The Weekly Wrap Up, Allen’s Record by Month, ECHL Projected Points Leaders, 2021-2023 Top ECHL Scorers and More

The Allen Americans have one of those rare weeks in the ECHL, a full week between games. After beating Utah 6-3 on Saturday, Allen will not play again until they take on Rapid City at home next Saturday. At this time of the season all players are dealing bumps, bruises or worse. Having a light week to rest and recuperate is very helpful this time of the season. The team will fly back from Salt Lake City early this morning, take Tuesday off and resume practice on Wednesday to get ready for games on Saturday (7:05) and Sunday (2:05) against the Rush.

– Since I spent yesterday morning crow hunting and published a shortened blog late in the day, here are a few leftover notes from the three-game series with Utah:

• The #1 (Utah) and #2 (Allen) ECHL teams in penalty minutes going into the series acted like anything but high penalty minute teams this weekend. In the three-game series at the beginning of February they combined for 218 penalty minutes compared to 54 penalty minutes last week. Allen and Utah have a combined average PIMS per game of 37 minutes. In the just completed series they averaged less than half of that amount, 18 minutes.
• Allen won two of three games in the series despite giving up the first goal in all three games. Giving up the first goal of the game is not the formula for success going forward.
• The “Four Sure Gang” (Crone, Combs, Finlay, Hargrove) all scored in all three games in the series. Their total for the three games was 24 points (11G, 13A). All four had multiple goals and multiple assists in the series. The group averaged 2.00 points per player per game in the series.
• The Americans were 5-11 (45.6%) on the power play in the series. Allen now has one of the top power plays in the league, ranked #3 at 23.7%.

– Allen has been playing great hockey for a couple of months but has been flying under the radar because the Americans have been digging out of a big hole from the poor start at the beginning of the season. Here is Allen’s record and points percentage by month.

• October: .500 (2-2-0-0)
• November: .350 (3-6-1-0)
• December: .308 (4-9-0-0)
• January: .692 (9-4-0-0)
• February:  .667 (8-4-0-0)

The absolute low point for the Americans was December 7. After a 5-2 loss in Reading, the Americans record was 5-12-1-0 and they were in last place in the Mountain Division with a .305 points percentage. Once 2023 arrived Allen became a different team. Since January 1, 2023, the Americans record is 17-8-0-0 (.680).

– After a New Year’s Eve loss Allen was in last place in the Mountain Division with a points percentage of .365. Wichita was in second place with a points percentage of .621. As of today, Allen’s points percentage is .510 and Wichita’s is still in second place at .528. If Allen continues to play like it has in the last two months, they will soon overtake Wichita for second place in the division. Wichita has lost a lot of top players to call-ups, injuries and Europe recently. The Thunder record over the last 14 games is 3-10-1-0 which is a points percentage of .250.

– Elite Prospects has a feature where they project stats for players by the end of the season. Of course, projecting stats is iffy because players can get injured or loaned/celled-up to the AHL. With those caveats here are the top five ECHL players in projected points at the end of this season:

• #1 – Hank Crone (102 points)
• #2 – Jack Combs (99 points)
• #3 – Zach O’Brien (98 points) (Newfoundland)
• #4 – Tye Felhaber (89 points) (Fort Wayne)
• #5 – Liam Finlay (85 points)

– Idaho leads the Mountain Division with 85 points and is about to start eliminating teams from overtaking them for first place. Here are the maximum number of points the other teams in the division can earn if they win, they rest of their games. In the next five or so games, between Idaho’s wins and losses by the other teams, the Steelheads will officially clinch first place in the division. It is already a foregone conclusion.

• 96 points – Kansas City
• 94 points – Wichita
• 93 points – Allen
• 89 points – Utah
• 89 points – Rapid City
• 88 points – Tulsa

– Allen has 20 games remaining all but three of them are within the division. The Savannah Ghost Pirates will visit Allen for three games in April. Savannah is in last place in the South Division as a first-year franchise but are not to be taken lightly. Over the last 11 games Savannah has a record of 6-3-2-0 (.636). I heard many comments when the schedule was first announced how good it was to get three games against Savannah at the end of the season if Allen needed the wins. It doesn’t look like it will be as easy as many thought at the beginning of the season.

DID YOU KNOW: If you combine 2021-22 and 2022-23 stats, just four ECHL players have 120+ points:144 points (46G, 98A): Zach O’Brien, Newfoundland133 points (51G, 82A): Jack Combs, Allen124 points (51G, 73A): Zack Andrusiak, Cincinnati123 points (61G, 62A): Brandon Hawkins, Toledo– Hawkins leads in goals (61)– O’Brien leads in assists (98)– O’Brien leads in points per game (1.53)

The post The Weekly Wrap Up, Allen’s Record by Month, ECHL Projected Points Leaders, 2021-2023 Top ECHL Scorers and More appeared first on Allen Americans Hockey Club.