Shootout Win for Allen, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Martinson Comments, Teams Who Average 4.00+ Goals Per Game and More

 

Sorry for the lateness of the blog today. Had to run some errands and got a late start. The Allen Americans made tough work of the game last night, but in the end came away with a 5-4 shootout road win over Wichita. It was Allen's fifth win in five games against Wichita this season. The teams will conclude their four-game series this afternoon at 2:05 pm CST.

 

- Here are some of the good and bad from the game last night:

• Allen scored first and took a 2-0 lead.
• Allen allowed Wichita to come back, tying the score 2-2 on a goal 43 seconds into the second period.
• Allen took a 3-2 lead midway through the second period.
• Wichita came back again and scored two goals, including the go-ahead goal, 69 seconds into the third period, to take a 4-3 lead.
• Allen tied the score 4-4 midway through the third period to send the game to overtime
• Allen had 21 seconds of power play time at the beginning of overtime and 1:41 at the end of overtime and failed to score.
• Allen dominated on special teams, scoring two power play goals (2-5) while allowing none (0-5). 
• Allen has been in two shootouts this season and won them both. The Americans have scored on four of their seven shootout attempts. 
• Michael Gildon scored in the third round of the shootout to keep Allen in the game, and Danny Katic scored the goal in the fourth round that won the game. 

 

 - Goals scorers for Allen were Colby McAuley (11), Danny Katic (14), Hank Crone (8), Brayden Watts (14). Sam Sedley had two assists, both on the power play. Sedley leads the entire ECHL in points and power-play assists with 16. His total of 24 assists places him #3 in the ECHL. David Tendeck had an assist on Watt's game-tying goal. 

 

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

• Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2026/01/americans-win-5-4-in-a-shootout 
• Wichita Thunder: https://wichitathunder.com/news/2026/01/wichita-battles-back-from-early-hole-falls-in-shootout 
• Video Highlight: https://echl.com/videos/allen-americans-vs-wichita-thunder-jan-10-2026 

 

- The lineup this afternoon will be the same as last night, except that Marco Costantini will start in goal: 

Forwards

92 McAuley - 7 Hargrove - 67 Crone

26 Asuchak - 29 Watts - 18 Blaisdell

77 Morrison - 91 Gildon - 9 Katic

10 Spitserov - 14 Gursoy

 

Defense

86 Anania - 23 Sedley

8 Prefontaine - 22 Costantini

21 Decker - 3 Greco

 

Goalies

33 Costantini  

32 Tendeck (backup)

 

 

- Here are Coach Martinson comments to me this morning:

 

"We had another good start, taking a 2-0 lead. If we could have held them scoreless going into the first intermission, it might have been a different game. A defensive mistake by a forward led to a 2-on-1 and a goal.

 

"One of our problems defensively is that sometimes we over-back-check. On a couple of the goals, we had guys in the right position, but they didn't go to the right guy."  

 

"Before the game, I said to the guys, we don't have to think about the offense so much as we used to. The offense is taking care of itself now. We know the offense is going to be there most nights. I said, When you think about the game, think about what you have to do to be responsible defensively."

 

"We had some power play time at the beginning and end of overtime, but couldn't score. I am going to change up our 4-on-3 power play approach."

 

"It is critical that I spread out the ice time today, and I will. With four games in five days, you have to play all four lines."  

 

   

 

OTHER COMMENTS 

- Every time I have updated this list of Allen players averaging a point per game, they all have points in the next game. It happened again last night, so I am keeping this list going as it is working. Here are the points and points per game in the previous 12 games. Top players being the top players:  

• 16 points (8G, 8A) - McAuley (1.33)
• 14 points (4G, 10A) - Hargrove (1.17) 
• 14 points (9G, 5A) - Katic (1.17)
• 14 points (1G, 13A) - Sedley (1.17)  
• 13 points (5G, 8A) - Watts (1.08) 
• 13 points (2G, 11A) - Crone (1.08)

 

 

DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL stats post today is about teams that average 4.00 goals per game. Allen's average is 3.52, which is ranked #4. The average is misleading because at the beginning of December, it was 2.50 per game. The Americans have been averaging well over four goals a game in the last month (4.38).  

 

ECHL teams averaging 4.00+ goals per game for a season have happened just eight times in the last 10 years. The leader thus far in 2025-26 is Toledo at 3.73 goals per game. 

 

Here is the list of teams that have averaged four goals per game. Ironically, none of them won the Kelly Cup. The Kelly Cup winner is in parentheses:

 

2025-26

None

 

2024-25

None

 

2023-24 (Florida)

4.70 - Idaho

4.62 - Toledo

4.17 - Cincinnati 

 

2022-23 (Florida)

4.03 - Idaho

 

2021-22

None

 

2020-21

None

 

2019-20 (no playoffs)

4.00 - Newfoundland 

 

2018-19

None

2017-18 (Colorado)

4.03 - Fort Wayne 

 

2016-17 (Colorado)

4.19 - Toledo

4.08 - Allen 

 

 

FYI, the last ECHL team to average four goals a game in the regular season and go on to win the Kelly Cup was Allen. In 2014-15, the Americans averaged 4.08 goals per game and defeated South Carolina in the finals to win the Kelly Cup.