Allen Wins, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Coach's Comments, Allen vs Tulsa Preview, Average ECHL Penalty Minutes Over Time and More

The Allen Americans made it two straight road wins with a 4-2 win in Wichita last night before a crowd of 3669 at INTRUST Bank Arena. Allen scored the first and only goal of the opening period on Brayden Watt's third goal of the season.  It was Watt's first time back in Wichita, where he played for four seasons and was captain of the team before signing with Allen. The Americans kept the lead the entire game after Watts opening goal.

- Kyle Crnkovic scored the only goal of the second period at the 11:32 mark to give Allen a 2-0 lead at the second intermission. It was a good sign for a couple of reasons. Allen had been outscored 13-2 in the second period prior to last night. It was good to see the team finally win a second period (1-0). The other reason the 2-0 lead after the second period was a good sign is teams rarely lose when leading after the second period. Allen is now 2-0 when leading after the second period, but across all ECHL teams this season the record when leading after the second period is 35-1-1-1.

- Wichita did cut the lead to 2-1 early in the third period (6:39), but Kyle Crnkovic scored his second goal of the game and fourth of the season (16:09) to give Allen the insurance goal they needed. And they certainly needed it as the Thunder pulled the goalie and scored an extra attacker goal with 24 seconds remaining in the game. Wichita never managed a shot in the last 24 seconds and Spencer Asuchak scored his first goal of the season with nine seconds remaining to make the final score 4-2. If you were watching the game it looked like Asuchak's goal was an empty net goal as the net was empty. However, Aaron Dell was not quite off the ice when the puck went in the net so the goal was not considered an empty net goal. 

- Wichita had no answer for Allen's top line of Watts-Asuchak-Crnkovic. They scored all four Allen goals and had five of the six Americans assists. Asuchak tallied four points, scoring one goal and assisting on the other three. Crnkovic had two goals and an assist and Watts had a goal and an assist. 

- A second big reason Allen won last night was the play of goalie Dylan Wells who stopped 45 of 47 shots for a save percentage of .957. His 45 saves are the most in the ECHL this season. His 22 saves in the second period ranks #2 this season. After a couple of rough outings to start the season, Wells has been great in his last two starts saving 85 of 91 shots (.934). However, the Americans can't keep giving up 40+ shots and expect to win. Allen continues in last place in the league in shots allowed giving up an average of 41.71 shots per game. That is seven more shots per game than the next highest team. When you consider over half the teams in the league give up fewer than 30 shots per game, there is plenty of room for improvement in this critical stat.   

- A third big reason Allen won last night was the play of the penalty kill unit. One of the keys to the game was to stay out of the penalty box. However, Allen continued its trend of giving up more power play opportunities (5) than they had for themselves (2). Prior to last night the Americans had given up at least one power play goal in the last four games (6 PP goals in 4 games). Last night the Allen penalty kill was excellent going 0-5. 

- Allen not only won its second straight road game, but snapped Wichita's six game win streak, which was the longest in the league. After a horrendous start to the season when Allen was 0-3 and were outscored 21-2 the team has earned five of eight points (.625) over the last four games with three of the four points earned on the road.

- If you want more detail about the game here is the game recap from the Wichita Thunder: https://wichitathunder.com/news/2024/11/win-streak-snapped-on-friday-night-vs-allen

- Here are the video highlights: https://echl.com/videos/allen-americans-vs-wichita-thunder-nov-8-2024

- After the game I asked coach Adams about the play of the top line, the penalty kill and the goalie. Here is what he had to say: 

"The top line scored timely goals for us tonight. Watts scoring the first goal of the game started us off right. Crnkovic finished a nice play from a great breakout and gave us a little cushion which helped with all of the penalties we took in the second period. His second goal in the third period was big giving us a two goal advantage again."

"The penalty kill was good tonight. We didn't allow a lot of high percentage scoring chances. They had a lot of second chances in tight that I feel we can still clean up." 

"Wells was great again in goal. They tried a lot of wrap arounds and got a few rebounds off of them which increased their shot total. Overall, we didn't give up too many quality chances."

ALLEN VS TULSA PREVIEW

- It will be another big challenge for Allen tonight. The Americans jumped on the bus right after the win last night and traveled back to Allen, arriving early this morning. Tulsa did not play last night and hasn't played since last Sunday. So it will be a fresh Tulsa team against a tired Allen team tonight. Add to that the fact that tonight is a Saturday night, big crowd, specialty jersey game which many fans say is cursed. The facts don't lie. Last season the Americans record when wearing specialty jerseys was 2-7-0-0. 

- Tonight will be the second of 12 times Allen will play Tulsa this season. Hard to forget the first time these teams played. It was Allen's season opener, a day game in Tulsa and the Oilers crushed the Americans 8-2. Since that time the two teams have taken different paths. Tulsa won its first three games of the season but has lost three of the last four. Allen lost its first three games but has now won two straight and earned five points in the last four games. 

- As is the case with every game given Allen's bad start to the season the comparison stats all favor Tulsa:

• Goals scored average: Allen (2.4) - Tulsa (4.3)
• Goals allowed average: Allen (5.3) - Tulsa (2.9)
• Shots for average: Allen (23.7) - Tulsa (31.3)
• Shots against average: Allen (41.7) - Tulsa (27.4)
• Power play percentage: Allen (14.3%) - Tulsa (29.6%)
• Penalty kill percentage: Allen (79.4%) - Wichita (83.3%)

- The keys to the game remain the same, but may be even more critical tonight. Tulsa has the #3 ranked power play in the league. The Americans are unlikely to win if the give up five power play opportunities and get just two as they did last night. 

- Allen has scored first in its last four games with a record of 2-1-1-0. Tulsa has scored first in just three of its seven games and has won them all. The first goal tonight will be critical. 

- Goalie Anson Thornton stayed home from the long trek to Wichita and back. He is well rested and fresh for the game tonight and will get the start in goal. 

- I would be surprised if you don't see more balanced scoring in the game tonight. I expect there will be some lineup and line changes for the game against Tulsa. I will post the lineup later this afternoon. Here is Allen's complete roster without the changes when transactions come out this afternoon: 

Goalies 

• #33 Marco Costantini
• #35 Anson Thornton - Reserve
  
• #39 Dylan Wells

Defensemen

• Ayo Adeniye - 14-day IR
  
• #3 Ryan Gagnon 
• #66 Artyum Kulakov 
• #55 Andrew Nielsen 
• #44 Nolan Orzeck 
• #21 Mike Van Unen 
• #2 Quinn Warmuth - Reserve
  
• #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 
• #11 Rylan Van Unen - 3-day IR
  
• #92 Brayden Watts

- It wasn't just the team that had to travel from Wichita to Allen for the game tonight. Referee Chazz Knoche was the referee last night and will be the lone referee in Allen tonight. 

OTHER COMMENTS

- Allen has made some progress over the last week but there is still a big gap between the top six teams in the division and the bottom two. Kansas City has been the star of the Mountain Division and has picked up where they left off last season. The Mavericks set the all-time ECHL record for road wins last season (29-4-2-1) and have started this season 5-0-0-0 on the road. Here are the Mountain Division standings by points percentage to account for the fact teams in the division have played as few as five games and as many as nine games:

• .813 - Kansas City
• .700 - Tahoe
• .667 - Wichita
• .643 - Tulsa
• .625 - Idaho
• .600 - Utah
• .357 - Allen
• .167 - Rapid City
   

- It is only two road wins, but Allen has the longest win streak in the division right now. The longest current ECHL streak without winning a game belongs Rapid City (9 games) and Cincinnati (7 games).  

 - Easton Brodzinski has scored a team leading five goals on just 23 shots for a shooting percentage of 21.7%. Of players in the league with five or more goals the leader in shooting percentage is Hank Crone who has five goals on 12 shots for a 41.7% shooting percentage. 

- Adirondack is the only remaining ECHL team with a 100% penalty kill. Adirondack has killed 14 straight. Along with a perfect penalty kill percentage, Adirondack has scored a league leading three shorthanded goals in just five games. The other eye popping specialty team percentage belongs to Kalamazoo, whose road power play percentage is 55.6%. 

- There is a full slate of games in the ECHL tonight with 28 of the 29 teams in action. The only team not playing is Wichita. Here is the ECHL Today with all of the previews: https://echl.com/news/2024/11/echl-today-nov-9  Here are Allen connected players (current and former) mentioned in the previews:

• Bloomington's Mark Sinclair has allowed two or fewer goals in each of his seven appearances.
• Colton Hargrove leads Florida with seven points (3G, 4A).
• Tulsa's Tyler Poulson has multiple points in four of his seven games.
• Allen's Kyle Crnkovic has three goals in his last two games.
• Rapid City's Chaz Smedsrud has five points (1G, 4A) in his last four games. 

DID YOU KNOW: How have penalty minutes (PIM) changed over time. Here is ECHL average PIM per game over time. There was some thought that by adding one more skater this season (17 to 18) teams would add toughness, and some did, it would lead to more PIM. Thus far it has not been reflected in average PIM as the downward trend continues: