Allen Loses 2-1, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Coach's Comments, Best of the Rest Stats, Remaining Schedule, ECHL Attendance, ECHL Scoring, Les Lancaster Update

Yes, Allen played better in the 2-1 loss to Kansas City last night, but the pattern was all too familiar. The Americans fell behind in the first period and spend the rest of the game playing catch up. Friday night the Mavericks scored on their first and second shots of the game. Last night is was the first and fourth shot. Allen was out shot 20-5 and outscored 2-0 in the first period. The Americans made a valiant effort to comeback in the third period, outshooting Kansas City 17-9 and outscoring them 1-0, but it was too little, too late.

- Stats and facts:

• With a 2-0 lead after the first period, Kansas City improved its record when leading after the first period to 22-0-0-0.
• Allen finished the season series with Kansas City with a record of 1-9-0-0.
• The team that scored the first goal won all 10 games.
• Both teams were scoreless on the power play last night. Allen 0-2, KC 0-3.
• Allen's record over the last 10 games dropped to 0-9-0-0.
• KC's record over the last 10 games improved to 8-1-1-0.

- No doubt the two best players on the ice last night were the two goalies. Luke Richardson stopped 36 of 38 shots for a .947 save percentage. Jack LaFontaine led the Mavericks to victory stopping 26 of 27 shots for a save percentage of .963. It wasn't just the number of shots the goalies saved, it was the quality of the shots. Check out these highlights which show all of the goals including Allen's only goal by Mark Duarte. It was his 18th of the season, tying him for the team lead with Spencer Asuchak. The highlights also show many great saves by both goalies: https://echl.com/videos/allen-americans-vs-kansas-city-mavericks-feb-22-2025    

- Here is the game recap from the Allen Americans with more game details: https://allenamericans.com/news/2025/02/americans-sweot-by-kc 

- Here is what coach Ferguson had to say after the loss. 

"Credit to Kansas City, they came out firing and jumped on us right out of the gate."

"There is no quit on this team. The guys pressed hard in the third period and credit to their goalie for making a big glove save on Crnkovic at the end."

"Richardson kept us in the game keeping it at 2-0 for the last 53 minutes."

"We will get back to work on Monday."

- How tough is Allen's schedule after playing three games against Kansas City on the road. The Americans will play three games on the road in Tahoe next week and then come home for three games against Jacksonville. All three of these teams have point percentage above .600. There are just three ECHL teams that have won eight of their last 10 games. Two of them are Kansas City and Jacksonville with identical 8-1-1-0 records. FYI, the third team is Rapid City.

OTHER COMMENTS

- In the race for the "Best of the Rest" a lot has happened in the last three weeks. At the beginning of February the point percentages were:

• .405 - Allen
• .402 - Utah
• .381 - Rapid City

Today the point percentages are:

• .480 - Rapid City 
• ,402 - Utah
• .337 - Allen

Point percentage change since February 1st:

• -.068 Allen
• Even Utah
• +.099 Rapid City

Record since February 1st: 

• 8-0-1-0: Rapid City
• 4-5-1-1: Utah
• 1-9-0-1: Allen 

You can see there can be a lot of change in a short period of time. With just 20 games remaining it will take a big effort for Allen to avoid last place. 

- Here are the point percentages for the teams Allen will play in the last 20 games, with games remaining in parenthesis:

• .654 - Jacksonville (3H, 0A)
• .625 - Wichita (0H, 1A)
  
• .615 - Tahoe (0H, 3A)
• .615 - Tulsa (4H, 0A)
  
• .588 - Idaho (2H, 3A)
• .402 - Utah (1H, 3A)

 None of these games will be easy. With the exception of Utah they are all good teams fighting for playoff spots. And against Utah all three remaining games are on the road. I think it is fair to say Allen will be the underdog in all 20 remaining games. A huge challenge for the Americans.

-  If you look at the goals for and against in the Mountain Division you can see why the Americans have struggled. Allen has scored the division low of 130 goals. That is 62 fewer goals than the team with the most goals scored (192 - Tahoe). Allen has also allowed the most goals in the division with 218. That is 92 more goals allowed than the team with the fewest goals allowed (126 - Kansas City). 

- The ECHL drew 83,326 fans last night. The average attendance for the 13 games played was 6410. The season average is up to 4923 and growing. The league has a good chance of surpassing last year's average of 4981 and could reach 5000 if there are a lot of tight playoff battles down the stretch.

- There are 78 players with 15+ goals thus far this season. I was surprised when putting the ECHL Stats post (see below) together this morning that neither Hank Crone or Colton Hargrove were on the list. Crone has 13 goals and Hargrove 10. What they do have in common is a bunch of assists. Crone leads Idaho with 49 points (13G, 36A). Hargrove leads Florida with 24 assists.

- Tommy Daniels mentioned former Allen defenseman Les Lancaster on his broadcast last night talking about high scoring Allen defenseman from the past. In 2020-21 Lancaster had 64 points (26G, 38A). He was #4 among all players in points and #7 in goals. Not bad for a defenseman. His 26 goals was twice as many as any other defenseman. Les was in Finland for a couple of years and is now playing in Germany. He plays in the top league in Germany (DEL) which is considered one of the top leagues in Europe. Lancaster has 15 points (3G, 12A) in 43 games which is second on the team among defenseman. His team, EHC Munchen, is in fourth place in the 14 team DEL. The playoffs will start on March 9. It is crazy when you think Lancaster had 26 goals in a season for Allen and total goals scored by all Allen defensemen this season is 16.

- It is a busy Sunday afternoon around the ECHL with nine games on the schedule. I will be watching the Rapid City at Utah game to see if the Rush can extend its nine game point streak, which is the longest point streak in the league right now. Here is the ECHL Today with all of the previews: https://echl.com/news/2025/02/echl-today-feb-23  

DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about the league's 15, 20 and 30 goals scorers. Allen's top goal scorers are Asuchak (18), Duarte (18) and Watts (17).