ALLEN, Texas – With the Central Hockey League playoffs just three weeks away, the grueling toll of the regular season is coming to a close, with March among its fiercest month of play overall.
As teams jockey for better seeds in their respective conference, others are battling for their playoff lives. No team has gone unscathed, even the perpetually successful Allen Americans, who have been the class of the league all season, have felt the schedules wrath.
For months now, the Americans have been atop not only the Berry Conference but the top spot of the league overall. Like a machine, the club forged its way to a double digit points lead over second place in the Conference and appeared almost unstoppable. It took until mid-February for the team to show its first signs of mortality, losing four straight games and finally reached double digits in the loss column, a mark all other teams had surpassed well ahead of the boys in red.
The Americans began February with the enviable record of 30-8-1, putting them first in the league by a wide margin. Victories at the beginning of the month and some dramatic come-from-behind wins toward the latter stages of the month, book-ended the mini, mid-season slump. Despite the four game slide, Allen posted another winning month at 8-3-1 to go 39-12-2 for the year as the campaign entered its final month.
Much of the slump can be attributed to the roster casualties the team suffered during those weeks that severely tested the team’s depth.
Allen’s number one goaltender, Chris Whitley was lost to injury as was defenseman Justin DaCosta. Whitley has since returned and carried the lion’s share of the work between the pipes, while DaCosta is still on IR. Goaltender Adrien LeMay was moved to the ECHL cutting the Allen net minder count from three to a pair, leaving Scott Campbell as the backup.
Further roster losses included Dave Bonk who was recalled to the AHL along with Scott Langdon, both have since returned to the active roster.
Brian McMillin was felled by injury and Kip Brennan was called up to the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. Judd Blackwater was out for a spell in January, was reactivated early in the month but was back on 10-day IR around mid-month again due to injury.
On top of all this, the club had been battling a bug that was making the rounds of the locker room with many players not at one hundred percent.
February wasn’t all bad news – Allen acquired defenseman Jonathan Zion, who had been playing with the Nottingham Panthers of the EIHL this year.
Another note to mention was the milestone attained by David Nimmo who started the month of March on a great note for the Americans, notching his 100th career goal as a professional, helping lead Allen to a 5-3 victory over Bossier-Shreveport on March 2nd.
With only nine regular season games remaining on the schedule, the Americans are five points away from claiming the Berry Conference Title and nine points away from the regular season title which would grant them the home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.
The next few weeks should prove very interesting for Allen as they await the return of several players from IR; if they all return healthy for the post-season, and there are no indicators they won’t, Allen should be a very tough nut to crack in April.
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