The Allen Americans beat the Rapid City Rush 4-1 last night to make it two straight home wins. There was a lot to like about the game. Here are a few of my thoughts:
- Allen allowed just one goal for the first time since last November.
- Allen allowed two or fewer goals in back to back games for only the second time all season.
- Allen scored first and never relinquished the lead.
- Allen led 2-0 after the first and second period. Rapid City is 2-13-0-1 when trailing after the first period and 0-21-3-0 when trailing after the second period.
- Allen held Rapid City to 32 shots, fewest of the seven games played this season.
- Allen has won back to back home games for only the second time all season.
- Allen's two game winning streak is the longest of the season (accomplished four other times) with a chance for three straight tonight.
- With the win last night and Utah's loss to Idaho the Americans moved from 8th place in the Mountain Division to 6th place (by point percentage).
- If you haven't had a chance to look at the video highlights take a close look before you read the rest of the blog as the highlights really tell the story of the game. https://echl.com/videos/rapid-city-rush-vs-allen-americans-jan-31-2025
- Rapid City had no answer for Allen's top line of Crnkovic, Asuchak and Watts. They scored all four goals and the player without a goal (Watts) had three assists and was dominate when he had the puck. This line has been great all season and will hopefully be kept together after splitting them up at times in the past. It is hard to aggregate this stat, but by my calculation when this line plays together the Americans record is 11-10-6. When they don't play together Allen's record is 1-11-2. I think you will see this line together the rest of the season.
- First goal: This was a pretty tic-tac-toe goal that was made by Watts. With had defender draped all over him but made a perfect pass to Kulakov who passed to a wide open Asuchak who buried the puck for his 14th goal of the season.
- Second goal: The video highlight doesn't do this goal justice. This is a play the team tries periodically and it worked to perfection last night. It started with Asuchak winning a faceoff to Brassard who deliberately iced the puck because he knew Watts would beat the defender down the ice. Watts made another perfect pass to Crnkovic who was streaking in from the slot and tipped the puck by the goalie. The big breakdown on that play was the defender cover Crankovic, who let Kyle get to the net. I asked Asuchak about the play after the game because he started the play though he didn't get an assist. Here is what he had to say, "I call it the Sedin twins play as they used to do it all the time in Vancouver. I used to watch them almost every game. Crank might be to young to have seen them make that play. haha"
- Third goal: Maybe my favorite goal of the night because it was one of those dirty goals coach Ferguson keeps talking about. Once again Watts had the puck on his stick and took it to the goal. His entire line was at the net hacking and whacking at the puck before Asuchak scored. Allen needs more of those type of goals to be successful.
- Empty net goal: No surprise Watts was in the middle of this goal as well. He drew the defender to himself along the boards and flipped the puck to Asuchak who was streaking toward the net. Watts looked as happy as Asuchak when the hat trick goal went in. When was Asuchak's last hat trick? This one will win you a trivia contest. It was on December 2, 2015 and it was with the AHL Chicago Wolves. A fun fact on his third goal, which came late in the third period, is the only assist on the goal was from another former Americans player, Jacob Doty. Not many ECHL players, past or present, have an AHL hat trick on their stat sheet. The only other Asuchak hat trick I could find in the archives was when Allen was playing in the Central Hockey League. On March 21, 2014 Spencer had a hat trick against the St. Charles Chill. Included in his three goals was a shorthanded goal. His stat line was five points (3G, 2A) and +4.
- The top line's total for the night was nine points (4G, 5A) and +11. Asuchak scored his 14, 15 and 16 goals. Crnkovic scored his 10th. They are the top three scorers on the team.
- 43 points (15G, 28A) - Watts
- 39 points (10G, 29A) - Crnkovic
- 32 points (16G, 16A) - Asuchak
Talk about spreading the wealth. Watts lead the team in points, Asuchak leads the team in goals and Crnkovic leads the team in assists.
- Here are the game recaps from both teams:
- Dylan Wells was excellent in goal again. The only goal Rapid City scored was on the power play. He stopped 31 of 32 shots for a .969 save percentage after a .957 save percentage on Wednesday. Wells had two very rough outings to begin the season. Since then he has played in nine games games with a record of 6-1-0-1 and a .935 save percentage.
POST GAME COMMENTS
Coach Brett Ferguson and team owner Myles Jack spoke with the season ticket holders after the game. It was a standing room only crowd with lots of energy and enthusiasm in the room. Here is what they had to say:
"We have been talking lately about winning the race to three goals. We want to win games 3-2. Tonight it was 3-1 and then the empty netter to made it 4-1.".....Ferguson
"We still have to dial in our details in our own zone a little bit. We took some excess penalties, but I thought we were the better team 5-on-5. We spent a lot of time in our offensive zone.".....Ferguson
"We established a ground game to use a football term. Down low below the goal line, possessing the puck, using our big bodies and they had trouble getting the puck from us for a while.".....Ferguson
"We gave up 32 shots which was good, but we can get that number down if we stay out of the penalty box.".....Ferguson
"On the play where Crnkovic scored what proved to be the game winner they guys were just playing hockey. On that play Rapid City backed up and gave Brassard a little bit of time and he saw Watts flying so he iced the puck knowing Watts would win the race and Crank (Crnkovic), the little energizer bunny, was going and going up the ice. It was an unbelievable play by Watts. He was very noticeable tonight. The puck was always on his stick. It was great that Spencer got the hat trick and I loved that. The game that Watts played overall, in his own zone and along the walls was unbelievable.".....Ferguson
"Gavin might be out for a little bit. Not every time you go down does it mean the fight is over. It is a tough lesson for him to learn as a first year guy. He is a tough kid, an Air Force kid, had-nosed and he got banged up a little bit. We will call it an upper body injury.".....Ferguson
"I liked what I saw out of Powell tonight. He wasn't getting the ice time he probably deserved in Kansas City. He had two unfortunate penalties in the game. One was just him being bigger and stronger than the other guy. For whatever reason we always end up on the wrong side of the penalty ledger. He was +3 in the game and I think he will fit in well on our blue line.".....Ferguson
"Coach Ferguson has been great for the guys, great for the organization. He has my full support.".....Jack
"We are trying to play harder and be tough to play against. Like we have talked before in here we are where we are in the standings. There is only one way to go. I talked to Barry today and he gave me a good analogy of playing like a pack of wolves. We kind of used that tonight. We were on the hunt for the puck, we are hunting to get it back.".....Ferguson
"Wells was great in goal again. He has a very calming influence in goal. We have a youngish team even though we are trying to get a little bit older. When you have a veteran goalie like Wells he so calm. Shots hit him, he covers them, he makes the saves, he is sticky. If anything lays in front of him I thought our defense did a great job of clearing the puck out.".....Ferguson
"A big emphasis has been winning the board battles. To me that is also being tougher to play against. The game of hockey is 60 minutes of one on one battles all over the ice. Usually if you win more of those battles good things are going to happen. The walls are where the puck is the most a lot of nights.".....Ferguson
"We have talked in here a couple of times we want to be tougher to play against. Or philosophy is nobody touches our goalie and if you do you are going to get smacked. Unfortunately sometimes you take a penalty but those are the ones you kill.".....Ferguson
"My main objective when I purchased the team was doing what is best for the organization. We had some disagreements with folks and I decided from this point forward I am going to do what is best for the organization and that is the main thing. Moving forward the objective will be to see great hockey in Allen and win a championship. That is my goal.".....Jack
"The situation got into some legality issues, but we came out ahead. At the end of the day all I wanted was what is best for the organization.".....Jack
"I will say from the hockey side of the organization, anything we have asked for, Myles has gone above and beyond. It starts in our dressing room in adding workout and recovery equipment. It has been awesome having an athlete, a professional athlete, a very successful professional athlete, overseeing us rather than, no offense, some paper pushers. Myles gets it and absolutely wants the best for us as a team, us as an organization and us as a whole. It has been great to see."....Ferguson
TONIGHT'S PREVIEW
- The key for tonight would be more of the same with the exception of special teams. Here were the keys from yesterday:
- Good start, don't play from behind.
- Win
the special teams battle. Allen has the better power play despite the
poor showing in Rapid City. Take advantage on special teams.
- Do a better job on breakouts.
- Protect the offensive and defensive blue lines and avoid turnovers.
- Get good goaltending.
- Stay out of the penalty box.
- Play physical
- The Allen power play was scoreless again making it 1-13 (7.7%) in this series. Rapid City's only goal was on the power play. The Rush have scored at least one power play in all four games of this series. The total is 5-17 (29.4%). When I asked coach Ferguson for a comment about special teams this morning this is what he had to say, "We have to stay out of the box and play 5-on-5 hockey. That is where we have played our best and they had trouble handling us down low in the offensive zone. No more stick penalties!"
- The lineup tonight will be the same as last night with the exception of recently acquired forward Kamerin Nault (#11) replacing Will Gavin who was injured in a fight last night and will be out a while. Here is the lineup for tonight:
(F)
#16 Crnkovic-#26 Asuchak-#92 Watts
#25 Westcott-#89 Polino-#8 Duarte
#14
Guy-#17 Jacobs-#9 Isaacson
#11 Nault-#84 Gorman-#24 Blaisdell
(D)
#5 Wilson-#82 Fraser
#3 Powell-#23 Brassard
#55 Johnson-#66 Kulakov
(G)
#39 Wells
#35 Thornton (BU)
- It will be back to a one referee game tonight and the referee will be #6 John Lindner. The linesmen will be #76 Daniel Barnes and #48 Trent Williams. Lindner was the referee on Wednesday when Allen had to kill four third period power plays. Hopefully the penalty calls will be a little more even tonight.
- Here is the game preview issued by the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2025/02/game-day-americans-look-for-home-sweep-of-rapid-city
OTHER COMMENTS
- It didn't take long for Hank Crone to have an impact after being out for a month with an injury. Playing in his first game for Idaho since December 31, he scored the overtime game winner last night in a 2-1 win over Utah. Despite missing a month Hank sill leads Idaho with 38 points (11G, 27A) in just 31 games. That is a points per game average of 1.23.
- While Allen is now "The Best of the Rest" the top five teams continue to battle for the four playoff spots. Kansas City keeps threatening to break away from the pack. Here are the top five in point percentage order. Games remaining for each team is in parenthesis:
- .683 - Kansas City (31)
- .619 - Tulsa (30)
- .616 - Tahoe (29)
- .593 - Wichita (29)
- .585 - Idaho (31)
Allen isn't going to be able to catch the top five, but the Americans can certainly play spoiler. Here are the games remaining between Allen and the top five:
- 5 games - Tulsa (4H, 1A)
- 5 games - Idaho (2H, 3A)
- 4 games - Kansas City (1H, 3A)
- 3 games - Wichita (2H, 1A)
- 3 games - Tahoe (0H, 3A)
- It is another full ECHL schedule tonight with 28 teams in action including all eight Mountain Division teams. It is the same lineup as last night:
DID YOU KNOW: Six ECHL players have 20+ goals. At their current pace (average goals per game), if they play in all remaining games, their projected goals are in parenthesis:
25 goals - Cade Borchardt, KC (46)
24 goals - Brandon Hawkins, TOL (40)
22 goals - Anthony Repaci, WOR, (40)
21
goals - Sam Pinard, TAH, (37)
20 goals - Spencer Kersten, ORL (31)
20 goals - Tyler Kupka, SC (35)
Here is the ECHL leading goal scorer the last six seasons:
40 - Brandon Hawkins, Toledo (2023-24)
49 - Hank Crone, Allen (2022-23)
35 - Kris Bennett, Iowa, (2021-22)
35 - Brandon Hawkins, Toledo (2021-22)
31 - John McCarron, Florida (2020-21)
33 - Josh Kestner, Toledo (2019-20)
38 - Adam Pleskach, Tulsa (2018-19)
