Independence, MO -The Allen Americans, ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators ended their four-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory on Friday night at Cable Dahmer Arena.
“We fought hard all night,” said Americans Head Coach Chad Costello. “Our forwards were back checking and making them work for every open space on the ice. I’m really proud of the way we played and excited for Marco (Costantini). He gave us a big lift and made some huge saves down the stretch.”
After a scoreless opening period, the Americans put three on the board in the second frame. Seconds after an Americans power play ended, Eric Wiliams fired a long shot from the high slot for his third goal of the season unassisted to put the Americans up 1-0. Allen would light the lamp just over four minutes later as Gavin Gould made a nice move in front of the KC net poking home his sixth goal of the season short-handed, at the 9:15 mark of the period. After the Mavericks cut the lead in half, Colby McAuley silenced the crowd scoring the third Allen goal of the period, his team-leading 18th of the year to put the Americans up 3-1 after the second period.
Kansas City would cut the lead to one goal for a second time in the game as David Cotton scored his second of the night to make it 3-2 Americans, with less than three minutes to go in the game. Blake Murray won a battle for the puck along the wall and found Jordan-Ty Fournier who broke in alone on the empty net to score his sixth of the year and put the game away for the Americans who won by a score of 4-2 and head into Saturday night’s game with a chance to win the series.
Three Stars:
1. ALN - C. McAuley
2. ALN - G. Gould
3. KC - J. Jaremko