Friday, December 4, 2015



WHERE IN THE WORLD IS BARRY? WILL THE AMERICANS GET BACK ON TRACK? 

Please note while Barry's name remains at the bottom of this blog, he is on vacation and the information/views posted in his absence do not reflect Barry's views or the views of the Allen Americans organization.


Thanks to Barry for answering the first question.  He and Nancy are in Quito, Ecuador. In the picture below, they are both straddling the equator.   Barry is in the Northern Hemisphere while Nancy is in the Southern. How cool is that!  They head out today for a week on the Amazon River, then will return on the 13th. Barry will see us all at the game that night.  Enjoy your remaining vacation, Barry and Nancy.


(photo courtesy of Barry Janssen)

Now to that all important second question.  And, yes, it is important.  The Americans have slipped to tied for fifth place in the ECHL standings, and fifth place in the Western Division standings.  Giving a win to Rapid tonight will advance Rapid from 6th place in the division to tied for 5th but because their win percentage (.611) is greater than ours (.600) they would stand better than Allen.

Game Preview:
    • Special teams, as always, will be of importance tonight.  Allen has an edge on the power play with Allen at 18.4% (16/87) vs RC at 14.3% (8/56), while the penalty kill has Allen below RC 84.6% (7/54) vs 87.0% (12/78).  At home, Allen's PP drops to 12.2%
    • Average goals for has Allen at 3.0 with RC at 2.7 and Average goals against 3.1 Allen, vs 2.9 Rapid
    • Average shots favors Allen 28.3 while Rapid is 23.6 as do average shots against 30.6 for Allen vs 31.6 for Rapid.
    • Both teams have surrendered 4 short handed goals and have scored 2
    • Rapid City last played Wednesday night beating Tulsa 4-2 giving them 5 wins in their last 6 games
    • Allen is on a 2 game losing streak (which we will end tonight!), making them 5-5 of their last 10 games.
    • Rush goalie Marek Langhamer is the current ECHL goalie of week.  In his last 2 starts, he has stopped 78 of 80 shots with a scoreless streak of over 100 minutes.
    • Allen has met Rapid on 2 occasions this year, both in Rapid City, and has won both.  Allen's 7-2 victory on Noveember 7th set season highs for goals (7), assists (2), points (19),  total shots (49), shots in one period (20), and winning margin (5),  Let's hope history repeats itself.
    • Points leaders for Rapid are Winston Day Chief with 13, and Zach Cohen with 11.  Goal leaders are Daniel O'Donaghue and Spencer Pommells each with 5.
    • Penalty leaders are Jimmy Bonneau  with 43 PIM,  and Garrett Clarke with 39 PIM (35 while with the Rush
    • Rush forward and former Allen American Kale Kerbashian has had 1 goal and 1 assist since his return from injured reserve on November 27th.
    • Allen has the advantage on height 6.1' to 6.0', weight 196.4 lbs. vs 192.2 and age 24.64 vs 25.33
    • Looking at AHL experience thus far this season, Rapid has 755 games played with Allen only having 511.

    Congratulations to Spencer Asuchak for his hat trick the other night.  Spence's contribution aided the Chicago Wolves' blitz against the Manitoba Moose on Wednesday, December 2nd with a score of 8-2. Spencer had 3 goals on 4 shots, was a +4 and named #1 star of the game.  Way to go! (Man do we miss you!)


    Did you know: In keeping with statistics, here's one for this Christmas season.  Last year there were 1.76 billion candy canes sold in the U.S.  That is 5 candy canes for every living citizen. How many do you eat each Christmas?

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