The Allen Americans open the second half of the toughest six game road trip of the season tonight in Idaho. Last week the Americans earned three of a possible six points against Kansas City, the team with the best points percentage in the league. This week the Americans go up against the team with the fifth best points percentage in the league. If Allen can earn three or more points in the three games against Idaho it will be a successful road trip.
- Allen has already visited Idaho twice this season and has a record of 1-4-0-0 and remember the lone win was the game on opening night of the season when goalie Leevi Meriläinen stole the game. Allen was outshot 45-19 but managed to get the victory.
- Here are the stats from the five previous games in Idaho:
- Allen has given up an average of 5.2 goals per game.
- Allen has scored an average of 3.0 goals per game.
- Allen has given up an average of 47.8 shots per game.
- Allen has taken an average of 28.4 shots per game.
- Allen's power play percentage was 21.7% (5-23)
- Allen's penalty kill percentage was 86.2% (4-29)
- You look at the stats above and it is abundantly clear what Allen has to do to be successful and it is all about team defense. You can't give up 47.8 shots and 5.2 goals and expect to get any points out of this series. To be fair the Americans have done a better job of holding teams to fewer shots recently and the team that is in Idaho this week is vastly different than the last time Allen visited the Steelheads in November. Ten players that played in the last game against Idaho are not with the team this week.
- As always special teams will be a key in this series and Allen had the advantage in the five previous games in Idaho. Allen's power play percentage was 21.7% compared to Idaho's 13.8%. However, if you look at the most recent series in Allen the Steelheads were 4-14 (28.6%) on the power play compared to the Americans 1-12 (8.3%). Allen's power play also struggled last week against Kansas City going 1-13 (7.7%).
- Allen's power play has been struggling for the last month. A month ago Allen had the #3 ranked power play in the ECHL at 26.7%. It is now ranked #9 at 21.7%. Idaho has been just the opposite and is now the #1 ranked power play in the ECHL at 27.9%. Coach Costello has emphasized with the team the importance of taking fewer penalties that lead to power plays opportunities. For the season Allen has had 152 power play opportunities but the opponents have had 177.
- Allen and Idaho have a combined record of 31-8-2-1 when scoring first. Allen's points percentage when scoring first is .700 and Idaho's is .826. These stats tell you all you need to know about a good start. Scoring first ties into playing with the lead. The combined record for Allen and Idaho when leading after the first period is 21-3-2-1 (.833) and when leading after the second period the combined record is 34-3-1-1 (.897). The bottom line is a great start and playing with the lead will be a big key in this series.
- Here are a couple of excellent previews of the Allen vs Idaho, one from each team. Plenty of stats and information on both teams. Well worth the read:
- From the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2024/01/game-day-preview-americans-at-idaho-810-pm-cst
- From the Idaho Steelheads: https://idahosteelheads.com/news/2024/01/idaho-steelheads-weekly-week-15-13024
- Players to watch for in this series are:
- Hank Crone has nine points (5G, 4A) in six games against Idaho.
- Blake Murray has five points (1G, 4A) in just three games against Idaho.
- Kris Myllari has seven points (2G, 5A) in eight games against Idaho.
- #6 Wade Murphy has 10 points (4G, 6A) in eight games against Allen.
- #92 Mark Rassell has 10 points (3G, 7A) in eight games against Allen.
- #43 Matt Register is always good against Allen and has been averaging a point a game the last month.
OTHER COMMENTS
- It is a light schedule in the ECHL tonight with three games on tap. Here is the ECHL Today with the previews. https://echl.com/news/2024/01/echl-today-jan-31
- Just two points separate fourth place Allen (38 points) from Utah and Rapid City who have 36 points. It looks more and more like only one of these three teams will make the playoffs. After this series with Idaho, Allen will play seven games through March 1st and six of them will be against Tulsa. Five of the six games will be home games.
- Had a chance to catch up with Steve Martinson last night. He and Michelle are is still working on their solar business. Their daughter, Lily, is a junior at Providence College and still playing hockey. Steve let me know she is on the #1 power play and has a cannon of a shot from the point. Martinson clearly keeps up with the ECHL and was talking about teams and players like he was still coaching. Not sure if he would ever get back in the grind of coaching in the ECHL but if these new franchises wanted a coach that could put together a good team quickly all they would have to do is look at Martinson's resume. Not just the 10 championships but that fact that he won a championship in his first year coaching in San Diego and his first year coaching in Allen.
- Here is a list of former Allen Americans players that have a great chance to win a championship this season. Their team is currently in first place with the playoffs not that far away. Here are the players, the team, the league, the country and the years they played in Allen
- Les Lancaster - Ilves - Liiga - Finland (2019-21)
- Colton Saucerman - Sheffield - EIHL - England (2022-23)
- Jordie Benn - Brynas - HockeyAllsvenskan - Sweden (2009-10)
- Brett Neumann - Sheffiled - EIHL - England (2020-21)
- Jake Hildebrand - Eisbaren Berlin - DEL - Germany (2015-16)
- Dominic Cormier - Sheffield - EIHL - England (2020-12)
DID YOU KNOW: Here is where the Allen roster stands in three key categories. Allen is at the low end compared to the rest of the league in the number of players in each category:
- 4 - NHL/AHL contracted players (Crone, Murray, MacArthur, Sinclair)
- 5 - Rookies (Allen, Bakich, Constantini, Farmer, Sinclair)
- 2 - Veterans (Hargrove, Jacob)
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