Last night the Mavericks took the Allen Americans to the woodshed in a 6-2 victory that was full of physicality. The first period saw very little action, but the scoring flurry began in the second period. The game was rife with cheap shots, mainly thrown by Allen player Garrett Clarke. Clarke ended up receiving a match penalty for spearing in the second period and was ejected from the game. In total, both teams were assessed 56 Penalty Minutes. KC was a perfect 7-for-7 on the Penalty Kill and went 3-for-5 on the Power Play.

Honestly, the first period was not much to write about other than Kansas City receiving a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, I did not see it occur but I heard some people say players on the bench were yelling. Do what you want with that information. The period ended with Kansas City on the penalty kill for a boarding call on Cliff Watson. The shot count was KC with 11 and Allen with 6.

The game really took off in the second period. The Americans started the period with 51 seconds of power play time. Rocco Carzo won the opening faceoff and the puck went back and forth several times before a stoppage in play. Then the Mavericks were assessed a team penalty for a faceoff violation and Greg Betzold had to serve the 2-minute penalty. The Mavericks were faced with a short 5-on-3 situation. They managed to kill them both off!

Play went on for only 49 seconds until Allen’s Dalton Thrower was called for hooking. The Mavericks were not solid on this power play, their passing was sloppy, they didn’t manage any shots on goal, and produced 1 turnover. Allen killed their penalty and the Mavericks had some trouble composing themselves. Allen was able to get a few shots on goal but nothing stuck.

While this was happening, Garrett Clarke got away with a blatant trip on Rocco Carzo. Then the floodgates opened. Willie Raskob fed the puck to Rocco who got the puck on net but was kicked away. Then David Dziurzynski, who by the way was playing in his 500th Professional game, put the rebound away. The crowd exploded! 28 seconds later the Mavericks entered the zone, and Carzo passed the puck to Cliff Watson who let a beautiful slap shot go and the puck went in! Steve Garrett hadn’t had time to finish announcing the previous goal when this happened.

Off the next faceoff, Allen made a rush on the Mavericks net and a player fell on top of Ben Halford. Rocco Carzo reached down to pull him off and apparently that constitutes holding as he was sent to the box for 2 minutes. The Mavericks penalty kill continued to be solid. The Mavericks killed the penalty, and as Rocco left the box, C.J. Eick let off a beautiful stretch pass to Rocco who got a breakaway and scored a beautiful goal on Jeremy Brodeur. When I say the crowd erupted, I mean it. I was jumping up and down. Rocco is having a fantastic year and is playing some of the best hockey of his career.

About 4 minutes later at 15:33, Allen received both a slashing penalty and an Unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Mitch Maloney was called for slashing, and Jacob Doty was caught face washing a Maverick. The Mavericks made them pay, Cliff Watson scored his second of the night on the power play at 17:22 with an assist from Greg Betzold.

After this goal is when all hell broke loose. First, Jacob Doty threw a huge late hit on Zach Fischer but there was no call. Then, Allen managed to grab a quick goal off a slapshot from Zach Pochiro, but in the ensuing chaos afterwards is where this game took on a whole different light. Resident scumbag Garrett Clarke speared Zach Fischer who subsequently slashed him back and threw his helmet down yelling. There was a huge scrum in front of the benches with a lot of yelling and shoving.

Clarke was assessed a match penalty plus a 5-minute major for spearing and was ejected from the game. Fischer received a 10-minute Game Misconduct plus a 2-minute minor for slashing. Both players went to the dressing room. It isn’t an Allen vs KC game without Garrett Clarke being escorted to the dressing room by a referee. The rest of the period was played 4-on-4 with nothing more of note happening. At the end of the period the score stood at 4-1 in favor of Kansas City with the shot count being 23 for KC and 14 for Allen.

The third period started with 4-on-4 for about 50 seconds. The Mavericks’ penalty expired and they had a power play for 3 minutes. As Allen was serving a major penalty, even if the Mavericks score, Allen still serves the rest of the penalty. The Mavericks made quick work of this opportunity when Willie Raskob let off a slap shot from the point and it sailed right past Jeremy Brodeur. The goal came at 2:04 with assists from Rocco Carzo, and Jared Van Wormer. Rocco Carzo now had 4 points on the night! At this point, Allen pulled Jeremy Brodeur and replaced him with rookie goaltender Kyle Hayton. Jeremy Brodeur’s father is Martin Brodeur, the winningest goaltender of all time. Now Jeremy has a record of 0-8-0-0 and was pulled from yet another minor league hockey game. Making Dad proud.

The Mavericks continued their power play and at 3:12 David Dziurzynski scored a beautiful goal right from the edge of the crease. He had assists from Jared Van Wormer, and his brother Darian Dziurzynski. This would be the last Mavericks goal of the game, but then the Mavericks defense kicked into gear. The Mavericks started completely clogging the neutral zone to the point that Allen could barely leave their zone let alone get very far into the neutral zone. It was really something to see, and Allen was getting VERY frustrated.

At 13:40, an Allen player ran over Ben Halford. While Ben was down and struggling to get up, Allen scored on a shot from Mike Gunn. John-Scott Dickson was rightfully incensed over the fact that this goal wasn’t disallowed for goaltender interference. Honestly, Halford had no way of stopping it. This was way too little, too late for Allen as it didn’t produce any sort of momentum. There would be no more goals in this game but the cheap shots didn’t stop.

Jacob Doty kept throwing heavy hits, and the most egregious was when Josh Thrower started pursuing C.J. Eick who is easily a foot-and-a-half shorter than Thrower. Thrower knocked him down several times when C.J. didn’t have the puck (no calls for interference) and threw a very hard crosscheck right at C.J.’s neck, also no call. Right after this, Allen player Joel Chouinard went full on Dr. Hook McCracken and started swinging his stick wildly at Mavericks players. Somehow out of this exchange the refs decided to penalize Darian Dziurzynski for slashing. There were only 13 seconds left though so this really made no difference. This is going to be a point of contention tonight. Right as the horn sounded, an Allen player threw a heavy chop of the stick I didn’t get a good look at who was involved. The game ended with a final score of Mavericks 6, Allen 2! As the teams left the ice, the referees had to stand between them as they went to their dressing rooms.

The Mavericks played a fantastic game and for the most part stayed out of the muck that Allen was trying to pull them into. Tonight, is their second matchup, and things are going to be explosive. Weekend series against Allen almost always end in fisticuffs and sparks flying. The amount of cheap shots that Allen threw in this game will provide plenty of fuel to that fire. The Mavericks were able to make quick work of an Allen team that for the first time in their history is occupying a basement position in the league. Allen is desperate and it shows.

Three Stars

Rocco Carzo: With 4 points on the night, and one of the prettiest goals I’ve seen in 10 seasons of Mavericks hockey, the Captain gets the night’s first star.

David Dziurzynski: Playing in his 500th professional game, David had 2 goals and was a huge physical presence.

Cliff Watson: Cliff also scored 2 goals and had a huge night!

For old time’s sake, here are some highlights of what typical games against Allen look like.

The infamous fight between Colt King and Garrett Klotz

Allen’s goalie Mark Guggenberger tripped Mac in 2014. This made it onto SportsCenter’s Not Top 10 list that week! What a scumball move!

The Mavericks and Allen Americans in their natural habitat!