Americans Fall to RiverKings in the Shootout
Allen Americans forward Nino Musitelli dekes on Mississippi RiverKings goalie Kyle McNulty. McNulty made the save and the RiverKings went on to down the Americans, 2-1 in OT. (Photo Credit: Ben Ellis)
The Mississippi RiverKings and Allen Americans met at the Allen Event Center for the second game of their weekend back-to-back series on Saturday. The two teams battled each other into the overtime period and on into the shootout, where the RiverKings’ Ryan Held ended the game with his shootout goal.
Despite the OT loss, the Americans still got a point out of the game, and that was enough to secure them at least a 2nd place finish in the Southern Conference, and guarantee the team home ice for the opening round of the playoffs.
I spoke with Americans head coach Dwight Mullins after the game, and he wasn’t consoled by that achievement, however. The team is pushing to catch Odessa in the standings, and to get the best record possible, giving them the best opportunity to have home ice throughout the entire playoffs. Mullins said he wasn’t upset with his players at all, and wasn’t disappointed with their performance in the game on Saturday at all.
The team is pretty banged-up at the moment. They have only six active defensemen on the roster at the moment, and of those six, at least one is battling injuries. Jordie Benn, who is on the active roster, was out of the lineup on Saturday for the second night in a row.
Allen opened up the scoring for the second night in a row on Saturday, when Bruce Graham put a Justin Bowers pass into the net. The Americans had an early 1-0 lead.
But, a little over four minutes later, the Rush tied the game at 1-1. RiverKings captain Derek Landmesser connected with Louis Dumont a lead pass into the Americans zone, and Dumont converted it.
The score remained tied through regulation and the five-minute overtime period. In the shootout, Colton Yellow Horn and Tobias Whelan were able to beat RiverKings goalie Kyle McNulty. But, shootout scores by Matt Summers and Louis Dumont set up the game-winner by Ryan Held.
The Americans are taking to the road next, as they will play the Texas Brahmas in North Richland Hills on Wednesday, and then travel to Rapid City, SD, to take on the Northern Conference-leading Rush, for two games next weekend.