Jeffrey Lutz’s ECHL Report (Feb. 25)

Comparatively speaking

Allen is the best team in the league this season – but which league?

The Americans have feasted on former Central Hockey League competition, leading an ECHL Central Division that includes six former CHL opponents by 18 points. Allen, though, is 2-3 against teams outside of the division.

It’s a small-enough sample size to prevent conclusions, and all five games were played on the road. But it prompts thoughts on how Allen matches up with the league’s top holdovers such as Toledo and Ontario, which own victories over Allen.

“Some of those teams, like Ontario, are loaded with (American Hockey League)-, NHL-contracted guys, which helps a lot in the salary cap,” Allen coach Steve Martinson said. “Typically, those teams just have a little bit more depth. The good players are the good players. If you’re a top player in the CHL ... a lot of the ECHL scoring leaders came from the CHL.”

The Americans are built similarly to the best ECHL mainstays. Allen has survived defections and callups to five top scorers that could have crippled other teams. Allen, which won the last two CHL championships, reloads with players not in as much danger of being promoted, such as Chad Costello and Gary Steffes.

Four players have played all 51 Allen games, giving the Americans stability in a season of uncertainty.

“You have to have some guys that are playing for you that aren’t looking to be called up,” Martinson said. “I always say that if a guy is good enough to be called up, he’s going to get called up. I’ve had teams where I lost three, four players in the first month of the season for the rest of the year, and it can really change your season. It can kill you.”

It’s useless, at least now, for Allen to think about inter-division teams. They don’t have any remaining on their schedule and they won’t face any in the postseason before they win two series against Central Division teams. Martinson can’t be sure if his team’s current solid footing will exist in two months, either.

“What your roster is in October, what it is in December, February, and then April, I don’t put much into that,” Martinson said. “ ... ECHL rosters fluctuate so much. Playing the teams outside of our division, sometimes it’s about what your roster looks like that week. At least it does for us, because there has been a lot of fluctuation.”

Around the ECHL

▪ Toledo defeated Gwinnett 12-0 in Ohio on Sunday, setting a franchise record for goals and reaching double digits for the first time. The Walleye trail first-place Fort Wayne in the North Division, but have played three fewer games and lead the Eastern Conference with a .745 points percentage.

▪ Former CHL teams feature players who are pacing the league’s scoring. Costello leads the league with 59 assists – 16 more than the next-highest player – and 85 points, while Tulsa’s Adam Pleskach leads the league with 28 goals.

ECHL alumni

Huntington twice set a league futility record during the 1993-94 season, allowing 15 goals to Greensboro in October 1993 before surrendering 16 to Nashville three months later. Jared Bednar had a minus-82 rating that year but managed to carve out a nine-year career during which he reached the AHL for 74 games. Bednar’s career rating was minus-147.

Days gone by

The Carolina Thunderbirds captured the only ECHL championship decided in the 1980s, winning the league’s inaugural title. They did so, though, with as many coaches as the other four teams combined. Four men – Brian Carroll, Joe Selenski, Keith McAdams and Brandon Watson – guided Carolina that season. Watson coached 13 regular-season games before coaching the Thunderbirds in the postseason.

Team profile

Bakersfield, which will join the AHL next season, began as an ECHL expansion franchise in 2003 after moving from the West Coast Hockey League. The Condors tied their best finish by winning two playoff series last season. They are eight points removed from a playoff spot this year.

Key stat: 2

The number of Thunder championships. The teams from 1993-94 and the following season will be inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame on April 18.

He said it

“Twelve goals is pretty crazy. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

– Toledo’s Justin Mercier, following his hat trick Sunday, to the Toledo Blade

This story was originally published February 25, 2015 at 2:06 PM with the headline "Jeffrey Lutz’s ECHL Report (Feb. 25)."