The Allen Americans beat
the Wichita Thunder 4-2 last night to snap their eight game losing
streak and salvage two points from the three game series against the
Thunder. Talk about odd stats, check these out from this Wichita series.
- Team that scored first lost all three games.
- Home team lost all three games
- In game one Allen took a 1-0 lead early in the first period and then gave up four unanswered goals to lose 4-1.
- In game two Allen took 1-0 lead early in the first period and then gave up five unanswered goals to lose 5-1.
- In game three Wichita took a 2-0 and then gave up four unanswered goals to lose 4-2.
- Allen outshot Wichita in back to back games on Friday and Saturday. They were only the second and third time all season Allen has out shot an opponent.
- In the 4-2 win last night Allen trailed 2-1 after the second period. It was the first time all season Allen won a game when trailing after the second period. Record is now 1-10-2-0.
- Wichita lost last night after leading after the second period. It was the first time all season. Thunder record when leading after the second period is now 11-1-0-0.
- It wasn't a good start for the Americans. Despite outshooting Wichita 10-7 in the first period the only goal was scored by the Thunder and it came on the power play. It was the first power play goal given up by the Americans against Wichita in four games. Almost a full period after Wichita scored its first goal (16:54 of the first period) the Thunder scored a second goal (16:18 of the second period). In much of the recent losing streak when Allen got down a couple of goals the roof would fall in. That didn't happen last night. Just 56 seconds after Wichita took the 2-0 lead Allen cut the score to 2-1 on Nolan Orzeck's first goal of the season. It was a big goal for two reasons. First, it kept Allen within contact of Wichita. In the games in Allen once the Thunder got the lead they poured it on. Cutting the score to 2-1 stopped the bleeding. The second reason it was a big goal is it was scored by a defenseman. It was just the fifth goal scored by a defensemen all season. Allen has had a history of high scoring defensemen over the years with the high water mark of 64 points (26G, 64A) by Les Lancaster in 2020-21. Since joining the ECHL Allen has had seven defensemen score 14 or more goals in a season and eight have tallied more than 35 points in a season. The Americans have never had a season when defenseman finished with fewer than eight goals and fewer than 30 points.
- When the second period ended with a 2-1 Wichita lead the challenge for Allen was great. As stated above, Wichita hadn't lost a game all season when leading after the second period and Allen hadn't won a game all season when trailing after the second period. All Allen did in the third period was dominate in all aspects. Wichita couldn't get the puck out of its defensive zone for long period of time, the Americans held Wichita to no goals in the period and just four shots. Allen scored three goals on 10 shots to win the game 4-2.
- Allen tied the score 2-2 early in the third period (5:36) on Brayden Watts ninth goals of the season. It was his first goal in 12 games and it was a big one. It was great to see the line that was so strong earlier in the season get the tying goal in the third period, Crnkovic to Asuchak to Watts for the goal.
- Allen took the lead 3-2 on Mark Duarte's eighth goal of the season at 12:24 of the period. The penalty killer supreme had left the ice for the locker room after blocking a shot on the power play in the second period. It looked like he wouldn't return they way he limped off the ice. But as happened before, he shook it off between periods and was on the bench to start the third period. His goal was scored on the power play. Fittingly, Duarte scored an empty net goal to make the final score 4-2. Goalie Luke Richardson, making his first start for the Americans had an assist on Duarte's empty net goal. Richardson stopped 20 of 22 shots for a .909 save percentage. If you combine his minutes in relief on Friday night, Luke has faced 35 shots and saved 33 for a .943 save percentage and a 1.23 GAA.
- Duarte has now scored eight goals in the last 10 games. That represents 38% of Allen's 21 goals scored in the last 10 games. Here are the video highlights from Allen's win last night which includes all of the goals and many great saves by both goalies. Spencer Asuchak had the primary assist on all of the goals except the empty net goal. Check out the great passes he made that led to the goals. https://echl.com/videos/allen-americans-vs-wichita-thunder-dec-21-2024
- Here are the game recaps from both teams:
Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2024/12/americans-losing-streak-ends-at-eight-games
Wichita Thunder: https://wichitathunder.com/news/2024/12/thunder-finishes-pre-holiday-schedule-with-loss-to-americans
ALLEN VS TULSA PREVIEW
- The Allen Americans 18 game challenge continues today in Tulsa. Six games into the challenge Allen's record is 1-4-1-0 and they will be playing the third game in three days. From the start of the game on Friday night (7:22 pm) to the start of the game this afternoon (3:05 pm) the Americans played a game, bused to Wichita, played a game, bused to Tulsa where they will take the opening puck drop less than 44 hours after the puck drop in Allen on Friday. If there is a silver lining Tulsa will also be playing its third game in three days. Tulsa played in Kansas City last night and beat the Mavericks 5-0. The Oilers had to travel the 275 miles back to Tulsa after the game. I think you can stipulate both teams will be tired this afternoon.
- Allen snapped its eight game losing streak last night while Tulsa extended its point streak to four games. In its last four games Tulsa beat Kansas City 5-0, lost to Kansas City 3-2 in overtime and beat Idaho on the road twice (5-4 in OT and 3-2).
- The game this afternoon will be the fifth of 12 times Allen will play Tulsa this season. In the first four games the Americans record was 1-2-1-0 and they were outscored 18-10 and outshot 172-105. Allen's power play was 4-17 (23.5%) in the four games compared to Tulsa's 3-13 (23.1%).
- Allen's record in the last 10 games is 2-6-2-0 and Tulsa's is 5-4-1-0. Tulsa is ranked #3 in the Mountain Division with a .604 point percentage. Allen is ranked #5 with a .420 point percentage. Both of these team play better on the road than at home. If you look at Tulsa's home record and Allen's road record they are exactly at 6-6-1-0.
- Allen will be need a better start this afternoon if it expects to win. While Allen has one of the worst records in the league when scoring the first goals of the game (5-5-3-0) Tulsa has one of the best (12-1-1-0). The Americans don't want to spot the Oilers a 2-0 lead like they did to the Thunder last night.
- Here is the Allen vs Tulsa game preview issued by the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2024/12/game-day-preview-allen-at-tulsa-305-pm-cst
- Here is the lineup for the game this afternoon against Tulsa. Hardie and Kulakov are still out. Wilson has returned from loan to the AHL and will be in the lineup to give Allen six defensemen. Seaman is a healthy scratch. Luke Richardson will get the start in goal. That might be a surprise given the early start time (3:05 pm) but Richardson only faced 22 shots in the game last night and just four in the third period.
Forwards
- #92 Watts - #8 Duarte - #14 Guy
- #9 Isaacson - #26 Asuchak - #22 Brodzinski
- #84 Gorman - #17 Jacobs - #16 Crnkovic
- #24 Blaisdell - #42 Baillageron - #28 Chambers
Defense
- #5 Wilson - #2 Warmuth
- #23 Brassard - #44 Orzeck
- #3 Gagnon - #91 Adeniye
Goalies
- #33 Richardson
- #35 Thornton (back up)
OTHER COMMENTS
- Top scoring defensemen for each season since Allen joined the ECHL:
- 48 points (11G, 37A) - Kris Myllari, 2023-24
- 38 points (5G, 33A) - Colton Saucerman, 2022-23 (Myllari had 8 goals)
- 38 points (8G, 30A) - Phil Beaulieu, 2021-22
- 64 points (26G, 38A) - Les Lancaster, 2020-21*
- 55 points (11G, 44A) - Alex Breton, 2019-20*
- 39 points (14G, 25A) - Alex Breton, 2018-19
- 54 points (11G, 43A) - David Makowski (11G, 43A), 2017-18
- 50 points (16G, 34A) - David Makowski, 2016-17
- 38 points (17G, 21A) - David Makowski, 2015-16
- 56 points (8G, 48A) - Aaron Gens, 2014-15)
- Tulsa's 5-0 shutout win in Kansas City last night happened on Teddy Bear Toss night. The Mavericks had the fans throw the teddy bears during a break with 3:49 left in the game. Always a bummer when that happens but a great cause was helped out.
- There are just six games on the ECHL schedule today, the last day before the Christmas break. Allen at Tulsa is the only game with Mountain Division teams involved. The other six Mountain Division teams got an early start on Christmas break.. Here is the ECHL Today with the previews: https://echl.com/news/2024/12/echl-today-dec-22
DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about minor and major penalties. Allen has taken 113 minor penalties and 10 five minute major penalties.
Thanks Barry for the great work.
ReplyDeleteScore predictions… 5-2
ReplyDeleteWhen you make a prediction your guess at the winning team might be important
DeleteSome things don’t change.
ReplyDeleteBJ was lucky last night.
🙄
We had 31-22 SOG, which seems to be the key stat.
DeleteFeels like Richardson may be a good pickup, but we need some help at the back. That said, he will play Thornton.
Lucky how? That Bruce Ramsay didn’t whip his ass?! Did anyone see the video of this confrontation?
DeleteDo tell
DeleteOur “coach” would have gotten it handed to him that’s for sure lol. He looked like a scared child
DeleteLoved how Tommy said our winning 1 game streak came to an end. What a great cheerleader for our team.
ReplyDeleteHe wasn't wrong
Delete1 game losing streak now
Delete