Allen, TX – The Allen Americans hosted the Tulsa Oilers at the Allen Event Center on Halloween night. The Americans jumped out to a 4-0 lead, and went on to win the game 6-4 in front of the 2,855 in attendance.
The Americans got goals from Jason Deitsch, Scotty Howes, and Brian McMillin in the 1st period, and led 3-0 after 20 minutes of play.
Howes’ goal was his 5th on the year, which makes him the top goal-scorer in the CHL so far this season. Shortly after scoring his goal, however, Howes left the ice with an injury and didn’t return to the game.
After the game, Martinson commented on the injury.
“We’re not sure if he has a sprain or not,” Martinson said. “He might be back Friday (against Tulsa), he might be out for the weekend. I’m not sure yet.”
Allen made it 4-0 early in the first, as Anthony Maiani scored at the 1:44 mark in the 2nd period.
Tulsa struck back in the middle frame, cutting the Americans lead in half with goals by Ben Gordon and Michel Beausoleil.
Jason Deitsch scored his 2nd goal of the night off of the opening faceoff of the 3rd period, just eleven seconds into the frame.
McMillin added his second of the night about 5 minutes later, giving the Americans a 6-2 lead.
The Oilers added a pair of goals in the game’s waning minutes, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Americans’ lead.
Allen out-shot Tulsa by almost a 3-to-1 margin, 38-14.
One of the areas of weakness on the night for Allen, though, was on the penalty kill. The Americans were tied for the league lead in penalty killing with an 85.71% success rate headed in to the evening. Allen had allowed just 4 goals in 28 power play opportunities, but the team surrendered 3 goals on 5 Tulsa power plays on Wednesday night.
“We’ve got to adjust some thing on our penalty kill,” Martinson said. ”Our penalty kill has been great. There was something that they were doing that we haven’t had to defend too much yet this year. We’re going to work on that and get it squared away. We had our sticks in the wrong lanes.”
The Americans will host the Oilers at the AEC once again on Friday night. The puck drops at 7:05 PM.
