ALLEN, Texas – Friday night the Allen Americans and the Rapid City Rush will begin round two of the ECHL Central Division playoffs at the Allen Event Center. Allen had previously defeated the Tulsa Oilers in five games to advance while they awaited the winner of the Rapid City versus Quad City series – of which the Rush emerged from victorious in a dramatic last minute, game seven finish on Wednesday night.
The Americans have been out of action since ending their series on April 21, giving the club a well-earned rest, but ten days can take a team out of game shape if they don’t work on up tempo practices, which the Americans were planning to do. The big question for Allen heading into the second round will be if those practices were enough during the long layoff, or will they come out a little slow before they get their game legs back.
Meanwhile, Rapid City is coming off of a huge last minute victory over Quad City in game seven at home on Wednesday night, and even with the long trek to Allen immediately after the game, it’s safe to expect that the Rush will be operating on adrenaline. Can they use that to boost them past the Americans and take at least one win on the road before heading back home for three straight games, or will the previous seven-game series and travel catch up to them to give Allen the edge?
Using the regular season as a baseline, Allen bested the Rush in their twelve meetings with an 8-4 record, outscoring them 42-28. Special teams were close in terms of production, Rapid City edging Allen on the power play 11-10 but getting 19 tries more than the Americans to get that extra goal.
Special teams have been evenly matched so far in the post-season with Allen ranked 10th 4-25 (16%) and Rapid City 5-29 (10.3%) on the power play. The penalty kill units are near mirror images of each other, Allen sits again in 10th 5-27 (81.5%) and Rapid City in 12th 5-26 (80.8%). Knowing the frequency that Allen goes to the box, look for Rapid City to work hard to turn that to their advantage if they want to get the upper hand on the high powered Americans offense. The Americans have shown they can play a very disciplined game when they want to, in their second to last meeting of the season Allen went without a penalty in a 5-1 victory. They’ll need to tap into that discipline here in the post-season, the further it moves along.
In the playoffs, Allen handled Tulsa in five games, scoring 18 goals while allowing 14 and taking 80 penalty minutes in the process. On the other side of the ice, Rapid City has notched 13 goals while surrendering 15 including a shutout loss and earning 67 penalty minutes. The Rush are 1-2 on the road, 3-1 at home while Allen has been perfect at home 3-0 and split 1-1 on the road.
Allen is 2-0 when scoring first while the Rush are 3-2 but the Rush are strongest in the opening period, scoring 6 goals to Allen’s 2 while the Americans tend to dominate the middle frame lighting the lamp 11 times in five games to the Rush’s 2 in seven. The third period is a wash as both teams have scored equally at four goals each.
The Americans have benefitted from having both goaltenders in the rotation with Joel Rumpel leading the charge at 3-0 and Riley Gill going 1-1 while facing a combined 135 shots. Danny Battochio has shouldered the full load for Rapid City as expected, going 4-3 in the first series and facing 180 shots. Expect Allen to continue to use Rumpel more often in the net while Battochio will continue to be the go-to netminder for the Rush. ‘Batman’ as he is known to the Rush faithful, can run hot and cold from game to game and it will be up to the Americans blitzkrieg offense to put the freeze on him if they want to limit him as a factor for the Rush.
Allen will need to watch the defensive cheating which has often plagued them through the regular season. They were much improved in the first series against Tulsa but with an even faster offense to contend with in the Rush, they’ll need to be that much more careful in this series.
Rapid City must handle the extremely potent offensive power of the Americans which has five players who have notched multiple goals in just five playoff games while Rapid City has only one in Cody Ferriero, the hero of game seven. Look for continued production from the Allen top scorers, Gary Steffes, Spencer Asuchak, Chad Costello, Greger Hanson and Konrad Abeltshauser. Rapid City will look to Winston Day Chief and Kale Kerbashian to get their scoring going and facing his former team should give Kerbashian the added fire needed to hit the back of the net.
Central Division Finals
Game 1 – Friday, May 1st at 7:05 p.m. at Allen
Game 2 – Saturday, May 2nd at 7:05 p.m. at Allen
Game 3 – Thursday, May 7th at 7:35 pm at Rapid City
Game 4 – Saturday, May 9th at 9:35 pm at Rapid City
*Game 5 – Sunday, May 10th at 6:05 pm at Rapid City
*Game 6 – Tuesday, May 12th at 7:05 p.m. at Allen
*Game 7– Wednesday, May 13th at 7:05 p.m. at Allen
* – If Necessary
Contact the writer: maurice.fitzgerald@prohockeynews.com
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