Allen vs Wichita Preview, Coach's Keys, Mountain Division Penalty Minutes, Allen's Record Compared to 2023-24 and Contract Players Assigned vs Team Record

It's game day for the Allen Americans as the team traveled to Wichita yesterday where they will take on the Thunder tonight (7:05 pm). After the game the Americans will travel back to Allen overnight to take on Tulsa Saturday night. Tulsa, on the other hand, has been idle since last Sunday, but after the game in Allen on Saturday has to travel to Wichita to play the Thunder Sunday afternoon (2:05 pm). If the Saturday night game between Allen and Tulsa would have been scheduled in Tulsa it would have benefited both hockey teams. To make matters worse for the Americans, after spending overnight traveling back to Allen, the game against Tulsa is a Saturday night, big crowd (Star Wars night), specialty jersey game and you know how those typically end up. 

- Tonight is the second of 13 games (6 home, 7 away) against Wichita this season. In the first game  (October 30) the Americans lost 5-4 in overtime with 12 seconds remaining in the overtime period. It was a game where special teams played a big role. Wichita was 2-3 on the power play while Allen was 0-3. 

- Wichita enters the game tonight with the longest winning streak in the league at 6-0-0-0. After losing its first two games of the season to Kansas City, the Thunder have beaten Tulsa twice, Allen and then Rapid City three times. Allen has earned points in two of its last three games including its first win of the season in its last game, a 6-4 win over Utah on the road.

- The season long statistical comparison between Allen and Wichita gives the advantage to the Thunder in every category:

• Goals scored average: Allen (2.2) - Wichita (3.8)
• Goals allowed average: Allen (5.8) - Wichita (2.8)
• Shots for average: Allen (23.0) - Wichita (31.3)
• Shots against average: Allen (40.8) - Wichita (33.5)
• Power play percentage: Allen (15.8%) - Wichita (18.5%)
• Penalty kill percentage: Allen (75.9%) - Wichita (76.7%) 

- As always special teams will be a factor in the game tonight. Neither team has strong specials teams. Allen's power play is ranked #22 and Wichita's is ranked #17. Allen's penalty kill is ranked #23 and Wichita's is ranked #21. The good news for Allen is it scored two of its three power play goals this season in the last game against Utah. The bad news is Allen has given up at least one power play goal in its last four games. In those last four games Allen has had 12 power play opportunities while giving up 21 power play opportunities. Allen will have to stay out of the penalty box to be successful tonight. 

- In Allen's only win this season the Americans scored first. Wichita has scored first in six of its eight games with a record of 5-1-0-0. A good start tonight will be critical, but so will the second period. Allen has scored just two goals in the second period all season while giving up 13 for a goal differential of -11. When you consider Allen is 0-4-0-0 when trailing after the second period and Wichita is 4-0-0-0 when leading after the second period, the Americans do not want to be playing from behind. 

- Here are the 22 players that traveled to Wichita. Robbie Baillergeon was activated from the 14-day IR yesterday and will see his first action of the season. Goalie Anson Thornton did not travel with the team. He looked great in practice this week so I assume he stayed back and will get the start against Tulsa on Saturday. Two skaters, one defenseman and one forward will sit out the game. I will have the lineup posted on social media later today.

Goalies 

• #33 Marco Costantini
  
• #39 Dylan Wells

Defensemen

• #3 Ryan Gagnon 
• #66 Artyum Kulakov 
• #55 Andrew Nielsen 
• #44 Nolan Orzeck 
• #21 Mike Van Unen 
• #2 Quinn Warmuth 
• #5 Hudson Wilson
  

Forwards

• #26 Spencer Asuchak
• #42 Robbie Baillergeon
  
• #24 Harrison Blaisdell
  
• #22 Easton Brodzinski 
• #16 Kyle Crnkovic
• #8 Mark Duarte 
• #10Will Gavin
• #17 Riley Ginnell 
• #84 Liam Gorman 
• #14 Brayden Guy
• #86 James Hardie
• #70 Dakota Seamen
  
• #92 Brayden Watts
  

- Players to watch tonight for Wichita include #22 Michal Sinil who leads the league in scoring with 14 points (8G, 6A) in eight games and was just selected as the ECHL player of the month. #21 Jay Dickman always seems to give Allen fits. He had a goal and an assist in Wichita's 5-4 overtime win in Allen last week. For Allen #22 Easton Brodzinski has been hot scoring five goals in the last three games including a hat trick in his last game. #92 Braydon Watts has five points in the last three games (2G, 3A) and is just getting going. 

- I asked coach Adams for two keys to the game tonight. Here is what he said:

"We have to control the middle of the ice."

"We have to stay out of the penalty box."

- Allen has had two referees for its last five games, but tonight there will be just one. The referee will be Chaz Knoche (#33). Knoche is one of those young, up and coming referees in the ECHL. The 24 year old has been officiating since he was 12 and is in his third season as an ECHL referee. In his young career he he has already officiated in the championship finals in the NA3HL (Fraser Cup), NAHL (Robertson Cup) and USHL (Clark Cup) and was recently on of five ECHL referees to officiate at NHL prospects games. 

OTHER COMMENTS

- Since joining the ECHL Allen has never had a losing record against Wichita. I pulled this out of the archives yesterday. It is Allen's season by season record against Wichita. Can the Americans keep this streak going this season?

• 8-1-0-0: 2023-24
• 7-7-0-0: 2022-23
• 10-7-0-0: 2021-22
• 7-3-1-0: 2020-21
• 8-1-3-0: 2019-20
• 8-4-0-2: 2018-19
• 6-6-0-0: 2017-18
• 11-2-1-0: 2016-17
• 13-0-0-0: 2015-16
• 9-2-3-3: 2014-15

 - After practice on Wednesday, I noticed Spencer Asuchak working with four or five players, showing them his techniques on taking faceoffs. Asuchak has long been one of the best faceoff players in the league. In the two games last weekend in Utah he took close to 50 faceoffs and had off the charts success, winning over 90% of them. 

- Chaz Smedsrud has gotten off to a good start since being traded to Rapid City. He scored his first goal of the season in Rapid City's 3-2 loss to Kansas City on Wednesday. Chaz has three points in four games (1G, 2A).

- Colton Hargrove is on one of those streaks he was known for in Allen. Seven points (3G, 4A) in his last five games, helping Florida to a 5-0-1-0 record.

- The Mountain Division has long been noted as a high penalty minutes division. With some teams signing a tough guy with the extra skater allowed this season how has that impacted penalty minutes? The ECHL average penalty minutes per game is 12.36. Here are the Mountain Division averages. The team's rank is in parenthesis:

• 15.71 - Kansas City (5th)
• 14.83 - Allen (7th)
• 14.00 - Tahoe (10th)
• 12.86 - Idaho (12th)
• 11.57 - Tulsa (16th)
• 11.00 - Wichita (18th)
• 7.25 - Rapid City (28th)
• 7.20 - Utah (29th)

Two teams are averaging more than 20 penalty minutes per game. Jacksonville is #1 (22.50) and Jacksonville is #2 (20.00).

- There are 10 games on the ECHL schedule tonight. A couple I am going to check out on FloHockey include Fort Wayne (5-1-0-0) at Toledo (5-1-1-0) and Idaho (4-3-0-0) at Savannah (6-1-0-0). Idaho has just four NHL/AHL contracted players assigned and two of them are goalies. Savannah has a league leading 12 NHL/AHL contracted players assigned. Here is the ECHL Today with previews of all 10 games tonight: https://echl.com/news/2024/11/echl-today-nov-8