Allen Loses in OT, Game Recap, Video Highlights, Tonight’s Preview, Martinson’s Comments, Parsons Return Delayed, ECHL Attendance and More

The Allen Americans deserved a better fate than the 3-2 overtime loss to Idaho last night. Allen scored the first goal of the game on Michael Gildon’s fifth goal of the season at the 8:26 mark of the second period. Then the Americans gave up a late second-period goal and an early third-period goal to fall behind 2-1. Hank Crone tied the score 2-2 at the 12:28 mark of the third period, and all of the momentum was with the Americans. 

 

– Everything changed when Colton Hargrove was given a five-minute major for boarding with 2:43 remaining in regulation. I have to admit, I have never understood all the intricacies of the boarding rules, but to me, it looked like Hargrove hit the player on the side, and it was a two-minute minor at best. Hargove was also given a game misconduct, but that is automatic by rule, with every major penalty for boarding. There are no specified fines or suspensions that go along with a game misconduct for boarding, but the play will be reviewed by the league, and supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion. Coach Martinson thought Hargrove got victimized on that call, partly because he is so big and strong. Any 180-pound forward is going to go flying when Hargrove hits them. Hargrove was the most physical player on the ice last night.  UPDATE: Hargrove has been suspended for two games.

 

– After the major penalty, Allen never had another shot in the game. Idaho had five shots in the last 2:43 of regulation, another five shots in overtime. Allen’s penalty killers and goalie Marco Costantini did a great job of killing the five-minute major, especially the 4-on-3 in overtime. There were just 17 seconds left in the penalty when Idaho scored the game-winner.  

 

– Allen has scored three goals in the two games against Idaho. Michael Gildon scored two of the goals and assisted on the other. Gildon is now tied for the team lead in goals (5) with Brayden Watts. Andre Anania assisted on Gildon’s goal last night and leads the team with eight assists. He is ranked #6 in assists among all ECHL defensemen. 

 

– How did Allen fare on the keys to the game?

Score the first goal of the game – Accomplished 

Score a minimum of three goals – Missed (Allen has scored two or fewer goals in 7 of 12 games and lost all of them.

Take 35+ shots – Missed, but 31 shots with 15 minutes of penalty kill time is good.

Convert on 10% or more of the shots – Missed, shooting percentage was 6.5%, lower than the season average of 7.9%.

Minimize shots against and achieve a .919 save percentage – Shots were skewed because of the five-minute major penalty (10 shots), but Marco’s save percentage was .929.

Win the special teams battle – Missed, Allen was 0-2 on the power play and 2-5 on the penalty kill. Allen had given up a total of three power play goals in the last 10 games before last night. 

 

– Here is the game recap from both teams and the video highlights:

 

TONIGHT’S PREVIEW

– All of the keys from last night would definitely lead to victory tonight:

Score the first goal of the game.

Score a minimum of three goals.

Take 35+ shots.

Convert on 10% or more of the shots.

Minimize shots against and achieve a .919 save percentage.

Win the special teams battle

  

– I would add a first-period lead to the list above. Here is how the Americans have fared based on the score after the first period:

• 1-0-1-0: leading after the 1st period
• 2-0-0-1: score tied after the first period
• 1-5-1-0: trailing after the first period

 

– I asked Coach Martinson for a key to the game, and he was quick to respond in the typical Marty fashion, “We need to get traffic to the front of the net on every opportunity we have, not half of them, not three-quarters of them, but every opportunity. You can quote me on this, I told the guys, if you can’t get to the f***ing front of the net in this league, you are just soft. I mean it, if you can’t get to the front of the net in this league, you just don’t have enough jam to play the game the way we want to play.”   

 

– David Tendeck is scheduled to get the start in goal tonight. He last played in a game on November 12 for the Florida Everblades. It was a road game in Greenville, and Tendeck had a 31-save shutout against the Swamp Rabbits. He was selected as the #1 Star of the game. 

 

– Braidan Simmons-Fischer missed the game last night, but will return to the lineup tonight. Martinson will have to assess any other injuries from last night and factor in Hargrove’s two-game suspension in determining the lineup for tonight. 

 

– After two games of this three-game series, here are the cumulative stats. The takeaway from these stats is that the games have been close, and it won’t take much for Allen to secure a win tonight.

• Goals – Idaho leads 6-3
• Shots – Idaho leads 78-71
• Power Play – Idaho leads 2-6 vs Allen 1-5
• Penalties – Allen leads 8 for 27 minutes vs Idaho 6 for 12 minutes 

 

OTHER COMMENTS

–  Marco Constantini will get the night off tonight after playing in 10 straight games for the Americans. He can use some rest, as Allen will be playing another three games in four days next week in Utah. Marco is one of five ECHL goalies who have played in 10 games and one of three goalies who have played over 600 minutes. He has played 602 minutes, made 333 saves on 362 shots for a .920 save percentage.

 

– The Belleville goalie who was out with an injury (Mads Sogaard) started for the Senators last night. Jackson Parsons was the backup. The reason Martinson did not sign another goalie right away was that Parsons was expected back in Allen as soon as Sogaard returned, and it was always day-to-day. Now another goalie has a minor injury and is day-to-day, so don’t look for Parsons to return for the Utah series. 

 

– Even though Allen lost last night in overtime, the Americans managed to gain some ground as four Mountain Division teams lost in regulation. That happened because two teams played outside the division and both lost. Savannah shellacked the Knight Monsters 8-1 in Tahoe, and Toledo beat Wichita 4-1 at home. The Mountain Division has one team with a point percentage above .600. All of the other divisions have three or four. Here are the Mountain Division standings, with league ranking in point percentage in  parentheses: 

• .643 – Kansas City (#8)
• .594 – Tahoe (#12)
• .594 – Idaho (#12)
• .583 – Tulsa (#14)
• .500 – Utah (#20)
• .458 – Allen (#23)
• .429 – Rapid City (#24)
• .393 – Wichita (#27)  

 

– The Mountain Division has a losing record when playing teams in the other three divisions. After last night, the record is 7-9-4-0, with a point percentage of .450. Allen has yet to play a team outside the Mountain Division, and that won’t happen until February 4, when Norfolk visits Allen.  

 

–  Tonight will be another busy night around the ECHL with 12 games on the schedule. If you have FloHockey, the feature game has to be Wheeling vs Reading. These North Division rivals are tied for the most points in the ECHL (20). Reading won 4-1 in Wheeling last night. Tonight they play in Reading. Here is the ECHL Today with previews on all 12 games: https://echl.com/news/2025/11/echl-today-nov-22

 

–  If you listened to the broadcast last night, you heard Tommy Daniels mention several times an Early Black Friday sale taking place through the Americans Team Store. Youth and Adult Military Night and Wizard Night Jerseys are 30% off bringing the cost down to $80.50 for the youth jerseys and $109.20 for the adult jerseys. The sale started on Friday and goes through tomorrow (Sunday). Here is the link if you are interested: https://shop.allenamericans.com/collections/early-black-friday-sale-military-wizard-jerseys-30-off

 

DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is about attendance. Allen’s average attendance after seven home games is 5015, up from 4573 last season.