Allen Americans' forward Tobias Whelan and an unidentified Texas Brahmas player take a faceoff in Wednesday's game at the Allen Event Center. The Americans won the game 5-1. (Photo credit: John O'Neill)
The Allen Americans have done the difficult job of winning on the road several times this season. When they opened up their home schedule on Saturday against the Corpus Christi IceRays, they were hoping to continue that trend in their new home. The IceRays had different plans, and handed the Americans just their second loss of the season.
The Americans held their second home game of the season on Wednesday, hosting their cross-town rivals, the Ft. Worth Brahmas. By going out and executing their game plan, according to head coach Dwight Mullins, the Americans were able to earn their first win of the year on home ice.
Another highlight of the evening was the attendance by the Stanley Cup. Hockey’s most treasured trophy was displayed at center ice before the game, and then was available in the concourse for the fans to grab photo opportunities. It was wonderful to see the trophy at a CHL game; this only solidifies my belief that the league is really getting more and more legitimate notice from the NHL. The cup was a big hit, obviously.
The special guests who visited with the cup are no strangers to fans of the Dallas Stars. Former defensemen Craig Ludwig and Brent Severyn, who were part of the 1999 Stanley Cup Champion Stars team, were part of the pre-game ceremony with the Cup. The Americans presented them with jerseys to wear – the same commemorative Veterans Day jerseys the team wore during the game (the players’ jerseys were auctioned off to fans after the game in a charity auction). I spoke with Ludwig and Severyn at the game – you can see the video interview on BDH’s You Tube channel.
Without getting into too much of a game recap (the Americans have already done that quite nicely on their site, as has Robert Keith over at Texas Brahmas Insider), I’ll talk about some of the highlights of the game. Obviously, by the score, those highlights were mostly for the Americans.
One of the biggest reasons Allen was able to secure the win on Wednesday night was the strong play of their special teams. Texas was afforded ten power play opportunities in the game, and Allen kept them off of the board on all ten of them.
“I thought our penalty killing was outstanding. I give the hockey team full credit,” Mullins said after the game. “There isn’t much more I could ask. I got guys in shooting lanes, guys stepping in front of pucks. We got some bounces and some saves tonight, and I thought that was really key.”
On Saturday night, when the Americans faced the IceRays, they gave up two goals on the penalty kill, out of eight opportunities. The numbers aren’t horrible, but in a 4-1 game, those two goals are pretty big. It was obviously something that Mullins addressed before Wednesday’s game. Not only did he expect better execution on the penalty kill, he was looking for more of an offensive punch. The Americans came out firing early, and didn’t let up much for three periods.
“We had really good energy right from the start,”Mullins said. “We had a plan going in and I thought we executed it to a tee. For 60 minutes we competed with everything we had. It’s nice to put together a performance like that together at home, because that’s kind of an example of what we’ve been doing on the road.”
One other bright spot in the night was the strong play of some players who have been “offensive weapons” on the road, but were quiet on Saturday’s game against Corpus. Tobias Whelan, one of those players, had a pair of goals in the win over the Brahmas, and said the team was feeling positive after their strong performance.
“I thought it was one of our better games this year,” Whelan said. “We played a full 60 minutes. In the past, we’ve kind of let teams get back into it, but we played really well defensively, and obviously offensively with five goals.”
Already this season, the Brahmas and Americans have met twice. Each team picked up the win on their home ice, and the rivalry between these cross-town adversaries is heating up. It’s not just a media construct, Whelan says – the players feel it too.
“You can tell there’s animosity there already,” said Whelan. “It’s fun playing these guys. I think they get up to play us and we get up to play them. It makes it easier to play and makes it fun to play out there.”
The Americans are on the road again, after their two-game respite at home. They hopped aboard the bus for a long drive out to Colorado, where they will face the Eagles for a pair of games on Saturday and Sunday. The Brahmas get to stay at home this weekend, where they’ll host the Amarillo Gorillas on Friday and the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Saturday.
