Allen Wins and Moves to Third Place, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Steve Martinson’s Comments, Why Defensemen Come to Allen and More

The Allen Americans moved into third place in the Mountain Division with a hard earned 7-4 victory over the Kansas City Mavericks last night before a big Wednesday night crowd of 4965 at the CUTX Event Center.

– The game had a familiar pattern as Allen gave up the first goal of the game for the sixth straight game. However, the recent pattern of fighting back quickly also happened. Despite being outshot 17-12 in the first period, Allen had a 2-1 lead at the first intermission on goals by Jackson Leppard and JD Dudek. Allen coming back to take a 2-1 first period lead after trailing 1-0 was huge since the Americans have only had a lead after the first period at home, five times all season, including last night. Allen’s record in those five games is 4-0-1-0.

– Allen had scored more power play goals than Kansas City in just one of the 10 games this season prior to last night. It was a bad start as the Mavericks scored their first two goals on the power play. The Americans took the first four penalties of the game and didn’t get their first power play until the 4:30 mark of the second period. Kansas City was 2-3 on the power play before Allen got its first chance. Allen then scored back to back goals on the power play (Colby McAuley & Kris Myllari) to take a 4-2 lead.

– Allen had what looked like a comfortable 4-2 lead midway through the second period and was on the power play. The momentum flipped back to Kansas City, as the Americans allowed their league leading 20th shorthanded goal of the season. a few minutes later the Mavericks tied the score 4-4 at the 15:09 mark of the second period. Allen answered back just over a minute after the Mavericks tied the score 4-4 when Jackson Leppard score his second goal of the game and 20th of the season on a great pass from Ryan Lohin. The Americans took a 5-4 lead into the second intermission which was a great sign since Allen is almost unbeatable when leading after the second period. The Americans record when leading after the second period now stands at 17-0-0-1.

– Allen didn’t go into a shell in the third period. They kept their foot on the gas, outshot Kansas City 13-10 and scored two more goals. Ryan Lohin scored his first goal since returning to Allen and Phil Beaulieu scored Allen’s third power play goal of the game. Allen ended up 3-5 on the power play compared to Kansas City’s 2-6. It was the first time in the 66 games Allen has played this season it scored three power play goals.

– The goal scorers for Allen were Jackson Leppard (19, 20), JD Dudek (6), Colby McAuley (10), Kris Myllari (8), Ryan Lohin (7) and Phil Beaulieu (8). Here are the video highlights:

– Game recap from the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/media/americans-score-seven-in-7-4-victory-over-kansas-city/

– The teams will take the day off today before they play for the 12th and final time tomorrow night. Allen has now beaten Kansas City five straight times dating back to February 15. Winning the sixth straight will be critical given how close the standings are for the final two playoff spots (see below).

COACH’S CORNER WITH STEVE MARTINSON

“We didn’t have a good start but we created a lot of offense last night with seven goals.”

“I didn’t like our start in the first period and we made some mistakes on the penalty kill we will have to clean up.”

“What I did like is we played fast, had speed coming into the offensive zone and got some goals on the rush.”

“We did a good job on the forecheck and closing on loose pucks.”

“We basically had three rookies playing against Kansas City’s top line and they played well.”

“One of our problems this season is consistently coming back hard on defense. We won’t beat the best teams if it looks like we are going downhill on offense and uphill on defense.”

“We were able to score seven goals last night with three lines that haven’t played together.”

“The power play went 3-5 because we were moving our feet and passing the puck.”

“I was able to rest some players in the third period who were not 100% after being sick.”

“Colby McAuley added physicality and speed to the lineup and his power play goal was a great shot. He led the team in shots (8) even though he hasn’t played a game in over three weeks.

“If Luke Peressini doesn’t play in 25 games this season he will be considered a rookie again next season and would be subject to the rookie maximum salary. He has 21 games now and I will make sure he reaches 25.”

OTHER COMMENTS

– Allen had the youngest lineup of the season on the ice last night. The two oldest defensemen, Roy (27), Kearley (27) and two oldest forwards, Costello (35) and Combs (34) did not play because of injuries.

– This season in the ECHL the team that scores the first goal wins 72% of the points. Allen is below the average at 64% with a record of 18-9-4-1 when scoring first. Allen is definitely bucking the scoring first odds. The Americans have given up the first goal of the game in their last six games but have a record of 4-2-0-0 in those six games. That is a points percentage of .667 when allowing the first goal, go figure.

Allen’s record over the last 10 games (7-2-1-0) is the best in the Mountain Division. Since the beginning of March the Americans have played 16 games with a record of 11-4-1-0 which computes to a points percentage of .719.

– Steve Martinson’s style of play has always been to have defensemen that jump into the play. If a young player is an offensive defensemen there isn’t a better place in the ECHL to play than for Steve Martinson. I remember a young defensemen that came to Allen from Brampton telling me he went from being yelled at for jumping into the play in Brampton to being yelled at for not jumping into the play in Allen. Yesterday, I looked up the Defenseman of the Year voting for each season since Steve Martinson has been in Allen. This could be a great recruiting tool when recruiting offensive defensemen to Allen. Here are the Allen players that have finished in the top five in Defenseman of the Year voting:

• 2020-21 – *Les Lancaster 1st, **Matt Register 3rd
• 2019-20 – *Alex Breton 1st
• 2017-18 – **David Makowski 2nd
• 2016-17 – David Makowski 2nd
• 2014-15 – *Aaron Gens 5th
• 2013-14 – *Tyler Ludwig 1st
• 2012-13 – **Tyler Ludwig 2nd

*Led the league in scoring

**Second in the league in scoring

DID YOU KNOW: Idaho lost to Utah last night and went from third to fifth place in the standings. Here are the points percentages:

• .5455 – Allen
• ,5441 – Tulsa
• .5368 – Idaho

The Mountain Division isn’t the only division with three teams battling for the final two playoff spots. Here is the ECHL Stats post for today:

3 teams, 2 playoff spots. It could not be more exciting for fans of these teams down the stretch. It’s tighter than a gnat’s ass. Games remaining is in parenthesis:NORTH.516 Trois-Rivières (6).508 Worcester (6).508 Maine (6)SOUTH.590 Jacksonville* (5).515 Greenville (7).515 Orlando (4)CENTRAL.545 Wheeling (6).545 Cincinnati (5).538 Kalamazoo (6)MOUNTAIN.545 Allen (6).544 Tulsa (4).537 Idaho (4)

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