Texas Brahmas forward A.J. Gale and an unidentified Brahma break in on Allen Americans' goalie Charlie Effinger and defenseman Michal Hrcka in the second period of the Americans' inaugural hockey game. The Brahmas came away with the victory, 4-3. (photo credit: John O'Neill)
The Allen Americans hosted their first game at the Allen Events Center last night, inviting media to come see the squad face the reigning champs, the Texas Brahmas. The Brahmas’ strong play in the second period gave them a large enough lead to withstand the Americans’ comeback attempt in the third, and Texas came out on top 4-3.
For a team that had only been on the ice together since Monday, though, the Americans looked strong. They didn’t back down from physical play at all, and their defense was a challenge for the Brahmas all night. On the other side, the Brahmas played strong, but looked a little out of sync through most of the game. It’s still early in the pre-season, however, and lots of roster decisions remain to be made.
The game was played in the smaller rink at the Allen Events Center, which will be used for practice and other smaller events, as it has no substantial seating. Even though the seating was limited, the seats were along the glass and spectators got an up-close view of all the action. The ice held together well, even though the temperature outside was in the upper 70s and the humidity was high.
Rather than get into a play-by-play recap of the game, which I may do from time to time throughout the season, I will let pictures and video speak for themselves. I’ve posted several clips from the game out on my page at YouTube, and have embedded them here. I will also post a ‘photo story’ of the game, and you can see some stellar shots of the Americans in action for the first time.
First, two clips of some back-and-forth action, which was pretty indicative of how the game played:
Here is the only goal I was able to capture on video. It was a nice one, though, by the Brahmas’ Alexandre Lacombe:
And lastly, here is a 2:00 clip of some game action, capped off with a fight between Ryan Bartle and Derek Merlini that went rather one-sidedly:
