Allen Americans vs Rapid City Rush Series Preview and the Expedition Begins

As this will be my last blog post for a while, we are about to head off on our expedition to South Georgia Island and Antarctica. I want to thank everyone for all of your responses wishing us well on our trip but more importantly the birth of our first grandchild, Stella. It is certainly an exciting time in our household right now. I will be back just before Christmas, but pretty much off the grid until then.

ALLEN VS RAPID CITY SERIES PREVIEW

– The upcoming three game series against Rapid City is important for a lot of reasons, one of the main ones is the games are at home. Allen has not played at home since November 12 and will head back on the road to Reading after the series with the Rush. That will make just three home games (in three days this Friday, Saturday ans Sunday) in over a month. The only home games between November 12 and December 16.

– Allen needs to capitalize on having games at home, something Allen has not had a lot of thus far this season.  Here are the home game points percentages for every team in the Mountain Division with the number of home games played. This weekend Allen will have a chance to catch up on the number of homes games played.

• .875 – Idaho (8 games)
• .786 – Kansas City (7 games)
• .750 – Tulsa (8 games)
• .650 – Wichita (10 games)
• .625 – Rapid City (8 games)
• .500 – Allen (5 games)
• .375 – Utah (8 games)

There are many ways to compare records between Allen and Rapid City. These teams will play eight times this season, only three of the eight will be in Rapid City. After the three games this weekend in Allen, these teams will not see each other again until March. The Rush visit the CUTX Event Center for two games on March 4, 5. The Americans will head to South Dakota the last week of March for three games against Rapid City.

– Allen’s overall points percentage is .393 (5-8-1-0), the home points percentage is .500 (2-2-1-0) and the road is .333 (3-6-0-0). Rapid City’s overall points percentage is .500, road points percentage is .375 (3-5-0-0) and home is .625 (5-3-0-0).

Stat Comparisons

• Allen is 3-6-1-0 in its last 10 games; Rapid City is 6-4-0-0.
• Allen has scored 39 goals and allowed 51 for a -12 goal differential
• Rapid City has scored 56 goals and allowed 52 for a + four goal differential
• Allen averages 19 PIMS and 6.6 minor penalties per game
• Rapid City averages 13.4 PIMS and 4.5 minor penalties per game
• Allen is 5-1-1-0 (.786) when scoring first
• Rapid City is 6-3-0-0 (.667) when scoring first
• Allen’s home power play is 8.3% (1-12), home penalty kill is 80.6% (6-31)
• Rapid City’s Road power play is 11.1% (4-36), road penalty is 86.0% (6-43)

– Special teams are always a key but even more so in this series. You can see from the stats above both teams have very low power play percentages (home vs road). Look for the winner of the special teams battle to win the series. Shorthanded goals were an issue last year for Allen but not this season. The Americans and Rush have the exact same shorthanded goal stats this season. Both teams have scored one shorty and allowed one.

– Goaltending will also be a key to this series. Luke Peressini has carried the load for Allen (10 of 14 games) and has been without a backup for most of the just completed road trip. Peressini’s GAA is 3.46 and his save percentage is .895. The good news is Allen now has Logan Flodell back to share the load and Eric Dop is still on the roster.

Rapid City also has one goalie carrying the load. Daniil Chechelev has played on 12 of 16 games with a GAA of 2.89 and a .918 save percentage.

With three games in 48 hours this weekend and an early start on Sunday (2:05 pm) you can expect both teams will use two goalies in the series.

– Team defense is another key for the weekend and that covers everything from breakouts, getting shots on goal, avoiding turnovers in the neutral zone, fore checking, getting pucks in deep and goaltending. Allen has started giving up 40+ shots per game recently after giving up in the mid 20’s earlier in the season. For Allen to be successful it will have to allow fewer shots to the Rush.

– Don’t forget the importance of playing with the lead. Allen hasn’t won a game all season when they gave up the first goal, was trailing after the first period or was trailing after the second period. Good starts against Rapid City will dictate success.

– If Allen sweeps Rapid City, they will be back to .500 and in the playoff hunt again. On the flip side if the Americans get swept, they will be in such a big hole (.323) it will be hard to dig out of. Allen needs a minimum of four points this weekend.

– Allen’s scoring has been dominated by the top line of Combs-Finlay-Crone. They each have 17 points to lead the team. They have a total of 51 points, the rest of the team combined has 50 points. Look for this ratio to change some this weekend when the two players recently acquired from Norfolk, Joe Widmar and Aidan Brown play their first home game with the Americans. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if you don’t see some more roster changes before the series with Rapid City is over.

DID YOU KNOW: Consistent Excellence! Here are the ECHL teams with the most regular seasons finishing above .600 in points percentage the last eight seasons (since 2014-15). The team’s points percentage thus far in 2022-23 is in parenthesis. Some teams will struggle to make it to .600 this season. Special stick taps to Florida and Toledo who have not missed finishing above .600 over the last eight seasons:8 – Florida (.719)7 – *Toledo (.393)6 – Fort Wayne (.464)5 – *Idaho (.844)5 – *Reading (.633)5 – Allen (.393)*Did not play in 2020-21