Rio Grande Valley goaltender Andy Franck goes down onto the ice to try and stop the puck in the 2nd Period of Friday night's game against the Allen Americans. Allen won the game, 5-2.
The Allen Americans hadn’t played a game in five days – their last was against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Sunday, November 29th – but they showed no sign of it on Friday. The Americans once again faced the Bees, and once again came out the victors, defeating them 5-2 at the Allen Event Center.
Americans head coach Dwight Mullins said he didn’t think the time off played any sort of factor in Friday night’s game, because the players have a model to follow, regardless of the time off between games.
“I think we have really striven for consistency,” Mullins said. “Our message is consistent and our process is consistent, and I think that helps to keep our players in the frame of mind to compete. I give our guys a lot of credit. They show up here every night and they work really hard, and as a coach, you can’t ask for anything more than that effort.”
The game got off to a quiet start, with both teams trading some opportunities on a sheet of ice that appeared to be very slow. Players seemed to have trouble keeping the puck settle down on the ice, as it was bouncing quite a bit, and on their sticks.
“I definitely did; the puck seemed like it was slowing down on me all the time,” Americans forward Justin Bowers said. “(But) we can’t complain about the ice here, it’s been pretty good for being a brand new rink.”
“It’s kind of interesting here (at the AEC) – the puck seems to jump a little,” Mullins said. “I’m not sure what the cause is – it definitely jumps a little bit. But, right now it’s jumping the right way, so we’re not going to complain.”
Bowers was able to work with the puck well enough to be one of the set-up men on teammate Erik Adams’ goal that opened scoring in the game. Liam Huculak scored with under a minute left in the period, giving the Americans a 2-0 lead at the end of the first.
The Americans came back out in the second and continued the scoring – Bruce Graham and Tobias Whelan both had goals in the second period, and helped to give the Americans a 4-0 lead. RGV finally got on the board at that point, as Jesse Bennefield put the puck past the previously impenetrable Chris Whitley.
Both teams added a goal in the third, with Bowers scoring for the Americans and Rycroft scoring for the Killer Bees, but the fate of the game seemed sealed before the buzzer pronounced it over – the Americans were the stronger team all night long, just as they were the previous Sunday night in their 4-1 victory.
“It’s a good matchup,” Bowers said of the Bees. “I think they’re a bit of an older group. Us being young, we kind of come out hitting and firing on all cylinders. I think for some of their older guys it’s a bit surprising, especially in this league. We just try to play our game, and we’re 2-for-2 now I guess.”
“I think it was a real strong team game tonight,” Mullins said. “I think we executed the way we wanted to – we wanted to keep the tempo up and we wanted to make sure we were taking care of the puck, especially in the dangerous parts of the ice. I thought our team executed really well. We capitalized on our opportunities early and got some saves on a couple of good breaks early as well, and (that) allowed us to build some momentum.”
Photos by: John O’Neill
