Allen Losing Streak Hits Three, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Stats, Longest Point Streaks and More

The Allen Americans lost to the Florida Everblades 8-5 last night before a small crowd of 1441 at the CUTX Event Center. The final score was much closer than the game Allen fans witnessed last night. The first two periods were the worst Allen has played all season. Uninspiring hockey with no passion or life up and down the lineup. To the Americans credit they won the third period, outshooting Florida 13-6 and outscoring them 3-2, but it was much too little much too late. Hopefully Allen can build on the third period last night to play better for a full 60 minutes on Friday.

– How bad were the first two periods? Florida scored the first goal of the game which is never a good sign since Allen’s record when giving up the first goal is 6-18-0-0. The Everblades followed up their first goal with a second just 35 seconds later. Allen responded to make the score 2-1 on a power play goal from Colton Hargrove. Allen was being outplayed but were keeping the score close. That didn’t last long as Florida scored its third goal of the period at the 17:56 mark and took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. The Everblades out shot Allen 16-8 in the first period and had many more quality chances than the Americans. When you consider Florida has not lost a game all season when leading after the first period and how they were outplaying Allen, it felt like the game was already over after the first period.

– The second period was a repeat of the first period. Allen closed the gap to 3-2 on a Hank Crone goal early in the period but Florida responded with three more unanswered goals. The Everblades outshot Allen 19-8 in the period and took a 6-2 lead into the second intermission. The shot totals after two periods were 37-16.

– When you are getting blown out like Allen was last night after two periods, the third period becomes important. With two more games against Florida this weekend the Americans had to build some momentum by winning the third period. That is exactly what Allen did, outshooting Florida 13-6 and outscoring the Everblades 3-2. Allen took advantage of a couple of power plays on goals by Hargrove and Crone. Hargrove also had an even strength goal to complete his second hat trick in the last five games.

– If Allen is going ti stop the bleeding on Friday it will need a much better defensive effort from the entire team. Before the current three game losing streak, Allen had won 11 of 13 games and given up an average of 2.7 goals per game. In the last three games, all losses, all at home, Allen has allowed an average of 7.3 goals per game. You can’t outscore bad defense no matter how much skill you have on your team. A three-game losing streak doesn’t sound like much but only one other ECHL team currently has a longer streak. The last time Allen lost three straight games was over two months ago in early December.

– The goal scorers last night were Colton Hargrove (25,26,27) and Hank Crone (24,25). Here are the video highlights: https://www.echl.com/en/video/2023/2/florida-everblades-vs-allen-americans—feb-15-2023-livCKVam

– Here are the game recaps from both teams:

Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/media/game-recap-everblades-jump-on-americans-early-cruise-to-8-5-win/

Florida Everblades: https://allenamericans.com/media/game-recap-everblades-jump-on-americans-early-cruise-to-8-5-win/

– One bright spot last night was special teams. The Americans took only two minor penalties the entire game. Allen was 3-5 on the power play, Florida was 1-2. The Americans have climbed to #6 in the ECHL in overall power play percentage at 22.4% (47-210). The penalty kill is ranked #11 at 81.8%

OTHER COMMENTS

– The poor defensive play by the Americans last night took away from a couple of four-point offensive performances by Colton Hargrove (3G, 1A) and Hank Crone (2G, 2A). In addition, Liam Finlay had two assists and Jack Combs one. The “Four Sure” group all got points and had 73% (11-15) of Allen’s points. Here are the current stats for the “Four Sure” gang:

• Hank Crone leads the ECHL in scoring (64 points)
• Jack Combs is second in the ECHL in scoring (61 points)
• Colton Hargrove is #1 in the ECHL in goals (27 points)
• Jack Combs is #2 in the ECHL in goals (26 points)
• Hank Crone in #3 in the ECHL in goals (25 points)
• Hank Crone is #3 in the ECHL in assists (39 assists)
• Hank Crone is #1 in the ECHL in rookie scoring (64 points)
• Liam Finlay is #3 in the ECHL in rookie scoring (48 points)
• Colton Hargrove is #1 in longest point streak in the ECHL (22 games)
• Hank Crone is #2 in the longest point streak in the ECHL (15 games)
• Jack Combs is #2 in the current longest point streak in the ECHL (10 games)
• Colton Hargrove has scored 23 goals in the last 21 games
• Colton Hargrove has scored nine goals in the last five games.
• The “Four Sure” gang has accounted for 62% (101 of 160) of Allen’s goals this season

– Despite Allen’s losing streak it has not lost ground in the standings because the other teams have also been struggling. The Mountain Division has one team with a points percentage above second place Wichita’s points percentage. Here are the number of teams in each division with a points percentage above .571:

• 1 – Mountain (Idaho)
• 4 – Central (Indy, Cincinnati, Toledo, Fort Wayne)
• 5 – South (Florida, Jacksonville, South Carolina, Greenville, Atlanta)
• 3 – North (Newfoundland, Maine, Reading)

– Here are the points earned by each Mountain Division team over the last 10 games. Maximum would be 20 points.

• 16 points: Idaho
• 12 points: Allen
• 12 points: Kansas City
• 11 points: Utah
• 9 points: Tulsa
• 7 points: Wichita
• 6 points: Rapid City

– Friday night three Mountain Division teams will take on opponents outside the division. In addition to Florida at Allen, Utah is at Savannah and Toledo is at Rapid City. The only in-division game is Idaho at Kansas City. Tulsa and Wichita are idle.

– DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about point streaks. Colton Hargrove’s current 22 game point streak is the longest in Allen’s history. You have to go back to the 2007-08 season to find an ECHL point streak longer than 22 games. David Desharnais (Cincinnati) had a 27 game points streak in 2007-08 as a rookie and scored 106 points (his only season in the ECHL). Two years later he was in the NHL where he played 524 games.

Allen’s Colton Hargrove had a hat trick last night to score in his 22nd straight game. He has scored 23 goals during his 22-game point streak and now leads the ECHL in goals with 27. Here are the longest ECHL point streaks in the last 15 years, since 2008-09:*22 games: Colton Hargrove, Allen, 2022-2322 games: Liam Pecararo, Greenville, 2021-2219 games: Chad Costello, Allen, 2015-1618 games: Wes Goldie, Alaska, 2010-1117 games: Reid Gardiner, Kalamazoo 2018-1917 games: Chad Costello, Allen 2014-1517 games: Mitch Wahl, Florida 2014-1517 games: Tyler Donati, Elmira 2009-10*Still active streak