Allen Americans Gun Down Laredo Bucks
Allen Americans forward Colton Yellow Horn works the puck in on Laredo Bucks goalie Kevin Desfosses in Thursday night's game at the Allen Event Center. The Americans defeated the Bucks 6-4. (Photo Credit: John O'Neill)
The Allen Americans began a stretch of four games in five nights, and eight games over the next twelve nights, by hosting the Laredo Bucks on Thursday evening. In a physical, high-scoring match, Allen came out on top, 6-4. With the win, the Americans cut Odessa’s first-place lead in the Southern Conference to four points, with just 12 games remaining in the regular season.
“We want to continue to keep closing the gap on first place,” said Americans head coach Dwight Mullins. ”We haven’t turned the page yet. It’s gratifying to know you’re going to get an opportunity to play in the post-season, but our goal is to finish first. We’ve got a good shot at it. We’ve got twelve games left to put something together, and it’s going to be a rough stretch, there’s no doubt about it. But we knew that coming in. We’ve tried to take care of the hockey team and take care of the numbers as far as having manpower, and we’ll see how it turns out.”
Mullins was happy with Thurday night’s victory, and what it meant in their chase of the front-running Odessa Jackalopes, but thought his team could have done more to ensure the victory when they had the lead and some chances to widen it early in the second period.
“I thought we out-chanced them by a real big margin in the first two periods,” Mullins said. ”Their goaltender did a real good job keeping the game close. I really didn’t like the way we played in our own zone; I thought we were real soft, I don’t think we made a lot of hard plays. I thought we were looking for the easy opportunity to get going offensively and it ended up costing us.”
The Americans jumped out of the gates quickly. They went on a power play just 55 seconds into the game ,after a boarding call to Laredo defenseman Jarred Mohr. Allen converted the opportunity on a strong wrist shot by Colton Yellow Horn. Jordie Benn worked the puck from the point down to the right face-off circle, and Yellow Horn found his spot, giving the Americans a 1-0 lead.
Allen extended their lead about a minute and a half later. The Americans worked the puck into the Bucks zone once again, and outplayed Laredo with some physical play on the boards. After a shot on net, Tobias Whelan picked up a rebound skating through the Bucks’ crease and fired a backhand shot top-shelf for the goal.
The Bucks cut the Americans lead in half with 8:25 remaining in the period. Neil Trimm hammered a shot that beat Americans goalie Alexandre Vincent on the glove side, and gave Laredo back some confidence.
The period came to a close with the Americans up 2-1.
Allen started the second period strong, with a flurry of chances on the Bucks. If not for some spectacular play in net by Bucks goalie Kevin Desfosses, it could have easily been a 3-1 or 4-1 Americans lead, only a couple of minutes into the period.
Instead, Trimm scored again for the Bucks at the 9:03 mark of the 2nd period to tie the game at 2-2. Trimm got a bouncing puck in the slot after sustained pressure in the Americans offensive zone, and the Bucks had re-set the game.
But, just 10 seconds later, Allen reasserted their one-goal lead. Nathan O’Nabigon pounded a shot from the high slot just as he was demolished with a devastating check by a Bucks defenseman. The puck beat Desfosses, and the Americans were on top once again.
The Americans once again opened their lead to two goals in the final minutes of the middle period. Driving into the Bucks zone, O’Nabigon cut wide along the boards and then centered a pass to the slot, and a driving Bruce Graham. Graham sizzled a wrist shot that beat Desfosses five-hole.
“I give them credit, they hung around and gave themselves a chance to win the game,” Mullins said. ”But, from an offensive standpoint, if we bury a few of those chances in the second period and make it a little easier on ourselves, it would have been nice.”
The third period started with Allen up 4-2, but the Bucks’ Jeff Bes cut the lead to just one goal a couple of minutes into the frame, as he scored from the bottom of the slot.
Bes scored again with 7:29 left in the game. He got the puck in the slot and was alone against Vincent. The Allen netminder made the first save, but Bes put home the rebound, and it was once again a tie game, 4-4, with time running out in regulation.
This was the second time in as many games that the Americans had built two separate two-point leads in a game, only to see their opponent come back and tie the game each time. Allen also held 2-0 and 4-2 leads against the Killer Bees on Tuesday night, and the Bees came back to tie the game both times. The Americans eventually won that game, 5-4, in overtime.
As they did on Tuesday, the Americans were able to pull ahead for a third time. Bruce Graham scored his second of the night on a wrap-around goal, and put the Americans up 5-4.
Jordie Benn added an empty-net goal with just under 30 seconds left to play to seal the victory for Allen.
The Americans will host the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs on Friday night at the Allen Event Center. Allen is 3-0-0 against the Mudbugs so far this season, with one win at Bossier and two wins in Allen.