The Season Begins, Allen vs Tulsa Preview, Coaches Comments, Will Gavin Player Profile, Opening Day Past Results and More

 

The wait is finally over for the start of the 2024-25 season for the Allen Americans. The team left yesterday for Tulsa and will play the Oilers this morning in a Kids Day Game with a puck drop at 10:30 am. 

 

- Allen is one of only two ECHL teams that has yet to play a game (Tahoe the other). Tulsa played Rapid City twice at home last weekend and beat the Rush by scores of 7-1 and 4-1. The Oilers have always been known to have a hard working team, but this season might have the roster to go along with that work ethic. By my count Tulsa has seven NHL/AHL contracted players assigned compared to four for Allen. Forward Will Gavin was loaned to Allen by Tucson on Tuesday and will be playing his first professional game in Tulsa.

 

- Will Gavin is a 25 year old, 5'10" 194 pound forward who signed a one year contract with Tucson in July. Gavin is a graduate of the Air Force Academy who has the opportunity to delay his five year military commitment while pursuing a professional hockey career. He already knows eventually he will be working in Space Force Acquisitions, negotiating with defense contracting firms for the Space Force, mainly for satellites. Here is an article about Gavin's hockey and Air Force Academy careers. https://www.ncdchockey.com/alumni-profiles-gavin-air-force-academy   

 

- Gavin is from Connecticut and played his junior hockey in New Hampshire for the Northern Cyclones (NCDC) where he was captain of the team in 2019-20. Here is a video from 2023 when the Cyclones interviewed some alumni about their junior experience. It is worth watching the several clips throughout the five minute video of Gavin talking about his junior hockey experience: 

   

- Last season the Americans were 9-6-1-0 against Tulsa including 3-2-1-0 in Tulsa. Three of the six games went to overtime. Over the last five years Allen's record in Tulsa is 15-12-3-0. 

- Not sure how much you can take from the preseason game these teams played at NYTEX on October 11. It took place early in training camp and the lineups will be different today. Tulsa came out on top 4-2 in the preseason game primarily on special teams play. Tulsa scored a shorthanded goal and was 2-3 on the power play while Allen was 0-5 on the power play. Coach Adams said at the time the team hadn't worked much on special teams so hopefully the Americans will have that cleaned up today. The good news from the preseason game is Allen out shot Tulsa 40-24. You could count on one hand the number of times Allen allowed 24 or fewer shots in a game last season.

 

-  Here is the roster for the game today. Missing are Robbie Baillargeon who was moved from the 3-day IR to the 14-day IR yesterday, as well as Marco Costantini and Dakota Seaman who stayed in Allen as healthy scratches. The players assigned by Tucson are marked with an asterisk.

Goalies

• #35 Anson Thornton*
• #39 Dylan Wells*

Defensemen

• #91 Ayo Adeniye 
• #3 Ryan Gagnon 
• #66 Artyum Kulakov 
• #55 Andrew Nielsen 
• #44 Nolan Orzeck 
• #21 Mike Van Unen 
• #2 Quinn Warmuth 

Forwards

• #26 Spencer Asuchak 
• #22 Easton Brodzinski 
• #16 Kyle Crnkovic*
• #8 Mark Duarte 
• *Will Gavin
• #17 Riley Ginnell 
• #84 Liam Gorman 
• #14 Brayden Guy
• #86 James Hardie
• #28 Chaz Smedsrud 
• #11 Rylan Van Unen
• #92 Brayden Watts 

- While Allen has a clean slate being today is its first game of the season, Tulsa was very impressive its two wins over Rapid City at home last weekend. The Oilers averaged 5.5 goals per game, allowed 1.0 goal per game, had a power play percentage if 20.0 percent and a penalty kill percentage of 100%. 

 

- A couple of Tulsa players to keep an eye on if you are watching the game today are two rookies who lead the league in rookie scoring. Andrew Lucas, #36, leads all rookies with five points (1G, 4A) and Ruslan Gazizov, #32, is second with four points (2G, 2A). And don't forget about former Allen forward, Tyler Poulsen, #11, who leads the league with three goals in two games.

 

- Here is the lineup for the game. Defenseman Mike Van Unen is the one player sitting out:

Forwards

• #92 Watts-#16 Crnkovic-#22 Brodzinski
• #10 Gavin-#8 Duarte-#14 Guy
  
• #84 Gorman-#26 Asuchak-#86 Hardie
• #17 Ginnell-#28 Smedsrud-#11 Van Unen

Defensemen

• #55 Nielsen-#3 Gagnon
• #66 Kulakov-#44 Orzeck
• #2 Warmuth-#91 Adeniye

Goalie

• #39 Wells
• #35 backup
  

 - There will be a a lot of screaming school kids at the game today, but attendance may not match Tulsa's first two games. The Oilers drew 13,180 on opening night last Saturday and had 5241 in attendance on Sunday afternoon.    

COACHES COMMENTS

I had a chance to talk to B.J. Adams and Brett Ferguson after practice yesterday and this is what they had to say:

"We will not name a captain for a while. We will have three "A's" and will rotate that for a little bit and see how it goes."....Adams

"The test on special teams will come tomorrow in Tulsa (the Oilers scored three special teams goals in the preseason game against Tulsa). I feel more confident because we have our final roster now and we have worked on it. We will see what happens this weekend.".....Adams

"We have our team now and we have dialed in on special teams the past week on what we are going to do. There are always adjustments based on what the team we are playing does, but we are ready and the guys are receptive and that is good.".....Ferguson

"When you get to this level all the guys have played on the power play at some point in their career, so it is pretty much plug and play if a player gets hurt. The penalty kill is more detail oriented where you have to know your spots, know your outs. It is like a pulley system where everyone has to work together. The only way you get good is through reps in practice and going over video.".....Ferguson

"As we talked in the summer, it will be a little different mindset this season. Giving up 24 shots in the preseason game was pretty good though I didn't like giving up four goals even though three were on special teams".....Adams"

"We had a lot of shots in the preseason game and I like the fact we got 40 shots. I would like to see some better shot opportunities from us and feel we could have gotten the puck to better parts of the ice to improve our chances of scoring"....Adams

"Will Gavin, who just arrived from Tucson, had 19 goals in 38 games for the Air Force Academy last season to lead the team and will be good help for us.".....Ferguson

"We are all excited to go, the players are excited to go. We can bang some other bodies and shoot against some other colors. It is about time. It has been a week to long for us to start playing and now we get three games in three days. Let's go play, that is our league, it doesn't matter.".....Adams

OTHER COMMENTS

- It didn't take long for Hank Crone to get to the top of the ECHL scoring list. He had  two goals and an assist last night in Idaho's 5-2 win over Toledo and was named the game's #1 star. After two games, Hank is averaging 2.50 points per game and is tied for the league lead in points with five (2G, 3A). Idaho is 2-0-0-0 and has two more games against Toledo on Friday and Saturday. If Idaho sweeps Toledo, which is a tall task, the Steelheads will be off to another great start with a favorable schedule through the end of November. Idaho will be favored in all 14 games that include six against Tahoe, five against Rapid City and three against Savannah. 

 

- To no surprise Steve Martinson and the new franchise, Athens Rock Lobsters, are off to a great start under some tough circumstances. Martinson has a history of performing well in his first year as a coach with a team. He won a championship in his first year in Allen (followed by three more). What is difficult this season for Martinson is he is in the midst of playing 11 straight road games because the Athens new arena is not complete. The Rock Lobsters first home game isn't until December 6. Not a problem so far as Athens has started the season with four wins and leads the league in points percentage (.917). They have been dominant thus far, scoring 23 goals in four games while allowing just eight. 

 

- Here is a video put out by ECHL Weekly that cover the affiliations for each team:

 

 

- It is still very early in the season with two teams (Allen & Tahoe) playing their first game today. Will they join their fellow Mountain Division teams that look like the Wild Wild West thus far. Three ECHL teams are averaging 5.00 or more goals per game, all come from the Mountain Division and have played two games.

6.00 goals - Idaho

5.50 goals - Tulsa

5.00 goals - Kansas City

 

 

 

- Some ECHL teams have signed a tough guy with the extra skater that is allowed in 2024-25. Will this lead to more fights this season? It is a very very small sample size, but if the fights in week one of the season are annualized the recent downward trend in fights could be reversed. Here are the number of fights in the league the last three seasons which reflect the changes in fighting rules:

 

350: 2024-25 (annualized after one week)

333: 2023-24

378: 2022-23

449: 2021-22

 

 

 

- It’s that time of the season when all 29 ECHL teams think they can win the Kelly Cup. 11 teams are undefeated, eight teams haven’t earned a point, two teams haven’t played a game and the rest fall in between. That will all change soon. Most playoff teams (80%) will be decided by Thanksgiving! Here are the most recent ECHL champions:

 

2024, 2023 & 2022 - Florida

2021 - Fort Wayne

2020 - No Playoffs

2019 - Newfoundland

2018 & 2017 - Colorado

2016 & 2015 - Allen

DID YOU KNOW: I have kept this opening night game recap going forever and it is getting long, but if you like a trip down memory lane this is for you. The Allen Americans all time opening night record is 8-7. They are 4-4 at home and a 4-3 on the road. No matter when you started following the Americans, opening night games always bring back memories. Here is a recap of all opening night games. 

2009-10 - In the first game in team history Allen won 1-0 in Arizona. Christian Gaudet scored the only goal of the game late in the first period assisted by Bruce Graham and Nino Musitelli. Charlie Effinger was in goal for Allen and Chris Whitley was on the bench. Allen started on the road the first season because the Allen Event Center was not completed. The Americans played their first seven games in franchise history on the road. They returned to Allen after those first seven games 5-1-0-1.

2010-11 - Allen opens at home against Texas, scores three goals (Alexandre Quesnel, Dustin Donaghy, Judd Blackwater) in the first four minutes of the game and coasts to a 5-2 win.

2011-12 - Allen opens at home against Tulsa and gets beat 4-1 with Jim McKenzie getting the Americans only goal with just over a minute left in the game. Most notable in that game was a Gordie Howe hat trick by Tulsa's Gary Steffes who had a goal, an assist and a fight with Allen's Scott Langdon.

2012-13 - Allen opens the season at home and shuts out Arizona 4-0. Scott Howes had two goals in the game. The other goal scorers were Adam Pineault and Darryl Bootland. Steve Silverthorn was in goal and the backup was a rookie by the name of Aaron Dell. Dell would play sparingly the first few weeks of the season but eventually take over the starting role and lead the Americans to their first championship. What ever happened to that Dell guy?

2013-14 - Allen opened the season in Wichita and beat the Thunder 4-3 in a shootout. Allen had a 3-0 lead midway in the game on two goals by Darryl Bootland and one by Jonathan Lessard but let Wichita come back. The hero in the shootout was Kale Kerbashian who scored in the fifth round to win the game.

2014-15 - The worst opening night ever for Allen as they opened at home and got beat by Tulsa 9-6. Greger Hanson was the lone bright spot for Allen with a whopping 11 shots on goal, four points and a hat trick. Aaron Dell was in goal for the Americans and gave up seven of the nine goals. Whatever happened to that Dell guy? Actually, it was Dell's only regulation loss in the 12 games he played for Allen that season. By the end of January he was in the AHL on his way to the NHL.

2015-16 - Another opening night loss as the Quad City Mallards came to the Allen Event Center and beat the Americans 2-1. Allen's lone goal was scored by Garrett Clarke with assists going to Justin Courtnall and goalie Joel Rumpel. You didn't see those three in the boxscore very often let alone on the same play.

2016-17 - It was an opening night win as Allen was at home and beat Missouri 6-3. Kale Kerbashian had two goals and Riley Gill was peppered with 47 shots.

2017-18 - It was an opening night like no other as the Americans went on the road and beat the Rapid City Rush 8-3. The eight goals is the most ever scored by the Americans in a season opener. The five goal margin of victory is the largest ever in a season opener and the first goal of the season was a shorthanded goal scored by Jonathan Lessard. Lessard and Zach Pochiro each had two goals for the Americans.

2018-19 - Allen opened the season in Kansas City and took it on the chin with a 5-1 loss while being out shot 43-21. The game was tied 1-1 after the first period as Casey Pierro-Zabotel scored the Americans only goal of the game. Over the last two periods the Mavericks out shot Allen 32-14 and outscored the Americans 4-0. The #1 star of the game with a goal and two assists for the Mavericks was Jared VanWormer who would go on to become captain of the Allen Americans.

 2019-20 - Allen opened the season at home against Rapid City and came away with a 3-2 overtime victory. Jordan Topping tied the score 2-2 with 91 seconds left in the game and then got the game winning goal at 2:58 of overtime.

2020-21 - It was the latest opener in the history of the team as COVID delayed the season until December 12. Allen opened on the road and lost to Tulsa 4-3 before a restricted crowd of 2590 at the BOK Center which has a capacity of  of over 17,000. Allen scored first (Jake McGrew) but Tulsa took a 3-1 lead early in the second period. Allen tied the score 3-3 by the end of the second period on goals by McGrew and Zane Franklin. Tulsa scored the only goal of the third period to take the win 4-3. McGrew played 11 games in Allen and scored six goals after being loaned to Allen by its affiliate at the time (San Jose). He returned to San Jose after his great start in Allen and played the rest of the season with the Barracuda.      

2021-22 -  Allen opened the season at home against Wichita and got shellacked 7-0, the worst shutout in the history of the team. The excitement of having Chad Costello and Jack Combs back in Allen was quickly tempered as the Americans allowed 39 shots on goal, gave up three power play goals (3-5) and were 0-6 on the power play. 

2022-23 - Allen opened the season in Tulsa and lost to the Oilers 4-3. Allen never led in the game after giving up the first goal early in the opening period. Allen's first goal of the season was scored by Hank Crone giving fans a glimpse of what would be come a historic season (team record 49 goals). After falling behind 3-1 early in the third period the Americans came back to tie the score 3-3 on goals by Liam Finlay and Zach Pochiro but ended up losing the game 4-3.  

2023-24 - Allen opened the season in Idaho and came away with 5-2 win. Considering Allen's record against Idaho over the last two seasons 3-15-1-0 the opening night victory was huge. The game was highlighted by goalie Leevi Merilainen who stopped 43 of 45 shots which included shutting down Idaho in all eight of its power play opportunities. Meanwhile Allen scored five goals, but managed just 19 shots on goal. You won't find many games when your team gets out shot 45-19 and you win 5-2.