A weekend that started with hope ended with a big fail. After losing twice to Kansas City, the best team in the ECHL, the Allen Americans closed out the weekend Sunday afternoon with a lopsided 6-0 shutout loss to Tulsa. The Americans started the weekend tied with Tulsa for third place in the division by points percentage (.500) and finished the weekend all alone in sixth place in the division by points (53).
- While there is no excuse for the way the team played on Sunday the extenuating circumstances definitely played a factor. Here are just a few:
- Allen was playing its third game in three days.
- Tulsa hadn't played a game since last Wednesday.
- The early start time (2:10 pm) and daylight savings switch meant players were back at the rink on Sunday less than 12 hours after they left the rink Saturday night.
- Allen played shorthanded Sunday after Gavin Gould and Blake Murray were suspended.
- Grant Hebert was injured in the first period and never returned to the game.
- Trouble for Allen started on the first goal of the game when a no call on an obvious penalty led to a breakaway for Tulsa's leading goal scorer and Tulsa took a 1-0 lead. The Oilers took a 2-0 lead on a power play goal with 50 seconds remaining in the first period.
- It continued to go downhill for Allen the rest of the game. I won't bore you with all of the details but here is a recap of what happened in the game:
- Tulsa outshot Allen in all three periods.
- Tulsa outscored Allen in all three periods.
- Tulsa was 1-3 on the power play.
- Allen was 0-2 on the power play.
- Allen started the game shorthanded, lost Grant Hebert in the first period (injury) and Johnny Walker in the second period (game misconduct).
- Chase Perry started in goal, was pulled for Marco Constantini early in the second period when the score was 3-0. Perry re-entered the game at the start of the third period when the score was 5-0.
- The 6-0 shutout was the second time Allen has been shutout this season, both were by a score of 6-0.
- In the last five games against Tulsa the Americans have scored 0, 1, 1, 4 and 1 goals.
- Here are the game recaps from both teams with more details:
- Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2024/03/americans-rocked-by-tulsa-6-0
- Tulsa Oilers: https://tulsaoilers.com/news/2024/03/alexander-picks-up-first-oilers-shutout-as-oilers-dominate-americans
- Here are the video highlights: https://echl.com/videos/tulsa-oilers-vs-allen-americans-march-10-2024
- The totals for the weekend show just how bad it was for the Americans:
- Allen scored five goals, averaging 1.67 per game.
- Allen allowed 17 goals, averaging of 5.67 per game.
- Allen had 82 shots on goal, averaging 27.33 per game.
- Allen allowed 112 shots on goal, averaging 37.33 per game.
- Allen had eight power play opportunities, averaging 2.67 per game.
- Allen allowed 15 power play opportunities, averaging 5.00 per game.
- Allen was 1-8 on the power play, 12.5%.
- Allen was 5-15 on the penalty kill, 66.6%.
- The Americans will have a few days to rest up before they head to Kalamazoo for another three games in three days with an early start (3:00 pm) on Sunday. The team will take today (Monday) off before returning to practice Tuesday morning. They will fly to Kalamazoo on Thursday.
- It is unknown what the travel roster will look like for the trip to Kalamazoo. Belleville continues to have injuries so doubt any help will be coming this week. Grant Hebert left the game in the first period on Sunday and didn't return and Mikael Robidoux left the game late after he was tripped and appeared to hit his face on the ice. Their status won't be known until Tuesday when the team gets back together. Nolan Orzeck will be back for the trip to Kalamazoo after being out since February 17. Hank Crone has not started skating yet after his injury so his return is still a ways off.
OTHER COMMENTS
- The Mountain Division is so close a few wins can gain three or four spots in the standings and a few losses can do the opposite. That is exactly what happened to Allen when they won three straight a week ago and lost three straight this weekend. Wichita was dead last and way out of the playoff picture but reeled off a five game win streak followed by a three game losing streak followed by a four game win streak. Wichita now has more points than Allen. Here are the current standing by points with games remaining in parenthesis. Notice Allen has games in hand to on every team:
- 91 points - Kansas City (14 games)
- 79 points - Idaho (15 games)
- 58 points - Tulsa (14 games)
- 54 points - Utah (15 games)
- 54 points - Wichita (13 games)
- 53 points - Allen (16 games)
- 45 points - Rapid City (15 games)
- If you are a scoreboard watcher here is the schedule this week for the four teams scrambling for two playoff spots. Note Utah has four games in the next week while Wichita has just one.
- Allen - at Kalamazoo Friday, Saturday, Sunday
- Tulsa - at Wichita Wednesday, at Indy Friday, Saturday
- Utah - Rapid City at home today, Norfolk at home Saturday, Sunday, Monday
- Wichita - Tulsa at home Wednesday
- The two hottest teams in the ECHL are Norfolk who has a seven game point streak (7-0-1-0) and Kansas City who is 7-0-2-0 in its last seven games. The longest losing streaks right now in the ECHL belong to Iowa (0-4-0-0) and Allen (0-3-0-0).
- With three home losses this weekend the Allen Americans home points percentage is down to .429 (12-16-0-0) which ranks #6 in the Mountain Division. The Americans road points percentage is .518 (13-12-2-1) which is ranked #3 in the division.
- ECHL Commissioner, Ryan Crelin, was in Allen over the weekend and had couple of interesting comments in an interview with Tommy Daniels.
- In June the ECHL Board of Governors approved an increase in the number of ECHL charters from 30 to 32 which matches the number of NHL teams.
- Expansion will start with two new teams added for the 2024-25 season bringing the number of teams to 30. The Tahoe Knight Monsters in Stateline, Nevada will play in the Mountain Division and the Bloomington Bison in Bloomington, Illinois will play in the Central Division.
- While getting to 32 ECHL teams may be a couple of years away, high on the list for expansion are buildings in New Mexico and Arizona.
- ECHL attendance this year has been outstanding. The league has a chance to finish with average attendance over 5000 per game. That hasn't happened since the 1990's. Currently the average leaguewide attendance is 4935.
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