Getaway Day, Travel Roster, Teams That Win More on the Road and More

It is getaway day for the Allen Americans as they will practice this morning and leave this afternoon for another important week. The Americans will stop in Kansas City for games on Tuesday and Wednesday, in Wichita for a game on Friday before finishing the week at home on Saturday against Wichita.

– Four games against the two teams behind Allen in the Mountain Division standings. With 65% of the season in the books by the end of the week, the Americans have to do better than a split of the four games this week. Anything less than six points will keep Allen around the .500 points percentage which isn’t good enough to gain ground on the teams in the four playoff spots. It is do or die time for the Americans.

–  I had a chance to check in with coach Martinson this morning on the travel roster. Every healthy player will make the trip. It won’t be decided until after practice today whether Branden Troock will make the trip. Players definitely staying home are Tyler Poulson, Andrew Jarvis, and D-Jay Jerome. Here is the travel roster:

Goalies

#31 – Luke Peressini

#40 – Frank Marotte

Defensemen:

#3 – Darian Skeoch

#4 – Kris Myllari

#7 – Eric Roy

#8 – Jake Kearley

#20 – Ben Carroll

#23 – Ben Owen

#25 – Phil Beaulieu

Forwards

#10 – Jackson Leppard

#11 – Branden Troock (questionable)

#13 – Chad Costello

#17 – Chad Butcher

#18 – J.D. Dudek

#19 – Jared Bethune

#21 – Jack Combs

#22 – Zach Hall

#26 – Spencer Asuchak

#44 – Kolten Olynek

#49 – Dawson Butt

– Skeoch will miss the two games in Kansas City as he will be serving a two game suspension he was given for a game misconduct slashing penalty on Friday against the Mavericks. He will be able to practice with the team and be back in the lineup in Wichita on Friday.

– If Troock doesn’t make the road trip, Allen will have 16 skaters on Tuesday and Wednesday, so the Americans will not have to play short unless there is an injury.

OTHER COMMENTS

– Newfoundland is a good example of getting players back after playing shorthanded and turning things around. The Growlers are in a different situation than Allen because they had a lot of players out with COVID and they also have 10+ contracted players. Newfoundland lost eight of nine games and then got six or seven players back. Since then, they have won four straight by scores of 5-0, 6-1, 4-1 and 4-3 in overtime.

– Allen’s .512 points percentage is ranked #17 in the 27 team ECHL, #10 in the 14 team Western Conference and #5 in the seven team Mountain Division. The fourth-place team in the division, which is the final playoff spot, has a points percentage of .542. To give you an idea of how things could change in just one week, if Allen goes 4-0-0-0 this week its points percentage will improve to .553. If the Americans go 0-4-0-0 their points percentage will drop to .468. It is mathematically possible Allen could be as high as #3 or as low as #7 in the division standings by weeks end. Hopefully they will be closer to #3 than #7.

DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about teams playing better on the road than at home. Allen hasn’t had more road wins than home wins since joining the ECHL in 2014-15. Here are Allen’s home (H) and road (A) wins the last five seasons:

• 2021-22: 11 (H), 8 (A)
• 2020-21: 26 (H), 19 (A)
• 2019-20: 22 (H), 18 (A)
• 2018-19: 15 (H), 10 (A)
• 2017-18: 19 (H), 16 (A)

Over the last five seasons, 85% of ECHL teams had more wins at home than on the road. This season two good teams are on pace for a record, twice as many road wins (A) than home wins (H).Florida8-10-0-2 (H)16-5-4-1 (A)Trois Rivières6-6-2-1 (H)13-7-0-0 (A)The biggest difference between home and road wins in the last five season was six, which happened three times:South Carolina (2019-20)19-9-0-0 (H)25-5-3-1 (A)Brampton (2018-19)15-17-4-0 (H)21-12-1-2 (A)Atlanta (2017-18)13-18-2-3 (H)19-17-0-0 (A)