A crowd of 5960 at the CUTX Event Center last night watched the Allen Americans get goals from six different players in a 6-4 win over the Kansas City Mavericks. It was just the third regulation road loss of the season for the Mavericks and prevented them from tying the ECHL all time record for road wins in a single season.
- Kansas City scored the first goal of the game at the 6:49 mark of the opening period but Allen responded with the equalizer at 10:18 when Gavin Gould scored a shorthanded goal. Allen as a team has eight shorthanded goals this season and Gould has half of them. His four shorthanded goals is ranked #2 in the league. The teams swapped two more goals in the first period with Kansas City taking a 2-1 lead at the 13:33 mark before Colin Jacobs scored his fourth goal in the last five games to tie the score 2-2 at the 17:07 mark. The period ended with the score tied and Allen having an 11-10 lead in shots.
- The Mavericks scored first in the second period to take a 3-2 lead but then the goal swapping ended. First, Blake Murray scored (10:42) to tie the game 3-3 and then James Hardie, playing his first game for Allen, scored a power play goal to give Allen it first lead of the game and the series. Allen took its 4-3 lead into the second intermission and that was a good sign. The Americans have been great this season when leading after the second period with a record of 22-2-1-1.
- Allen took a two goal lead (5-3) into the third period on a Ty Fournier rebound goal at 13:11. A two goal lead didn't seem safe against Kansas City when you consider the Mavericks have scored 17 more third period goals than any other team in the league. Kansas City has scored twice as many third period goals as they have allowed. 104 goals scored and 52 allowed for a goal differential of +52.
- Kansas City scored a power play goal with less than five minutes remaining in the game (15:48) to cut the score to 5-4 and I am sure many fans thought that the last minute Mavericks heroics were about to happen again. It was not to be as Liam Finlay took the puck away from a defender who had fallen down and put the puck in the net off a skate to give Allen its two goals lead back (6-4) with just over two minutes remaining in the game. Allen kept the pressure on, so the Mavericks had troubl get the goalie off the ice for an extra attacker. Allen tried one long shot for an empty net goal that went wide for an icing call. Kansas City managed just one shot on goal and the Americans came away with a 6-4 victory. The win snapped Allen's six game winless streak at home against Kansas City.
- Goal scorers for Allen were Gavin Gould (10), Colin Jacobs (7), Blake Murray (18), James Hardie (12), Ty Fournier (8) and Liam Finlay (7). Here are the video highlights that show most but not all of the goals: https://echl.com/videos/kansas-city-mavericks-vs-allen-americans-march-22-2024
- The game was a huge win for the Americans against the best team in the league that had beaten Allen in all six games at the CUTX Event Center this season. Even more impressive is the Americans outplayed the Mavericks. Allen held Kansas City to just 28 shots, the fewest in the 14 head to head games this season. Allen won the special teams battle scoring one power play goal and a shorthanded goal. It was great to see the offense score six goals, especially considering in the Americans last six losses the total goals scored was nine.
- Here is the game recap issued by the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2024/03/americans-hand-kc-rare-road-loss
ALLEN VS KANSAS CITY PREVIEW
- Allen will have its work cutout to get another win tonight. Kansas City has not lost back to back road games all season. The Mavericks are still looking for their 26th road win of the season which would tie the all time ECHL record.
- Allen gave up four goals last night, but that is still under Kansas City's average for goals scored per game (4.29). Allen allowed Mavericks 28 shots, under their average of 33 shots per game. A far cry from Allen's first win of the season against the Mavericks in Kansas City. On November 7th the Americans beat Kansas City 4-3 in a 10:30 am game and were outshot 52-17. Mark Sinclair made 49 saves in the win.
- Special teams will be a key again tonight. Allen has done a good job staying out of the penalty box against the second least penalized team in the league. In the first two games of this series Kansas City has had five power plays and Allen has had four. Kansas City's power play goal last night was really a 5-on-3 goal as it was scored one second after the 5-on-3 expired.
- Allen got away with giving up the first goal of the game last night and still won the game. The Mavericks record when scoring first is 31-4-3-1 (.846). Allen's record when surrendering the first goal of the game is 7-24-1-0 (.234). The odds of winning back to back against Kansas City when giving up the first goal of the game are less than slim.
- Look for Easton Brodzinski to return to the lineup tonight after missing a couple a games with an injury. I haven't heard who will be in goal, but my guess would be Mark Sinclair. I will post the lineup when I receive it later today.
OTHER COMMENTS
- The win last night was even more important because the two teams Allen is chasing both won. Tulsa won 4-1 in Idaho and Utah won 5-3 in Rapid City. Here is the latest in the Mountain Division standings with points, points percentage and games remaining:
- Kansas City - 96 points, .774 (10 games remaining)
- Idaho - 86 points, .683 (9 games remaining)
- Tulsa - 63 points, .500 (9 games remaining)
- Utah - 61 points, .492 (10 games remaining)
- Allen - 57 points, .467 (11 games remaining)
- Wichita - 54 points, .443 (11 games remaining)
- Rapid City - 49 points, .402 (11 games remaining)
- Allen fans are in for a double treat today in addition to the game against Kansas City. The first event will be an alumni game celebrating the 15 year anniversary of the Allen Americans franchise. The alumni will play against a group of ex-pro players, ex-junior players and ex-college players that live in the area. The alumni game will start at 4:30 and from what I understand will be 15 minute running time periods. Here is the list of former Allen players scheduled to play:
- Erik Adams (2009-2012)
- Mathieu Aubin (2017-18)
- *Darryl Bootland (2012-14)
- Joel Chouinard (2016-19)
- Jack Combs (2014-15 & 2021-23)
- *Chad Costello (2014-17 & 2021-22)
- *Jason Deitsch (2011-13)
- *Nolan Descoteaux (2014-17)
- *Aaron Gens (2014-17)
- *Riley Gill (2014-18)
- *Trevor Ludwig (2011-15)
- *Tyler Ludwig (2011-15)
- *David Makowski (2015-19)
- David McKee (2009-10)
- *Brian McMillin (2010-15)
- *Daniel Tetrault (2013-14)
*Won championships with the Americans
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| L to R Allen alumni - McMillin, Gill, Descoteaux, Tetrault, Chouinard, Aubin |
- After the alumni game and before the start of the regular game there will be a ceremony to retire Chad Costello's #13 jersey. Chad owns too many Allen and ECHL records to list but the future ECHL Hall of Famer will now see his number #13 in the rafters, joining Riley Gill (#30) and Gary Steffes (#12). I am sure the nine minute video put together for the occasion will be special.
- Here is a stat you don't hear about often that the off ice officials track. If you thought the first period last night went fast you were correct. The off officials track the number of whistles by period. In the first period last night there were just 12 whistles. A normal period has over 20. Very few icings, off sides and just one penalty.
- It will be another big night in the ECHL with all 28 teams in action. While many teams are fighting for playoff spots two teams can clinch their spots in the playoffs tonight. Division leaders Adirondack and Toledo could punch their tickets tonight. Here are the previews of all 14 games: https://echl.com/news/2024/03/echl-today-march-23
- When I chat with players after practice or after pregame skate any number of subjects can come up. Yesterday after the pregame skate I told Gavin Gould good luck and mentioned how close he came to a shorthanded goal in the morning game on Wednesday. I rarely make predictions but for some reason I said to Gavin you are going to get a shortie tonight. When I ran into him in the locker room after the game he had a big smile and said, "You called it Barry." It was sweet.
Great game last night with the team playing like the best team in the league. They played the puck aggressively on defense. Tonight should be special for Chad. Let's get the W and start a run of wins to get into the finals. A first round match up against KC would be interesting.
ReplyDeleteAgain—just shoot, shoot, shoot. When you continually shoot they go in the goal!!! Don’t pass but once but just shoot!!!
ReplyDeleteBut Hoosiers teaches us discipline to pass 5x. Unfortunately, this team has taken it to heart and feels if 5x is good, 10x must be better! Just put it on goal and scrap. Good things will happen!
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