Allen Loses in Idaho, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Keys to Victory Tonight and More

The Allen Americans weren’t able to stop the bleeding last night in Idaho losing to the Steelheads 5-1 before a crowd of 5121 at Idaho Central Arena. Once again, the Americans gave up the first goal of the game early in the first period (5:44) and kept their perfect record alive of not winning a game when giving up the first goal. Allen is now 0-7 when allowing the first goal. The Americans are 5-0-1-0 when they do score first.

– Allen tied the score 1-1 at the 11:04 mark of the first period on Colton Hargrove’s third goal of the season and it looked like the game would be different than the loss on Wednesday, but it was not to be. Two former Allen Americans combined to give Idaho a 2-1 lead after the first period. Zane Frankln scored the goal and Matt Register had the assist. Franklin and Register killed Allen all night, accounting for five of Idaho’s 12 points. Franklin had two goals and Register had three assists according to the official box score, but the Idaho press release said he had four assists so maybe it will be changed. Register was also a +3 in the game and now leads the ECHL in plus/minus at +21.

– Allen was unable to score in the last 49 minutes in the game while allowing Idaho four unanswered goals to make the final score 5-1. That makes a total of 12 goals allowed in the first two games of the series with Idaho. Prior to the seven goals allowed on Wednesday and five allowed last night, the Americans had not allowed more than four goals all season.

– Here are some other stats that helped contribute to the defeat:

• Allen had 33 penalty minutes; Idaho had eight
• Allen was 0-4 on the power play, Idaho 1-5
• Allen was out shot 16-7 in the first period
• Allen was outshot in every period, 41-29 for the game
• Allen allowed over 40 shots for the fourth straight game.
• It was the first game all month the Combs-Finlay-Crone line did not have a point

– Here are press releases from both teams recapping the game:

• Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/media/game-recap-idaho-5-allen-1-final/
• Idaho Steelheads: https://www.idahosteelheads.com/en/articles/zane-franklin-scores-twice-against-former-club-in-5-1-win-over-allen

– Here are the video highlights: https://www.echl.com/en/video/2022/11/allen-americans-vs-idaho-steelheads—nov-25-2022-2quw8UQH

– What does Allen need to do to get things turned around tonight and win the third game of the series with Idaho? Here are five points that would lead to victory, and they are all doable:

• Score the first goal
• Outshoot Idaho and give up fewer than 35 shots
• Win the special team’s battle
• Get a good performance from goalie Eric Dop who will be making his first start for Allen and his first professional start
• Top line needs to score after being shutout last night

OTHER COMMENTS

– All seven Mountain Division teams played last night. Tulsa, Kansas City and Idaho won while Allen, Rapid City, Utah and Wichita lost. Here are the current standings by points percentage:

• .833 – Idaho
• .654 – Kansas City
• .615 – Wichita
• .500 – Tulsa
• .467 – Rapid City
• .429 – Utah
• .423 – Allen

– Allen and Adirondack have a lot in common. Both teams reached into the locker room in the off season and hired the team captain as head coach. Chad Costello and Pete MacArthur got to know each over the summer as they both were playing 3ICE while learning the ropes as head coaches and recruiting for the 2022-23 season. Ironically both teams have an identical .423 points percentage. Adirondack got off to a real bad start with a record of 2-6-2-1 going into this week with Newfoundland coming to town for three games. Newfoundland’s record was 12-1-1-1 and it looked to be a long series for Adirondack. It has turned out quite the opposite as the Thunder have handed the Growlers two losses, both by a score of 3-2. Game three of the series tonight.

– The hottest teams in the ECHL right now are Trois Riviéres with a streak of 5-0-0-0 and Idaho with a streak of 6-0-0-1. The team with the longest losing streak is Utah (0-5-0-0).

– Tulsa has points in seven of its last 10 games (4-3-3-0) and has improved to .500 in points percentage. The Oilers also have two of the top five ECHL crowds this season. Tulsa drew the top crowd of the season (12,950) against Allen on October 21 and the fifth largest crowd (9102) last night against Wichita. The Oilers average attendance is 7386 which ranks #2 in the ECHL behind Fort Wayne who is averaging 7677 per game.

DID YOU KNOW: Shots in one period don’t necessarily tell the story. A few cases on point:– Last night Reading had zero shots in the third period, the fewest shots in any period this season and the 24th time in ECHL history a team was held to zero shots in a period. Ironically the Royals won the game, beating Maine 1-0.– The second fewest shots in a period this season is one. On November 5th, Tulsa had just one 3rd period shot in a game against Wichita. Ironically the Oilers beat Wichita 4-1.– On the flip side, on October 23rd, Atlanta had the most 2nd period shots this season (22) in a game against Savannah. Despite 22 shots in one period and a game total of 47, Atlanta lost to Savannah 4-1.