Allen Loses 7-2, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Coach's Comments, Wichita Preview, ECHL Record Book, Scoring First Stats and More

 

For the second night Allen scored the first goal of the game against Idaho before surrendering seven goals in a loss. The final score last night was 7-2 after a 7-3 loss on Friday. The Saturday night, big crowd (6273), specialty jersey (Wizard Night) curse is alive and well. The game last night was the second largest crowd of the season and the second highest gate revenue as far back as the team has records.The Americans now have a specialty jersey record this season of 1-5. The lone win was on Military Night (November 15). Last season when Allen wore specialty jerseys, its record was 2-7.

 

- There is no other way to say it other than Idaho owned Allen this weekend and this season. Here are the stats:

• Allen was out scored 14-5 and outshot 92-47 in the two games this weekend
• Allen was 0-6 against Idaho this season.
• Allen was outscored 33-9 in the six games.
• Allen was outshot 245-174 in the six games.
• Allen was 0-16 on the power play in the six games.
• Idaho was 5-24 (20.8) on the power play in the six games. 

 

- Last night Allen scored first at the 6:29 mark of the opening period on defenseman Quinn Warmuth's seventh goal of the season. Warmuth, who made the team as a tryout player in training camp and has never had more than six goals in a season in his entire hockey career, now leads all Allen defensemen in goals. Pretty amazing for a guy that had a career high of six goals playing Division III hockey for SUNY-Oswego. 

 

- Idaho would tie the score 1-1 at the 13:54 mark of the first period. Mason Nevers, who signed with Idaho on Friday, after finishing his collegiate career as captain at the University of Minnesota has had quite a start to his pro career. Nevers scored Idaho's first goal on Friday night and did it again last night. 

 

- The second period has been Allen's Achilles Heel many time this season. Friday night Idaho scored four unanswered goals in the second period to blow the game open. Last night the Steelheads outshot Allen 23-5 in the second period and outscored the Americans 3-1 to take a 4-2 lead into the third period. Nick Isaacson, who was playing in his first game in a month, scored Allen's second goal, his fifth of the season and third for the Americans. Isaacson's goal cut Idaho's lead to 3-2, but the Steelheads regained their two goal lead less than two minutes later and took at 4-2 lead into the second intermission.

 

- FYI, Idaho's record when leading after the second period is almost flawless (26-0-1-0) so there was no comeback in store for the Americans. Idaho added three more goals in the third period, two of them power play goals, to make the final score 7-2. It was the 11th time this season Allen gave up seven or more goals. 

 

Here are the game recaps from both teams and the video highlights:

• Allen Americans game recap: https://allenamericans.com/news/2025/04/game-recap-americans-fall-to-idaho-on-wizard-night 
• Idaho Steelheads game recap: https://idahosteelheads.com/news/2025/04/francesco-arcuri-records-career-high-five-points-as-steelheads-dominate-the-americans-7-2
  
• Video highlights: https://echl.com/videos/idaho-steelheads-vs-allen-americans-apr-5-2025 

 

COACH'S COMMENTS

- Coach Ferguson met with the season ticket holders after the game last night. Here are his comments:

"The first period we jumped out and scored quick right away. The game was moving along back and forth, the shots were even (10-10) and the period ended tied 1-1."

"Then we took 12 minutes of penalties out of a 20 minute second period and they fired 23 shots on our net. You can only be under siege for so long. In those situations it taxes your players that kill penalties and we were missing Blaisdell and Gorman who are usually first over the boards on the penalty kill. On top of that you have skill guys like Mitakka, Kane and Morrison, who don't kill penalties, sitting on the bench because there was very little 5-on-5 hockey." 

"We played half of the second period and most of the third period with four defensemen."

"We had about 1:10 in power play time on our two power play opportunities. It seemed like every time there was a scrum we went to the penalty box."

"We will bring 20 guys to Wichita and it is the nature of the beast in this league. It is 10:30 pm now. We will get on the road by 11:00. Arrive in Wichita around 4:30 am. We will go the the rink and unload our bags before going to the hotel and the players will get in their rooms around 5:30 am and then the league asks us to play a game at 2:05 pm."

 

 

- The loss was just the beginning of the night for the Americans, The team boarded the bus after the game and drove through the night arriving in Wichita at 4:30 am. They headed for the rink to unload all of the gear and then checked into the hotel for a few hours of sleep. Heard by the time they got their hotel rooms it was 6:00 am. Meanwhile, the Wichita players were snug in their beds after not playing a game Saturday game. Welcome to ECHL scheduling and a 2:05 pm puck drop this afternoon.

 

- Coach Ferguson took 20 players on the one game trip to Wichita. As long as nobody comes down sick, Allen will have a full lineup today. All of the players that played last night made the trip to Wichita with two exceptions:

• Jay Powell replaces Cole Fraser on defense. Fraser received a game misconduct penalty last night for continuing an altercation and could be subject to a suspension, so with that possibility it was best to take Powell. The decision on any suspension will happen this morning. UPDATE: Fraser was not suspended.
• Brad Morrison will be replaced by Brett Roloson, who signed an amateur tryout (ATO) contract yesterday. ATO contracts are good for five games or 10 days. Morrison is at 257 pro games played. If he plays 260 games he will be a veteran next season. If he is at 259 games he will have non-vet status all next season. Look for Morrison to play two of the three games against Tulsa next week to keep his career pro games played at 259.
• Goalie Dylan Myskiw will get his first start in goal this afternoon since signing with Allen last week.

 

- Here is the complete lineup for the game this afternoon:

 

Forwards

#9 Isaacson -#8 Duarte - #84 MacDonald

#92 Watts - #26 Asuchak - #91 Matikka

#42 Roloson - #86 Kane - #25 Westcott

#16 Gildon - #14 Burnie - #70 Perepeluk

 

Defense

#5 Wilson - #2 Warmuth

#57 LeDonne - #23 Brassard

#55 Johnson - #3 Powell

 

Goalies

#1 Myskiw

#33 Richardson (backup)

 

- I have seen several times over the years Allen has not played a game on Saturday and then played a team that had to travel to Allen overnight after playing on Saturday. It looks like an impossible task, but it has proven otherwise. Could this happen today in Wichita?

 

- The situation is different today because Wichita will be as desperate as Idaho was the last two nights. The Steelheads win last night has them tied for fourth place with Wichita (81 point) with three games remaining. Today is a must win game for the Thunder. 

 

- Allen's record against Wichita this season is 3-7-2-0. The Americans have a better record against Wichita than the other teams in the playoff race, Tahoe (1-2-2-1)  and Tulsa (2-5-2-0). Will Allen be able to play the spoiler this afternoon? It looks like long odds, but you never know in hockey.

 

OTHER COMMENTS

- Brett Roloson will play his first professional game today. He just finished his collegiate career at Niagara University. The 24 year old, left shot forward is 6'1" and 161 pounds. He spent three years and Lake Superior State University before transferring to Niagara for 2024-25. In 100 NCAA games Roloson had 20 points (3G, 17A). Hockey fans will be familiar with Brett's dad, Dwayne Roloson, who had a 16 year NHL career as a goalie. He played in 606 NHL games with a career 2.42 GAA and .909 save percentage.

Forward Brett Roloson

 

- Dylan Myskiw will get the start in goal today He is a 26 year old, 6'1" 174 pound goalie that catches with his left hand. He played his collegiate career at the University of Western Ontario. He played in 48 games in college with a 3.24 GAA and .905 save percentage:

Goalie Dylan Myskiw

 

- South Carolina won last night and has now won 14 straight games and the Stingrays play at Greenville this afternoon. Only five teams in the history of the ECHL have had winning streaks of more than 14 games. Can South Carolina join the top five all-time today?

 

- Speaking of records the Americans three remaining home games will seal their fate regarding the season record for fewest home wins in ECHL history and that covers 37 years.

• If Allen is swept by Tulsa the Americans will be #2 all-time by themselves with seven home wins. 
• If Allen wins one of the three games against Tulsa they will be tied with four other teams for #2 on the all-time list with eight home wins. 
• If the Americans win two of the three games they will still make the record book as the last entry, tied for #6 with nine home wins.
• If Allen sweeps Tulsa and ends up with 10 home wins the Americans they will avoid the record book altogether.
  

 

- There are 10 games on the ECHL Sunday schedule with most having afternoon start times. Tahoe is the only team that can qualify for the playoffs today and the Knight Monsters are idle. If Idaho loses in Tulsa today, Tahoe clinches a playoff spot. Here is the ECHL today with a preview of all of the games: https://echl.com/news/2025/04/echl-today-april-6   

 

DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about scoring the first goal of the game. Allen scored first last night and lost the game. With that loss the Americans are once again below .500 when scoring first. Here is the ECHL data:

Scoring the first goal of the game is a huge advantage for ECHL teams. League wide the team that scores first has a point percentage of .748. Individual team point percentage ranges from a high of .932 (South Carolina) to a low of .483 (Allen). Here are the point percentages, by categories, for every ECHL team:

 

.932: *SC*

.800-.899: FLA, IDH, JAX, *KC*, *TR*, TUL, WHL

.700-.799: ATL, BLM, FW, IND, IA, MNE, NOR, ORL,REA,*TOL*, TAH, WIC, WOR

.600-.699: ADK, CIN, KAL, RC, SAV, UTA

.500-.599: GVL

.483: ALN

 

*Division leaders