Allen And Missouri Meet In 27th Game 7 In CHL History

The Bud Poile Governors Cup winning Allen Americans (number one seed) and the Missouri Mavericks (number five seed) will meet tonight in the 27th Game 7 in CHL playoff history. The final game of their Conference Semifinals series will face-off at 7:05 PM (CT) at the Allen Event Center.

This marks the third Game 7 in the Americans history and they are unbeaten with series wins over the Laredo Bucks and the Odessa Jackalopes, both in 2010. The Game 7 victory over Laredo came in the Conference Semifinals on home ice by a 4-1 score and the Game 7 victory over Odessa was in the Conference Finals on the road by a 4-2 score. The Americans proceeded on to the CHL Finals that year falling in six games to the Rapid City Rush, Allen's lone Finals appearance.

For the Mavericks, it marks the second straight postseason that they are one win away from the Finals. Last year, Missouri lost in the only Game 7 in their franchise history in the Conference Finals to the eventual Champs, the Fort Wayne Komets, by a 6-4 score.

The Americans defeated Missouri 8-4 in Game 4 of this series taking a three games to one lead but the Mavericks rebounded to tie Game 5 with just 30 seconds remaining and then win the game staying alive by notching the game winner just 34 seconds into overtime. Andrew Courtney scored both of those goals and then followed that up with a hat trick in Missouri's 6-2 Game 6 win on Monday night in Allen. Courtney has scored five of the last eight Missouri goals.

In series clinching games, the Americans are 5-4 in their history (includes 0-2 this season) and the Mavericks are 4-3. In elimination games, the Americans are 5-3 in their history and the Mavericks are 6-3 (includes 2-0 this season).

The winner of tonight's game will face the Wichita Thunder in the Ray Miron Presidents' Cup Finals.

Game 7 Notes:

There have been 26 previous Game 7's in the 21 year history of the CHL (this is the first Game 7 this year)

Allen is 2-0 all-time (1-0 at home, vs. Laredo, and 1-0 on the road, vs. Odessa)

Missouri is 0-1 all-time (losing on the road last year in Fort Wayne)

The home team is 17-9

The road team has won two of the last three

There have been two shutouts (Colorado 1-0 over Rapid City in 2011 and Indianapolis 3-0 over Columbus in 2000)

There have been five overtime games with the last one being a 2-1 win by Arizona over Corpus Christi in 2007

The home team is 2-3 all-time in Game 7 overtime games

There have been 11 one-goal games with the road team going 6-5 in the close ones

There have been 10 games decided by three goals or more with the home team going 8-2

***stats do not count two all-time WPHL Game 7's (El Paso over Odessa in 2001 by a 5-2 count and El Paso over New Mexico in 1998 by a 5-0 count, both El Paso wins were on home ice)

Conference Semifinals (best-of-7)

Missouri Mavericks vs. Allen Americans

Game 1 - Sun., Apr. 14 - Missouri 5 at Allen 1

Game 2 - Mon., Apr. 15 - Missouri 1 at Allen 4

Game 3 - Wed., Apr. 17 - Allen 3 at Missouri 2 (OT)

Game 4 - Fri., Apr. 19 - Allen 8 at Missouri 4

Game 5 - Sat., Apr. 20 - Allen 2 at Missouri 3 (OT)

Game 6 - Mon., Apr. 22 - Missouri 6 at Allen 2

Game 7 - Tue., Apr. 23 - Missouri at Allen, 7:05 PM CT