Allen Wins 7-2, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Martinson’s Comments, Rematch Preview, Roster Update, ECHL Experience Stats and More

Some nights everything seems to go right. Thus was the case last night as the Allen Americans beat Kansas City 7-2 before a crowd of 2148 at the Cable Dahmer Arena. Here are the keys to the game from the preview yesterday, with the results. FYI, Allen nailed them all!

– Here are some keys to the two games in Kansas City:

• Good starts, the team that has scored first has won five of the six games this season. RESULT: Chad Costello scored the first goal of the game just 25 seconds after the opening puck drop.
• Take more shots, the team with the most shots has won five of six games this season. RESULT: Allen outshot the Mavericks 34-31 including 23-13 in the last two periods.
• Play with a lead, Allen is 7-0-1-1 with a second period lead, Kansas City is 11-0-2-0. RESULT: The game was tied 2-2 after the first period but the Americans led 6-2 after the second period. Allen improved its record when leading after the second period to 8-0-1-1
• Win the special teams battle, the Americans have just one power play goal in the last five games against Kansas City. RESULT: Allen was 1-4 on the power play and held the Mavericks scoreless (0-2).

– Allen scored the early goal and never trailed in the game but the first period was back and forth with Kansas City answering back every time the Americans took a lead. The Mavericks outshot Allen 18-11 in the first period as the teams went into the first intermission tied 2-2.

– Allen blew the game open in the second period scoring four goals on nine shots. The Americans scored on their first, second, fourth and seventh shots of the period and had a 6-2 lead before the second period was half over. Allen took the 6-2 lead into the second intermission.

–  Things got chippy in the third period with Kansas City’s Ryan Olsen taking a match penalty for a deliberate attempt to injure as well as a major penalty for spearing. Allen capitalized on the power play to make the final score 7-2. Olsen will almost certainly get a suspension; however, it is not an automatic suspension. Skeoch got a two game suspension last week for a major and game misconduct for slashing so you would assume this would be similar, probably a one or two game suspension.

– The seven goals last night were the second most all season, only surpassed by the 8-0 win in Tulsa a month ago. You know it was a great win when you look at the boxscore and see eight players had multi-point games.

– Goal scorers for Allen were Chad Costello (20), Jackson Leppard (14), Jack Combs (14), Eric Roy (6), Chad Butcher (5,6) and J.C. Campagna (1). Here are the video highlights: https://youtu.be/40Kpl0Im5Ow

 – Here is the game recap from the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/media/americans-offense-explodes-in-7-2-win-over-kansas-city/

– Here are some other standout performances from the game last night:

• Luke Peressini stopped 29 of 31 shots to improve his record to 3-0 since joining the Americans. His save percentage in his three games were .935 (last night), .955 and .946. His GAA is 2.01.
• J.C. Campagna, who was just signed yesterday, has played just four pro games since the 2019-20 season and played his last game February 14, 2021. He made is presence felt with a goal and an assist.
• Jackson Leppard had a Gordie Howe hat trick with a goal, assist and a fight.
• JD Dudek led all Allen players with three points, all assists.
• Chad Costello had a goal and an assist, his 51st and 52nd points of the season. Chad has a two point lead in the ECHL scoring race.
• Jack Combs scored the game winning goal, his third of the season. He is tied with Costello for the best points per game average on the team (1.18).

COACH’S CORNER WITH STEVE MARTINSON“I was really pleased with how the team played tonight. We showed good speed and came back hard defensively.”“I have been in contact with J.C. Campagna for a while and the situation arose where we needed a player with Branden Troock and Ben Owen staying in Allen and Ben Carroll unable to play because of an injury.”“Campagna has always been a good goal scorer and you saw that last night with him getting a goal and an assist after not playing for over a year.”“Ben Carroll is day to day and will be on the bench helping me until he gets back in the lineup.”“The power play was good last night even though we only scored once. We had solid puck possession and plenty of chances. There are a couple of things we want to do on the power play that are still missing.”“Jackson Leppard and JD Dudek have both stepped up when given additional opportunity because of all of our injuries.”“Frank Marotte will get the start in goal tonight.”REMATCH PREVIEW– The easy answer for the keys to the game tonight against Kansas City is more of the same from last night. If the Americans get a good start, outshoot the Mavericks, win the special teams battle and get another good game from the goalie, they will be fine.– There are areas for improvement including on the power play. Allen was 1-4 but that included a five minute major. The Americans did get good chances on a couple of the two minute power plays, including one with five shots on goal.– Allen scored first but was outshot 18-11 in the first period and Kansas City had too many grade A opportunities that required big saves by Peressini.– Allen scored seven goals on 34 shots (21%) which included 4 for 9 (44%) in the second period. That will not happen again tonight. The Americans need to be aggressive offensively but make sure they get back on defense and not cheat to score.– The referee scheduled for the game tonight is Cameron Fleming (#27).  Allen hasn’t had him as a referee all season.OTHER COMMENTS– With the win last night Allen put some distance between themselves and Kansas City (.523 vs .489). That won’t mean much if Allen doesn’t win again tonight. Allen also closed the gap to fourth place, Rapid City, (.523 vs .542).– In 2018-19, J.C. Campagna played for the Fort Wayne Komets and scored 35 goals in 63 games. He finished second in the ECHL in goals that season, averaging .56 goals per game.– Charlotte played last night (won 5-4) and three players with Allen connections were all healthy scratches (Antoine Bibeau, Nolan Kneen and Ryan Lohin). The Checkers play again tonight.

DID YOU KNOW: Experience doesn’t always equal success but it typically helps. Here are the teams with most and fewest ECHL games played on the roster. Points percentage rank is in parenthesis:

Most ECHL Games Experience3339 – Atlanta, (#9)2738 – Kalamazoo, (#12)2646 – Florida, (#7)2622 – Allen, (#17)2612 – Kansas City (#19)Least ECHL Games Experience698 – Iowa, (#24)1021 – Worcester, (#20)1045 – Utah, (#3)1462 – Norfolk, (#26)1493 – South Carolina (#27)Utah is the biggest exception, one of the least experienced teams in the league and the third youngest team in the league but one of the best teams in the ECHL ranked #3 in points percentage (.649)

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