Americans Open New Year with a Win; Down Eagles 5-1
Allen Americans goaltender Chris Whitley made 43 saves against the Colorado Eagles on Friday to help lead his team to a 5-1 victory. (Photo Credit: John O'Neill)
The CHL’s Northern Conference-leading Colorado Eagles came into town to help the Allen Americans ring in the New Year on Friday. The Americans were dominant in their second and third period play, and handed the Eagles just their sixth regulation loss of the year, defeating them 5-1.
“The biggest thing that I was happy with was that we stuck to a plan,” said Americans head coach Dwight Mullins. “I thought we had a lot of really good players tonight. Chris Whitley made some key saves in the first period and that allowed us to get ourselves going a little bit.”
The first period was highlighted by the strong play of Americans’ goalie Chris Whitley in net. Being called upon to make repetitive saves, often in quick succession, the Allen netminder kept his team in the game while the offense wasn’t able to get setup in the Colorado zone. Whitley faced a total of 18 shots in the period, and kept them all out.
“Colorado’s got a high offensive team, so I know they’re gonna (take) a lot of shots.” Whitley said. “Pretty much as soon as they get over the blue line, they’re gonna let it go. Fortunately for us, they took a lot of those shots from the outside. I gave up a couple of bad rebounds that I’d like to have back. Fortunately enough it was still 0-0 at the end (of the period). It was a good start for us.”
The Americans got on the board early in the second period. Bruce Graham put a tumbling puck on net that hit Eagles goalie Andrew Penner, but then Penner seemed to lose. The puck trickled towards the goal line, and forward Nino Musitelli reached his stick out to poke it into the net for the 1-0 lead.
The Eagles tied the game just a couple of minutes later, after a short powerplay allowed them to establish their offense in the Americans’ zone. Aaron Schneekloth took a slapshot from near the blue line that sizzled low to the ice, and beat Whitley five-hole.
Despite giving up the tying goal, the Americans really seemed to be the dominant team of the period. They quickly re-captured the lead thanks to some strong offensive pressure from Justin Bowers and Nino Musitelli; Americans captain Jarret Lukin was able to get free in front of the net, and roofed a backhander top-shelf to put Allen up 2-1. Then, Ryan Fairbarn extended that lead to two when he punched in a rebound from a Bruce Graham shot.
The Eagles had some chances in the third period, but Whitley continued his strong performance and was there when Colorado got their chances. Allen was pretty clearly the better team in the second and third periods, and goals from Colton Yellow Horn and Nathan O’Nabigon iced the victory for the Americans. It also underscored exactly what kind of win this was for the Americans. They seems to get help from every line, and every player. In fact, every line that Allen put on the ice had at least one player with a point, and four players had a mutiple-point game.
“If I look at one of the keys tonight, I think it was the supporting cast,” Mullins said. “I think we got some really good use out of Nathan O’Nabigon, Billy Loupee and Colton Yellow Horn – those kind of players really stepped up.”