The Allen Americans finished the series in style last night by shutting out Norfolk 4-0. The Americans were led by goalie Marco Costantini, who made 31 saves to earn his second shutout of the season. Marco improved his record to 14-6-3-0 and his save percentage to .918.
- The game was costly for the Americans:
- Spencer Asuchak was injured in a collision behind the net and had to be helped off the ice. He will be out for a while. I heard from Spencer that there are no breaks, but it will still take a while to heal.
- Colton Hargrove was high-sticked/speared in the nose and suffered a nasty laceration. Everyone I talked to who watched the video in slow motion agreed it was intentional and should have been a major penalty and game misconduct. The good news is Colton should be okay.
- Andre Anania was given a major spearing penalty and game misconduct after the game was over. While there is no automatic suspension under this rule (Rule 62.6), it is one of those "supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion" rules. Given this was after the game had ended, a suspension could be coming.
- The game last night was very similar to the Americans' win on Friday:
- Allen scored the first goal and improved its record when scoring first to 16-2-3-0 (.833).
- Allen led 3-0 after the first period. Norfolk's record when trailing after the first period drops to 0-14-0-0.
- Allen led 3-0 after the second period. The Americans' record when leading after the second period improved to 17-0-1-0. Norfolk's record when trailing after the second period drops to 0-18-0-0.
- Allen won the special teams battle, going 1-6 on the power play and 0-4 on the penalty kill. Allen's penalty kill is ranked #5 in the league (85.2%). The Americans have the #1 home penalty kill percentage (89.3%).
- Marco Costantini stopped the 31 shots he faced last night. Marco has won six straight games. The win last night was his 14th win of the season. He has accounted for 60% of Allen's wins this season
- Allen recorded its fifth shutout of the season, second most in the league.
- Goal scorers were Quinn Warmuth (5), Colby McAuley (16), Colton Hargrove (15), and Hank Crone (12). Here are the video highlights with the four goals and the McAuley fight: https://echl.com/videos/norfolk-admirals-vs-allen-americans-feb-7-2026
- I had a chance to check in with Coach Martinson this morning. Here is what he had to say:
"The more depth you have, the better off you are, especially in the playoffs. Our depth in scoring is a key to our success."
"The best thing from my perspective on the win last night was the good start. We had our share of bad starts earlier in the season, but in some of them, we were outscored, but were not outplayed. There was a game in Tahoe where we outshot them something like 20-8 and were losing 3-0."
"What we have to do better is avoid giving up easy scoring chances early in games."
"Crone, Hargrove, and McAuley are moving the puck better than any line I have ever had. I don't remember a line ever that moved the puck the way they do. Sometimes they move the puck too much. They need to be more selfish and shoot the puck more. They make great plays, but sometimes they just need to shoot."
- It will be a challenging week for the Allen Americans, with yet another four games in five days. Allen plays Wichita at home on Wednesday and then travels to Tulsa for games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
OTHER COMMENTS
- Over the last 10 days, I have posted several times on the ECHL Stats page, a comparison of ECHL teams. If you list all of these in one place, it gives an encouraging picture of the Allen Americans. Here is how Allen ranks in these stats. They are even more impressive when you consider that Allen has had only one contracted player for most of the season, and Allen was last in the league in goals scored last season.
- #1 - number of players with 20+ points (10)
- #1 - number of players with 30+ points (6)
- #1 - number of players with 10+ goals (8)
- #1 - number of hat tricks (7)
- #2 - number of shutouts (5)
- Coach Martinson has mentioned several times recently that he is working on adding to the Allen roster. If all goes as planned, you will see his work start to pay off next week.
- Idaho and Tahoe won last night, and Kansas City was idle. Here are the Mountain Division standings by points, with games remaining in parentheses:
- 70 points - Kansas City (28)
- 64 points - Idaho (27)
- 52 points - Tahoe (26)
- 52 points - Allen (28)
- 43 points - Wichita (30 )
- 41 points - Rapid City (28)
- 38 points - Utah (27)
- 27 points - Tulsa (30)
- The Police vs Fire game that took place before the Americans ended as it has in the last few years. The Police teams won 7-1.
#6 with a pocket full of assists last night 🦾
ReplyDeleteWill Colton be able to play on Wednesday night?
ReplyDeleteYes .....
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