Allen Style 7-1 Victory, Game Recap, Martinson Comments, Blaisdell Hatty Ties Team Record, Looking Ahead, Game Winning Goal Stats and More

 

The Allen Americans' offensive resurgence continued Sunday afternoon with a 7-1 victory over Tulsa. Combined with the six goals the Americans scored on Saturday, the 13 goals in back-to-back games are the most all season. The six-goal margin of victory matches the highest of the season, achieved once. On December 20, Allen shutout the Oilers 6-0 in Tulsa.

 

 - If you described Steve Martinson's style of hockey to an unfamiliar hockey fan, it would include some combination of highly entertaining, lots of offense, commitment to defense, physical play, a fight or two, and never taking your foot off the gas. That is exactly what Allen fans witnessed Sunday afternoon. 

• Seven goals, including a hat trick by Harrison Blaisdell. He scored the first and only goal of the first period, and back-to-back goals in the third period.
• Allen led 1-0 after the first period, 4-1 after the second period, and 7-1 after the third period. The team definitely didn't take its foot off the gas.
• Allen outshot Tulsa 40-25, including 11-4 in the third period.
• The game included a penalty shot. Colton Hargrove scored the 12th penalty shot goal in 41 attempts (29%) in the ECHL this season. Colton undressed the goal by faking a shot and then going forehand, backhand, and sliding the puck into the open net. 
• There were a combined 66 penalty minutes in the third period alone.
• Avery Smith was called up from Topeka (FPHL) for this series to add some toughness. Yes, he had a roughing penalty and a fight in the game. But he also scored his first ECHL goal, and it was the game-winner. 
• Allen won the special teams battle. Colby McAuley scored a power-play goal, and the Americans held Tulsa without a power-play goal for the third straight game. The Americans improved their league-leading home penalty kill percentage to 89.5%.
• Marco Costantini came up big when the defense broke down, stopping 24 of 25 shots for a .960 save percentage to improve his record to 17-7-4-0. Allen has 31 wins this season, Marco has accounted for 55% of them. 

 

- Goal scorers for Allen were Harrison Blaisdell (18,19,20), Avery Smith (1), Danny Katic (26), Colton Hargrove (18), and Colby McAuley (18). FYI, Katic has scored 26 goals on 104 shots; his 25.0% shooting percentage is #1 in the ECHL. His 26 goals are #3 in the league.

 

- Here is the game recap from the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/news/2026/03/game-recap-americans-erupted-for-seven-goals-in-a-7-1-win-over-the-oilers-on-pucks-n-paws-sunday 

 

 STEVE MARTINSON'S POST-GAME COMMENTS

"It was a fun night behind the bench. There were a lot of nice plays, and we showed speed."

 "I was joking that we had an ex-NHL dads line when Blaisdell, Sillinger, and Simmons-Fischer were out together as all of their dads played in the NHL."

"You could see Sillinger's vision and skill level on his two assists and how he moves his feet. He also had several seam passes where we didn't score. Remember, he hasn't played hardly at all since last year when he had surgery on his hip. He played a few games over a month between Iowa and Florida, then was off a month, then got hurt in his second game in Allen. I think he has just a ton of upside, and you saw some of that in the game today."  

"We are being very cautious with Hank Crone's injury. Will see how he is next week and when he might be able to start skating."

"Next weekend against Idaho will be huge. I am happy with our lineup, but I would like to get one more forward in here this week, so we will see. I am looking forward to playing Idaho at home this weekend."

   

 

- Next up for the Allen Americans are two games against Idaho on Friday and Saturday. Allen's chance to finish in second place in the division, which would mean home ice for the first round of the playoffs, rests in this two-game series against Idaho. Less than a month ago (February 14), Allen trailed Idaho by 16 points, which at the time seemed insurmountable. Idaho has allowed Allen to get back in the race for second place by having the worst record in the division over the last 10 games. Here are the points earned for each team in the last 10 games:

• 17 points - Kansas City
• 15 points - Allen
• 11 points - Tulsa
• 9 points - Utah
• 9 points - Tahoe
• 8 points - Wichita
• 6 points - Rapid City
• 6 points - Idaho

Allen has managed to close the gap with Idaho to seven points with one game in hand. Best-case scenario, after Saturday, Allen could sweep Idaho and be three points behind second place. Worst case is Allen gets swept and falls 11 points behind with 14 games remaining and almost no hope of overtaking Idaho.   

 

OTHER COMMENTS

- Allen has more players (8) with 35 or more points than any team other in the ECHL:

• 50+ Points
• 57 -  Brayden Watts 

 

• 40+ Points 
• 47 - Hank Crone
• 45 - Danny Katic
• 45 - Colton Hargrove
• 41 - Harrison Blaisdell
• 41 - Sam Sedeley

 

• 30+ Points 
• 34 - Michael Gildon
• 32 - Colby McAuley 

 

- Harrison Blaisdell's hat trick last night was his second of the season and eighth by the Americans this season, which matches the all-time record set in 2022-23.  Here are both lists:

• 2025-26 
• 2 - Harrison Blaisdell 
• 2 - Danny Katic
• 1 - Hank Crone 
• 1 - Mark Duarte 
• 1 - Colton Hargrove 
• 1 - Brayden Watts

 

• 2022-23
• 3 - Hank Crone
• 2 - Liam Finlay
• 2 - Colton Hargrove
• 1 - Jakov Novak 

 

 - There is still over a month remaining in the regular season, but Kansas has become the first team in the league to clinch a playoff spot. Fifth-place Wichita (55 points) is 36 points behind the Mavericks (91 points), and if Wichita wins all of its remaining games they would only have 89 points. 

 

- The odds are that the final Mountain Division standings will end up in the current order: #1 Kansas City, #2 Idaho, #3 Allen, and #4 Tahoe. However, it is certainly possible that a tiebreaker could be involved in the end. The first tiebreaker is regulation wins (RW). The second tiebreaker is regulation and overtime wins (ROW). Here is how the teams in second through fifth place stand in the regulations wins:

• #2 Idaho has 24 
• #3 Allen has 26
• #4 Tahoe has 26
• #5 Wichita has 20

 

DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about game-winning goal leaders. Colton Hargrove and Brayden Watts lead Allen with four. A couple of familiar names on the list of ECHL leaders in the past     

The ECHL leader in game-winning goals is a rookie. Here are the top five in-game winning goals this season:

 

10 - Jackson Jutting, Kansas City

8 - Brendan Hoffmann, Idaho

7 - Blake Murray, Fort Wayne

7 - Simon Pinard, South Carolina

7 - Andre Ghantous, Kalamazoo 

 

Here are ECHL leaders in game-winning goals over the last 15 years. Jutting has already cracked the list with 16 games remaining:

11 - Greger Hanson, Allen (2014-15)

11 - Michael Joly, Colorado (2017-18)

10 - Colton Yellow Horn, Ontario (2012-13)

10 - Peter Bates, Wichita (2024-25)

10 - Jacob Hayhurst, Kansas City (2023-24)