ALLEN, Texas – It is getaway day for the Allen Americans as they will fly to Greenville this afternoon to play the Swamp Rabbits on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Here is the list of players making the trip to Greenville. This list is current as of early this morning.
Goalies
#39 – Justin Kapelmaster
#?? – ????? ?????
Defensemen
#5 – Phil Beaulieu
#7 – Kayle Doetzel
#14 – Les Lancaster
#16 – Chaz Reddekopp
#20 – Ben Carroll
#43 – Matt Register
Forwards
#8 – Joe Garreffa
#9 – Kyle Topping
#15 – Corey Mackin
#18 – Steenn Pasichnuk
#21 – Jared Bethune
#27 – Sam Laberge
#28 – Krystof Hrabik*
#40 – Josh Lammon
#71 – Dyson Stevenson*
#?? – Josh Maser
Allen will not use an EBUG in Greenville. Steve Martinson has signed a goalie that will meet the team in Greenville. This will be on transactions this afternoon.
Turner Ottenbreit was loaned to Iowa and is in Austin where the Wild will play the Texas Stars tonight, Friday, and Saturday.
In addition to the four players placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List yesterday (Conner Bleackley, Zane Franklin, Will Lochead, Jake Paterson), others not making the trip to Greenville are Spencer Asuchak, Kameron Kielly, Nolan Kneen, and Jesse Mychan.
New Forward for Allen
Rookie forward Josh Maser has been assigned to Allen by the Iowa Wild and will make the Greenville trip. Josh played in two games for Iowa and had one goal. He scored his first pro goal in his first pro game. Here is some info about Josh from the Iowa press release when he was signed last July.
Maser served as team captain for the Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League (WHL) last season, recording 48 points (29g, 19a) in 62 games. Maser, 22 (1/18/99), hails from Houston, British Columbia. His 29 goals last season were 16 more than the next closest Prince George skater, and his 19 assists placed him fourth on the team. A 6-foot-2, 207-pound left-winger, Maser totaled 143 points (90g, 53a) in 218 career WHL games.
Here is a Maser hat trick highlight from last season:
Elsewhere…
Wichita beat Kansas City last night 4-3 in overtime to extend their lead in the Western Conference standings. The Thunder improved their points percentage to .739. The second-place Americans have a points percentage of .674. It will be a challenge for Allen not to lose more ground to Wichita this week. Allen is on the road in Greenville (.540 points percentage) for three games, while Wichita is at home against Rapid City (.389 points percentage) for three games.
The two teams just behind Allen looking to pass the Americans are Fort Wayne (.667 points percentage), who is on the road for three games in Indy (.804 points percentage), and Utah (.640 points percentage) who is visiting Wheeling (.333 points percentage) for three games.
Allen needs to snap their two-game losing streak, which is the longest of the season, or they could end up in fourth place at the end of the week. With eight key players in COVID protocol and not on the trip and another five players playing their first games for the Americans, it will be a challenge for sure. There is plenty of talent to win all three games in Greenville, but how the team plays as a team will be key to success. I will have a complete series preview tomorrow, but one stat that is encouraging is Greenville, who is in third place in the Eastern Conference with a point percentage of .540, has lost four of their last five games and been shutout three times.
ECHL Stats…
My ECHL stats post for today shows Allen ranks second in most goals scored by defensemen (16) and second in percentage of total team goals scored by defensemen (20.8%). Not a surprise with all of the talented offensive defensemen on the Americans roster.
Goals by defensemen vary widely around the ECHL. 23.1% of all goals by the Utah Grizzlies this season come from defensemen. At the other end of the range is Florida, another good team, with a league-low of 9.2% of their goals coming from defensemen.
ECHL teams with most goals by defensemen including percentage of team’s total goals:
18 – @UtahGrizzlies, 23.1%
16 – @AllenAmericans, 20.8%
12 – @Wichita_Thunder, 16.2%
11 – @kc_mavericks, 18.6%
10 – @IndyFuel, 12.3%
9 – @OrlandoHockey, 14.3%
9 – @FL_Everblades, 9.2%— ECHL Stats (@EchlStats) February 24, 2021
Did You Know?
The games this weekend will be the first out-of-conference games for both Allen and Greenville. So far this season, there have been 16 games between the two conferences. The Western Conference record against the Eastern Conference is 7-4-3-2.
