Americans practice at home (photo credit: Melissa Grissom)

The Allen Americans skated at the Allen Event this morning to get ready for their game tomorrow against the Rapid City Rush. They are coming off a heartbreaking 3-2 loss against the Arizona Sundogs. The Americans are still in first place with a record of 25-7-4 for 54 points in the 36 games they played so far.

They were working on their one on one drills, passing drills, deflecting shots and their 4 on 4 drills. They were also working on their power play drills, which is now at 23.2 % in second place in the CHL.

Also today, Jarret Lukin was celebrating a birthday today and a few fans that I was sitting by were singing happy birthday to him. I was also sitting with Darryl Bootland’s dad Chris, who was at practice watching his son and the Americans. The Americans will have a morning skate tomorrow morning before they play against the Rush tomorrow at the Allen Event Center.

Jamie Schaafsma scores the game winner (Photo courtesy of Chip Crail)

Allen, Texas—The Allen Americans who are coming off a dominating 6-2 win over the Tulsa Oilers, looked to extend their win streak to 6 games, against the Rapid City Rush. The first meeting between the Americans and Rush was feisty and very intense after the Americans and Rush swapped forwards Nino Musitelli and Alex Penner in the afternoon.  The Americans did that as they came back in the third period and winning 5-4 against the Rapid City Rush as Jamie Schaafsma scored the game winner with 4:54 to go.

The Americans got goals from Anthony Maiani who scored two goals, Alec Martinez, Jason Deitsch and Jamie Schaafsma . Rapid City got goals from Jesse Schultz who got the hat trick and Rusty Masters.  Aaron Dell stopped 21 out of the 25 shots he faced while Danny Battochio stopped 31 out of the 35 shots he faced.

1^st Period

Just two minutes into the first period, Kip Brennan and Justin Sawyer dropped the mitts as Brennan clearly won the battle. Americans scored the first goal at the 14:10 mark in the first period. The goal was deflected by a Tyler Ludwig shot as Anthony Maiani was in front net as Danny Battochio couldn’t see the shot. That was Maiani’s 10^th goal.

Second fight of the game came at the 12:33 mark in 1^st period with Ryley Grantham and Garrett Gruenke went at it with Grantham winning that battle.

Rapid City Rush tied the game with a two on one as the puck went pass Dell’s glove. The goal was scored by Jesse Schultz which was his 2^nd goal of the season at the 10:16 mark from a beautiful pass by Scott Wray. Americans go up 2-1 at the 5:52 mark from an Alec Martinez blast in which Battochio could not see the goal, going blocker side. That’s Martinez’s first goal as an American.

Rapid City tied the game at 2-2 with a breakaway goal by Jesse Schultz at the 3:45 mark in the first period, which is also his second of the game

2^nd Period

At the 16:24 mark in the 2^nd period, Rapid City went up 3-2 with a beautiful goal by Jesse Schultz who got the hat trick where Aaron Dell didn’t have a chance. Third fight of the game came at the 8:09 mark in the 2^nd period with Anthony Maiani, who also scored dropped the mitts with Jordan Behler went at it.

Four fight of the game as Mike Berube of the Americans went at it with Riley Weselowski of the Rush at the 4:46 mark in the 2^nd period as Weselowski took down Berube. Not with one minute apart, the fifth fight of the game as Garret Clarke went at with Justin Faryna as Clarke clearly won that fight.

The Rapid Rush went up 4-2 with a power play goal with Darryl Bootland in the box for kneeing as Rusty Masters shot the puck and went over Dell’s blocker at the 2:32 mark from a beautiful pass by Jordan Behler. That was Masters’ 6^th goal of the season.

3^rd Period

Americans scored to make it 4-3 Rapid Rush at the 19:32 mark with a power play goal by the captain Jason Deitsch, who scored his 5^th goal of the season from a beautiful pass by Tyler Ludwig.  Then they tied it at 4-4 at 6:07 mark Anthony Maiani with his 2nd goal of the season as he stuffed the goal passed Battochio. Then Jamie Schaafsma who scored his 12^th goal of the season and the game winner from a beautiful pass from Brian McMillin at the at the 4:54 mark to win.

“Yeah obviously it felt great to complete the comeback so Kip made a great play at the blue line and McMillin made a beautiful pass so I just made sure I did my job in part to put it in the net so it was a great feeling,” Schaafsma told me after the game about the game winner.

The next game for the Allen Americans is against Fort Worth at 7:05 on Tuesday.

GAME NOTES

Starting Line Up

Goaltender: Aaron Dell

Defense: Mike Berube & Trevor Ludwig

Forwards: Kip Brennan, Brian McMillan and Ryley Grantham

Americans went 1 for 5 on the power play while Rapid City went 1 for 2 on the power play.

3 STARS OF THE GAME

1. Alec Martinez
2. Jason Deitsch
3. Jesse Schultz (Rapid City)