COMMENTS
- The most goals Colby McAuley has scored in a single season since turning pro is 16. He already has 14 goals with 70% of the season remaining. In the last four games McAuley has 11 points (7G, 4A) and is +5. When Colton Hargrove was hurt and gave his "C" to Kris Myllari the new captain gave his "A" to McAuley. Colby's leadership on the ice has not just been his prolific scoring but his grit and sticking up for teammates is a big part of his game.
- Hank Crone is not scoring goals at the same pace as last season but his play making has been extraordinary. Hank has an assist in 10 of the 13 games since rejoining Allen. He is averaging over an assist per game (1.15). He is already second on the Americans in assists (15) despite playing 10 fewer games. Crone's assists per game average is the best in the ECHL (minimum 15 assists).
- The point percentage range from top to bottom in each division varies widely. Here is the difference in point percentage from the first team to last team and the range for each division:
- .443 - Mountain (.813 to .370)
- .374 - South (.783 to .409)
- .262 - North (.643 to .381)
- .260 - Central (.738 to .478)
- It will be another busy night in the ECHL with 12 games on the schedule. Here are the previews for all of the games: https://echl.com/news/2023/12/echl-today-dec-16
- Matt Marcinew played in his first game in Germany (DEL2) last night. He had a goal in his team's 3-1 win. Krefeld is in 10th place in the 14 team league.
Allen reverts back to their norm tonight and lose 5-2, 36 SOG
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