Allen Americans goaltender Charlie Effinger makes a flashy glove save in the second period of Saturday's game against the Wichita Thunder at the Allen Event Center. The Americans won the game, 4-2.
After suffering a loss at the hands of one of the top teams in the Northern Conference on Friday night, the Allen Americans hosted the conference’s last-place team the following day, the Wichita Thunder (3-27-3). But, the Thunder gave them a lot to handle, and played Allen tightly. The game was tied at 2 entering the final period of play. The Americans were able to hold Wichita off the scoreboard in the 3rd period, and get two goals of their own, to pull out the 4-2 win in front of 4,001 fans at the Allen Event Center.
“I thought we came out and took care some of the smaller details and did some really good things,” said Americans head coach Dwight Mullins. “I have to give their goaltender a ton of credit. He made some unbeleiveable saves, especially in the first period, to keep them in the hockey game. A team like that hangs around and anything can happen. We were fortunate to get a couple bounces there in the end and come out with a win.”
The Thunder started the scoring in the first period. After Tobias Whelan was sent to the penalty box for a tripping penalty, Wichita was on the power play. Not long into the man-advantage situation, a wrist shot from the point by Joel Hanson beat Charlie Effinger, and Wichita led 1-0.
With just over 4 minutes left in the 1st period, Jarret Lukin tipped a Wichita pass off his stick, and gave himself a breakaway one-on-one with the goalie. Keserich made the save, but Colton Yellow Horn, who was trailing the play, was able to chip the puck into the undefended net, and the score was tied 1-1.
Shortly after the 2nd period was underway, defenseman Jason Woll was given a double-minor for high-sticking Allen forward Christian Gaudet in the corner. The Thunder defense was able to kill off both minors, though the Americans did ring a shot off the post towards the end of the first opportunity.
Wichita again cashed in on a power play opportunity with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd period. Wichita had three players in the slot around Effinger, and although the Americans netminder stopped the initial shot, he was off-balance for the follow-up, and Brad Thompson put it in to give the Thunder a 2-1 lead.
But, just 26 seconds later, the Americans tied it up again. Jarret Lukin took the initial wrist-shot on goal from the half-boards, which Keserich stopped. but Kurtis Dulle, who was driving the slot, knocked the rebound in with a diving play from his stomach.
Early in the 3rd period, the Americans took their first lead of the game, and it turned out to be the game-winning goal. Allen forward Nino Musitelli was just coming out of the box for a cross checking penalty, and joined the play. He got a pass from teammate Justin Bowers and drove into the Thunder zone. Musitelli deked on Keserich and backhanded a shot over his right-hand blocker.
“I can out of the box and read the play and I saw Bowers get it,” Musitelli said. “That’s when I broke up ice and he made a great pass and I just went in and scored.”
The Thunder mounted an offensive in the last minute and a half of the game. Crashing the net, and slapping at the bouncing puck, the Wichita offense went into scramble mode. Effinger was down and lost his stick, with three or four bodies on top of him, and the puck was cycling free. The netminder scrambled up and was eventually given a stick by his defenseman, but his goalie stick was out of reach. Wichita pulled their goalie and the noise in the building surged. The Americans kept the puck to the boards and prevented the Thunder for organizing themselves for a good shot on net. Allen put the final nail in the coffin when Justin Bowers lofted a puck out of his zone for the length of the ice, and it slid into the open net with just over a second on the clock.
“It was a very difficult game to play, even mentally,” Mullins said. “But I thought that we did a tremendous job from that aspect and played hard. If it wasn’t for their goaltender coming up with the effort he did, they wouldn’t have had those opportunities in the end to keep the game even close.”
The difficulty Mullins spoke of was the rebound after the loss the previous night to Rapid City. The opportunity to play a team that was really struggling might seem like the best-case scenario on paper, but several players on the team said you can’t look at it that way.
“Obviously we know the standing – we look at it – but we don’t really think about it,” said Nino Musitelli. “Any team can come in any night and win. It’s not a matter of the standings, it’s a matter of that night. Any team can win on any given night. You go in to each game with the mindset you are going to win, and you just work hard and whatever happens, happens.”
The Americans will be in action again on Monday, as they play a “matinee” game against the Arizona Sundogs at the AEC. The puck will drop at 1:00 PM.
Photos by: John O’Neill
