School Game Day Success, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Coach's Comments, Division Standings and More

 

The Allen Americans won their first home game of the season in style yesterday morning, beating the Utah Grizzlies 3-1 with more the 3000 screaming kids in attendance. It was a great atmosphere for the Americans to play their best game of the season. How good did the team play? Let me count the ways:

• The one goal allowed was the fewest Allen has allowed all season.
• Allen outshot their opponent (37-27) for the first time all season.
• Allen's 37 shots was the most all season.
• The 26 shots allowed was the fewest all season by seven shots.
• At one point in the first period (from 6:52 to 19:56) Allen outshot Utah 12-0.
• Allen stayed out of the penalty box and won the special teams battle going 1-3 on the power play and 0-3 on the penalty kill. 
• Goalie Dylan Well's save percentage of .963 was the best for Allen all season. 

 

- Allen outshot Utah 14-8 in the first period but neither team was able to score. The first goal of the game didn't come until 11:21 of the second period on an Allen power play. Spencer Asuchak was in his office (right at the goal mouth) and deflected a shot from Easton Brodzinski into the net for his second goal in three games. Allen took the 1-0 lead into the second intermission which was a good sign since neither team had lost a game when leading after the second period or won a game when trailing after the second period.

 

- Allen's 1-0 lead held up until 12:46 of the third period when Utah's captain, Gianni Fairbrother put in a rebound. Fairbrother has been a one man wrecking crew against the Americans. He has four goals all season and they have all been in the three games against Allen. The Americans will need to give him special attention this weekend.

 

- Just when it was starting to look like the game was headed to overtime Brayden Watts took a pass from Spencer Asuchak, got in front of the defensemen and scored the game winner, his fourth goal of the season. 

 

- Utah pulled their goalie early (17:35) but the Allen defense was outstanding. The best sequence of the entire game happened with about a minute remaining. Utah was putting on the pressure but could not get the puck to the net. Forward  Mark Duarte put his body on the line and blocked three shots and you could tell by the way he got up each time they really hurt. When there was a stoppage with 13 seconds remaining and Duarte went to the bench, all of his teammates were acknowledging his effort. At that point Utah took a timeout and with the rest, coach Adams put Duarte back on the ice along with Asuchak and Brodzinski for the final 13 seconds of the game. It became a storybook ending as the guy that put his body on the line three times for his team, scored an empty net goal with seconds remaining. The goal was Mark Duarte's first point of the season.  

 

- Here are the video highlights with all of the goals plus some great saves, a fight and one of Duarte's blocked shots at the end of the game: https://echl.com/videos/utah-grizzlies-vs-allen-americans-nov-13-2024 

 

- If you want to read the Utah take on the game here is its recap: https://utahgrizzlies.com/news/2024/11/grizz-fall-3-1-in-road-trip-opener

 

- With all of the positives from the win against Utah the Americans are still struggling to get depth scoring. Four players (Asuchak, Brodzinski, Crnkovic, Watts) have 15 of 20 (75%) of Allen's goals and 20 of 28 (71%) of Allen's assists. Other than these four players, no other player has more than one goal. 

 

COACH'S COMMENTS

I had a chance to talk to coach Adams after the game and here is what he had to say:

"It was finally nice to get a win at home. It was a good all around game for us. We had some moments a couple times in the third period but we found a way and battled through it."

"It was a great team win, similar to the win we had in Utah last Saturday. On the game winning goal the defensemen got the puck out, Asuchak mad a great pass and Watty (Brayden Watts)  did what Watty does."

"With 13 seconds left we were talking about whether to put Duarte back out there because he was pretty tired and had blocked a lot of shots. We were deciding if he could could he get through the final 13 seconds. Utah called a time out which really helped us get some rest. We wanted Ass (Asuchak) to take the draw for sure and you need the commitment to block shots so we put Duarte back out there. The decision had nothing to do with getting anyone an empty net goal. It was all about who can get the pucks, who can skate, who is strong on the puck and it was not let's get Duarte a goal. It was great it worked out that way and he was very deserving of that goal the way he played today."

"Wells is doing what he does. He had a couple of blips when he first came down but he is just being him now and that is what he needs to do." 

 

OTHER COMMENTS

- The Mountain Division continues to see some unexpected results. The two teams at the bottom of the standings (Allen and Rapid City) won yesterday while Idaho and Tulsa lost. The Mountain Division is now the only division without a team with a points percentage above .700. And who would have guessed at this point of the season the top team in the division by points percentage would be the upstart Tahoe Knight Monsters and Idaho would be in fifth place. Here are the current standings in points percentage order:

• .688 - Tahoe
• .682 - Kansas City
• .650 - Tulsa
• .591 - Wichita
• .545 - Idaho
• .500 - Utah
• .389 - Allen
• .318 - Rapid City

Allen has now won three of its last four games and improved its points percentage from .100 after a 5-1 loss to Utah on November 1 to .389 after a 3-1 win over Utah on November 13.

 

- Allen's power play has four power play goals this season and three of them are against Utah. This could be key to the two weekend games against the Grizzlies who are 7-18 (61.1%) on the penalty kill.

- With the ECHL having one year player contracts and the variability of players being assigned by NHL/AHL affiliates, significant improvement can take place from season to season. Here are three examples:

• Savannah finished outside of the playoffs last season with a .472 points percentage. This season the Ghost Pirates points percentage is .630.
• Iowa finished last in the Central Division in 2023-24 with a points percentage of .431. This season the Heartlanders are at .611.
• Last season Wichita finished last in the Mountain Division. This season they are tied for second in points and have a .591 points percentage.
  

 

- No ECHL team made a more conscious decision to get tougher this season than the Kelly Cup runner-up Kansas City Mavericks. Last season the Mavericks had 688 penalty minutes, the second fewest in the league. This season Kansas City leads the league with 215 penalty minutes and at its current pace will finish the season with over 1400 penalty minutes. 

 

 

DID YOU KNOW: Stick taps to ECHL defenses yesterday. Eight games and the winning teams allowed a total of just 13 goals, an average of 1.63 goals per game. That is better than any team defense in the league. Here are the top 10 ECHL teams in average goals allowed per game:

 

1.67: Florida*

1.75: Indy

2.00: Adirondack*

2.22: Kalamazoo

2.25: South Carolina*

2.56: Worcester

2.56: Bloomington

2.56: Tulsa*

2.70: Toledo*

2.75: Trois Rivières 

 

*Teams with points percentage above .650.