Dallas Stars forward Brandon Segal celebrates his goal in the 3rd period. Segal's goal proved to be the game winner as the Stars edged past the visiting Washington Capitals, 2-1. (Photo Credit: Shannon Byrne)

I was unable to get any video interviews for you at this game because, due to a scheduling conflict, I wasn’t able to attend in person.  But, as with nearly all home games, Shannon Byrne was there to get some great photos, and has put together a nice slideshow of action from the game.  You can view that by clicking on the photo below:

Just one video from last night – Coach Mullins had his standard post-game press conference, and didn’t seem too down about the loss that ended his team’s seven-game win streak.  Here’s the conference:

And, BDH photographer John O’Neill has some shots from last night’s game as well:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

I’ll start this off with the pair of Ribeiro goals from last night. They weren’t the only goals in the game last night, for certain, but they were definitely the most electrifying.

Ribeiro’s 1st goal:

Ribeiro’s OT game-winner:

Here is a gallery of photos from last night’s action. All of the photos are by Shannon Byrne and the slideshow can be found on her site. Click the photo below to have a look:

And, here are a couple of interviews after the game last night. First up is Mike Ribeiro, who had the game-tying and game-winning goal. About 15 seconds in, you’ll see the camera come back a bit. That’s because I’m moving out of the way as Adam Burish is coming in to congratulate his teammate’s success with a shaving cream pie in the face:

And, Defenseman Stephane Robidas chimed in on how the team played as a whole and what the team can take from this win moving forward:

Finally, here is the post-game press conference with head coach Marc Crawford:

“We kind of had a game plan and we stuck to it,” said Americans head coach Dwight Mullins.  “Obviously we wanted to assert ourselves physically, which we did.  But I really liked the pace of our game tonight.  All in all, for our third game in three nights (they played Arizona on Thursday night as well as the IceRays in Corpus on Friday), I was really happy with the effort the hockey team put in.”

The first period was uneventful from an offensive standpoint; both teams were held scoreless in the opening frame.  But, there were plenty of fisticuffs to keep the fans in attendance on their feet.  Allen’s Britt Dougherty dropped the gloves against Corpus’ Adam Powell.  Dougherty was the clear victor in the bout, taking Powell to the ice with a hard right hook.  Upon the ensuing face-off, Nathan O’Nabigon of the Americans squared off against the IceRays’ Morgan MacLean.  The Americans were once again the victors of the match.  After the puck dropped again, yet another fight broke out.  This time between Allen’s Liam Huculak and Corpus’ Tyler Sheldrake.  The battle drifted into the corner of the rink, with both sides exchanging solid punches before the refs stepped in to sort it out, and sent the players off to their increasingly-crowded penalty boxes.

“We want to be physical and we want to entertain the fans,” Mullins said of the pugilistic opening period.  “We don’t have just one dimension, we have different components, and one of those components is toughness.  We feel like we’re deep in that area and it’s an entertaining part of our sport.”

In the second period, it was Nathan O’Nabigon who opened the scoring early, getting a goal just 1:20 into the frame.

“Part of our strategy was to work the puck down low because we thought we could probably take the puck to the net,” said O’Nabigon.

Christian Gaudet had the puck down low in the IceRays zone, and was trying to take it to the net, just as O’Nabigon has said.  Corpus’ defense choked him up, and the puck ended up on O’Nabigon’s stick.

“I originally tried on the backhand, but it didn’t go.  It ended up back on my stick, so I just threw it back on net and it went ‘top cheese’”, O’Nabigon smiled.

The offense kept piling it on, pressuring the IceRays’ defense and Corpus netminder Kevin Nastiuk.  Bruce Graham put the Americans up 2-0 later in the 2nd when he flipped the puck over the left shoulder of the goalie.  In the third, Allen piled onto the lead getting a goal from Tobias Whelan and a second goal from Graham, this time on the power play.

The IceRays pushed back as best they could, but didn’t seem to have the energy to compete with Allen on Saturday.  The Americans were beating Corpus to loose pucks, blocking shots from the IceRays, and pounding Nastiuk with rubber when they had an open lane for a shot.

“What an entertaining hockey game,” Mullins said.  “I think fans really got their money’s worth.  It had all of the physical components that everybody likes to see as well as some goals and a shutout.  I think was a real exciting brand of hockey.  That’s what we tried to strive for all summer long in bringing this group.”

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

More Photos

Photos by: John O’Neill

Allen Americans' forward Tobias Whelan and an unidentified Texas Brahmas player take a faceoff in Wednesday's game at the Allen Event Center. The Americans won the game 5-1. (Photo credit: John O'Neill)

The Allen Americans have done the difficult job of winning on the road several times this season.  When they opened up their home schedule on Saturday against the Corpus Christi IceRays, they were hoping to continue that trend in their new home.  The IceRays had different plans, and handed the Americans just their second loss of the season.

The Americans held their second home game of the season on Wednesday, hosting their cross-town rivals, the Ft. Worth Brahmas.  By going out and executing their game plan, according to head coach Dwight Mullins, the Americans were able to earn their first win of the year on home ice.

Another highlight of the evening was the attendance by the Stanley Cup.  Hockey’s most treasured trophy was displayed at center ice before the game, and then was available in the concourse for the fans to grab photo opportunities.  It was wonderful to see the trophy at a CHL game; this only solidifies my belief that the league is really getting more and more legitimate notice from the NHL.  The cup was a big hit, obviously.

The special guests who visited with the cup are no strangers to fans of the Dallas Stars.  Former defensemen Craig Ludwig and Brent Severyn, who were part of the 1999 Stanley Cup Champion Stars team, were part of the pre-game ceremony with the Cup.   The Americans presented them with jerseys to wear – the same commemorative Veterans Day jerseys the team wore during the game (the players’ jerseys were auctioned off to fans after the game in a charity auction).  I spoke with Ludwig and Severyn at the game – you can see the video interview on BDH’s You Tube channel.

Without getting into too much of a game recap (the Americans have already done that quite nicely on their site, as has Robert Keith over at Texas Brahmas Insider), I’ll talk about some of the highlights of the game.  Obviously, by the score, those highlights were mostly for the Americans.

One of the biggest reasons Allen was able to secure the win on Wednesday night was the strong play of their special teams.  Texas was afforded ten power play opportunities in the game, and Allen kept them off of the board on all ten of them.

“I thought our penalty killing was outstanding.  I give the hockey team full credit,” Mullins said after the game.  “There isn’t much more I could ask.  I got guys in shooting lanes, guys stepping in front of pucks.  We got some bounces and some saves tonight, and I thought that was really key.”

On Saturday night, when the Americans faced the IceRays, they gave up two goals on the penalty kill, out of eight opportunities.  The numbers aren’t horrible, but in a 4-1 game, those two goals are pretty big.  It was obviously something that Mullins addressed before Wednesday’s game.  Not only did he expect better execution on the penalty kill, he was looking for more of an offensive punch.  The Americans came out firing early, and didn’t let up much for three periods.

“We had really good energy right from the start,”Mullins said. “We had a plan going in and I thought we executed it to a tee.  For 60 minutes we competed with everything we had.  It’s nice to put together a performance like that together at home, because that’s kind of an example of what we’ve been doing on the road.”

One other bright spot in the night was the strong play of some players who have been “offensive weapons” on the road, but were quiet on Saturday’s game against Corpus.  Tobias Whelan, one of those players, had a pair of goals  in the win over the Brahmas, and said the team was feeling positive after their strong performance.

“I thought it was one of our better games this year,” Whelan said. “We played a full 60 minutes.  In the past, we’ve kind of let teams get back into it, but we played really well defensively, and obviously offensively with five goals.”

Already this season, the Brahmas and Americans have met twice.  Each team picked up the win on their home ice, and the rivalry between these cross-town adversaries is heating up.  It’s not just a media construct, Whelan says – the players feel it too.

“You can tell there’s animosity there already,” said Whelan.  “It’s fun playing these guys.  I think they get up to play us and we get up to play them.  It makes it easier to play and makes it fun to play out there.”

The Americans are on the road again, after their two-game respite at home.  They hopped aboard the bus for a long drive out to Colorado, where they will face the Eagles for a pair of games on Saturday and Sunday.  The Brahmas get to stay at home this weekend, where they’ll host the Amarillo Gorillas on Friday and the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Saturday.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

12►

First off, let me start off by saying what an amazing hockey venue the Americans have in Allen.  There doesn’t appear to be a bad seat in the house, and most of them were filled on Saturday night – the team announced an attendance of 5,808.  The crowd noise carries very well in the arena, as the team found out several times during the game; the crowd cheers and boos were most certainly well-heard on the ice.  If the Americans can make it to the post-season, the AEC is going to be a very difficult place for opposing teams to play.

With the pre-game puck-drop ceremony and ‘extended’ Star-Spangled Banner by special guest Carly Patterson, the start was running a bit late.  Some additional lighting issues added to the delay, but the game was finally underway shortly after 8pm.  Both teams played very physical from the outset, and it was clear this was going to be a battle all game long.

The IceRays started the scoring with Justin Quenneville netting his third of the year.  But, the physical, defensive game the Americans were putting forth held Corpus to just the lone goal in the opening period.

The second period was more of the same from the first:  both teams waging strong defensive battles in their own zones and playing a very physical game.  The IceRays added to their lead when Jereme Tendler scored with four minutes to go in the second period.  The Americans were quick to respond, however, and scored their first goal at the AEC.  Justin Bowers wristed the puck behind IceRays goalie Kevin Desfosses, and cut the Corpus lead back down to just one.

When play resumed in the third period, the Americans had trouble finding their stride.  Strong play by Corpus and some on-ice miscues by Allen led to a powerplay for the IceRays, and the Rays cashed in with another goal.  The lead proved to be too much for a weary Americans team.  A fourth goal by the IceRays salted away the win, and gave Allen just their second lost in regulation this season.

Still, Americans’ head coach Dwight Mullins wasn’t let down by the evening’s performance.

“I think it was an entertaining game,” Mullins said afterwards.  “I thought at times we had a chance to take advantage of some situations and we didn’t.  I thought their goaltending played extremely well, and for the first all year, ours was sub-par.  But, I don’t want to discredit anyone here.  I think for the most part, we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish – we just didn’t take advantage of some situations.”

The Americans’ lone goal scorer for the evening, Justin Bowers, was happy to register the goal and acknowledged its significance, but was let down by the defeat.

“It was good to get it – I’ve been kind of snake-bitten lately,” Bowers admitted.  “I tried to be patient going around the net, and I managed to tuck it in behind the goalie.  It felt good, but the outcome is what’s important.  So, it’s hard to get too excited about it.”

It’s not hard to get excited about the promise of the new arena in Allen, and the excitement the Americans can generate on the ice, though.  The amenities the arena offers, the great views from all the seats, and the strong play of the team on the ice should have people in Allen – and all over North Texas – excited about this CHL season.  With two great CHL teams to watch in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area alone, we’re in for some great hockey.

In fact, those two North Texas teams will meet on the ice at the Allen Event Center this Wednesday, when the Americans host the Texas Brahmas.  The puck drops at 7:30, but fans may want to come early as the Stanley Cup will also be in attendance.  Fans will have an opportunity to take pictures with the legendary cup before and during the game.

Updated 11/11/09: Thanks for your patience with the galleries.  We feel these pictures were worth the wait!  Much thanks to BDH photographer John O’Neill for his great work once again.  If you like the photos, please feel free to contact us through twitter or e-mail!

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

12►