Allen Streak Snapped, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Costello Comments, Tonight’s Preview, “Four Sure” Streaks, ECHL Goal Leaders and More

To say it was an off night for the Allen Americans last night would be an understatement. Allen lost to Fort Wayne by a score of 8-6 before a crowd of 3025 at the CUTX Event Center. Hockey is a strange game with skill and will interacting in different ways from night to night. Teams can go from looking unbeatable to unwinnable overnight. That is what happened in the first two games of the series with Fort Wayne.

– Allen was the victor on Thursday despite giving up the first goal of the game. The Americans scored four unanswered goals in the second period which led to a 7-2 win. The Americans won the special teams battle going 3-6 on the power play and 0-4 on the penalty kill. Last night was just the opposite. Fort Wayne gave up the first goal of the game but then scored four unanswered goals to win the game 8-6 going away. The Komets won the special team battle going 1-4 on the power play and 0-5 on the penalty kill.

– Allen was trailing 5-2 after the second period and as you watched the third period you could tell coach Costello decided the only way back in the game was changing the style of play to a wide-open game with a lot of risks. The Americans won the third period 4-2, primarily using the top two lines. The high-risk high reward comeback almost worked. Allen trailed 6-2 early in the third period and cut the lead to 7-6 with over eight minutes remaining in the game. Allen couldn’t get the equalizer even after pulling the goalie. Fort Wayne scored an empty net goal with 26 seconds remaining to make the final score 8-6.

– The 14 combined goals were the most in an Allen game all season. The previous high was 11 in a 7-4 loss in Idaho. The league high this season for combined goals is 16. The last time Allen was involved in a game with 14 combined goals was October 18, 2019, at home when the Americans lost to Utah 10-4.

– Goal scorers for Allen were Jack Combs (25), Liam Finlay (22,23), Colby McAuley (4,5) and Colton Hargrove (24). Hank Crone had three assists and Chad Butcher two. Here are the video highlights of the Allen goals: https://www.echl.com/en/video/2023/2/fort-wayne-komets-vs-allen-americans—feb-10-2023-AggZyOgX

– Here is the game recap from the Allen Americans: https://allenamericans.com/media/americans-lose-a-wild-friday-night-affair/

COACH COSTELLO’S COMMENTS

“We made too many mistakes tonight, but give our guys credit, we didn’t quit. We will fix our mistakes and get right back at it tomorrow night.”

“We were playing at their pace for much of the game and not playing our style.”

“Our power play was not good tonight after they made some adjustments. We will fix that for the game tomorrow.”

Heard this from coach Costello this morning – “Peressini will be in goal tonight, Skelly will replace Gally and Bethune will be a game time decision.”

– It was a losing cause but the “Four Sure Gang” all had points again last night. The streaks these guys have going is ridiculous. Last night Crone had three assists, Finlay had two goals, Hargrove and Combs had one goal. All four are now at the top of the ECHL in goals (See DID YOU KNOW below). Here are some streak stats.

• Colton Hargrove now has points in 20 straight games. That is the longest streak in the ECHL this season. He also broke Chad Costello’s record 19-game point streak set in 2015-16.
• “Four Sure” is living up to its name. They have the top four current point streaks in the ECHL. #1 Hargrove (20 games), #2 Crone (15 games), #3 Finlay (12 games) and #4 Combs (10 games).
• Hargrove has the longest point streak in the ECHL all season (20 games), Crone is second (15 games).

Here is an update with the points that go along with the streaks:

• Colton Hargrove – 20 game point streak, 31 points (20G, 11A)
• Liam Finlay – 12 game point streak, 22 points (12G, 10A)
• Hank Crone – 15 game point streak, 27 points (9G, 18A)
• Jack Combs – points in 19 of last 22 games including 10 straight, 33 points (12G, 21A)

– Colby McAuley came within an eyelash of having hat tricks in both games against Fort Wayne. On Thursday night the puck was about to go into the net that would have given McAuley a hat trick until Hargrove put it over the line. The right play by Hargrove but no hat trick for Colby. Last night it looked like McAuley had scored a hat trick when the puck went across the goal line under the goalie’s pad. The referee was on the wrong side of the net to see the puck. The referee reviewed the play, but the overhead camera would not have been any help in this case. Another hat trick lost. Colby is averaging over a point per game since joining Allen 11 games ago. He has a total of 13 points (5G, 8A) and in the last three games he has seven points (4G, 3A).

– Defenseman Zach Massicotte had an assist last night and has seven points (3G, 4A) in the last eight games. Massicotte led the team last night with a plus/minus of +3. In the last two series (Fort Wayne & Utah) he has a plus/minus of +8.

– Allen’s goal each week is to win a minimum of two out of three games. The game tonight is big for both teams. The Americans and Komets are in fourth place in their respective divisions. Neither team can afford to lose two games in this series. Will Allen bounce back after a subpar performance last night? When the winning goalie has a .760 save percentage and the losing goalie is at .829, both teams will be looking for better performances tonight. It is not all on the goalies as there was a lot of team defense absent last night from both teams.

–  I know grade A opportunities are more important than shot totals and Allen has had a much higher percentage of those type of opportunities against the Komets. However, the shot total after the first two games favor Fort Wayne by a large margin, 86-51. Allen’s home record is 4-7-0-0 when they get outshot and 5-2-1-0 when they outshoot the opponent. Would be a good sign to see the shot totals closer tonight.

OTHER COMMENTS

– There were a lot of high scoring one sided games in the Mountain Division last night. The exception was Kansas City at Wichita. The Mavericks scored 32 seconds into the the game and never trailed, but it took overtime to get the win. The other two games were one-sided. Rapid City beat Utah 7-1 and Idaho beat Tulsa 6-1. Here are the current Mountain Division standings with points in parenthesis:

• .800 – Idaho (72)
• .587 – Wichita (54)
• .534 – Kansas City (47)
• .500 – Allen (45)
• .478 – Rapid City (43)
• .443 – Utah (39)
• .432 – Tulsa (38)

The Mountain Division is the only division with a team at .800 or above, the only division without a team with a points percentage in the .600’s and the only division without a team lower then .400. With the exception of Idaho, the Mountain Division is the tightest in the ECHL. By the way, Idaho is still close to the all-time ECHL single season record for points percentage which is .806.

– Another full schedule in the ECHL tonight with all 28 teams in action. Here is the ECHL Today with the previews: https://www.echl.com/en/news/2023/2/echl-today-feb-11– ECHL leading scorer, Zach O’Brien, was called up to Toronto (AHL) this week and his point lead has shrunk. O’Brien has 61 points followed by Hank Crone (60 points) and Jack Combs (59 points). An updated point projection if they play in all 27 remaining Allen games is Crone (99 points) and Combs (94 points).DID YOU KNOW: Leading ECHL goal scorers are dominated by one team. Four of the top five are from the Allen Americans:25 goals: Jack Combs, Allen24 goals: *Colton Hargrove, Allen24 goals: Carter Turnbull, South Carolina23 goals: Hank Crone, Allen23 goals: Liam Finlay, Allen*Hargrove has averaged over a goal per game since the end of December. He has 20 goals in the last 19 games. Averaging a point per game over a six-week period is great. Averaging a goal per game over a six-week period is off the charts.

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