Americans down Killer Bees 4-2

ALLEN, Texas – The Allen Americans defeated the Rio Grande Killer Bees for the second straight time Friday night to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best of five opening round playoff series. The Americans now head on the road to Rio Grande Valley in hopes of finishing the series quickly to allow their players a much need rest and recovery period.
 
The Americans got off to a much slower start than they did the previous night when they scored three goals in the first five minutes of the contest. The Bees came out forcing the issue from the puck drop, moving the puck well, but failing to generate many good, quality scoring chances.
 
Allen looked a bit out of sync at times, showing flashes of brilliance and then falling into some sloppy play throughout stages of the first and second period. It took until just past the midway point of the second period for the 3,074 in attendance to see the scoreless deadlock broken.
 

There were a couple of scary moments when Jarret Lukin took a puck in the foot, not once but twice on separate plays blocking shots. Each time Lukin went down to the ice hard, obviously in great pain but each time he was out there and a shot needed to be blocked, he never hesitated to put himself in the way of it.
 
The Americans were first to strike when Bruce Graham fired a Jonathon Zion rebound past Bees net minder Juliano Pagliero at 13:15 on the power play. Just over two minutes later, a bruised and battered Lukin lifted the Americans to a two goal lead when he buried a short side shot past Pagliero from the right circle off a feed from Judd Blackwater.
 
Pagliero showed great poise and denied the Americans from running away with the game with several great stops, including stoning a Nino Musitelli shot that was labeled for the top shelf.
 
Throughout the game, the Bonk-Blackwater-Yellow Horn line continued to move the puck with ease, creativity and a growing confidence. Nino Musitelli had an excellent game for the Americans as well at either end of the ice, rotating the fore checking with Lukin and causing turnovers on the defensive side.
 
The Bees cut the Americans lead in half at 2:07 of the third period when Tomas Klempa used Allen defenseman Dylan King as a screen and fired a nasty wrist shot past Chris Whitley’s blocker. The Bees seemed rejuvenated as they found themselves back in the game, but it would be short lived.
 
Two minutes later at the 4:11 mark, Allen put on a pretty display of tic-tac-toe passing on the power play when Zion zipped a pass along the ice to Nino Musitelli who immediately fed Colton Yellow Horn for a one-timer to put the Americans up 3-1.
 
The final nail in the coffin was delivered by the Americans captain, Tobias Whelan who picked up a loose puck and beat Pagliero to the blocker side, giving Allen a comfortable 4-1 lead.
 
The Bees went down fighting however and Brett Clouthier directed a backhand past Whitley with 27 ticks on the clock to cut the lead to 4-2, where it would stand as time expired.
 
The two teams will face each other in game three of the best of five series, at the State Farm Arena in  Hidalgo, Texas Sunday afternoon at 1pm CST.
 
Contact the author at maurice.fitzgerald@prohockeynews.com Contact the photographer at chip.crail@prohockeynews.com