Allen piling up the points for North Stars

Allen, the speedy winger who has found a home on the North Stars top line, is the only sibling born in the Lone Star State. Both his brothers were born in Canada, where his family is originally from.

But one month before he was born, the family moved down south.

And so, Allen grew up where people didn’t know too much about hockey.

“The definition of growing up with Texans and you say you play hockey was ‘Do you fight?’” Allen said. “They could tell you’re an athlete. ‘Oh, what sports do you play? Baseball? Football?’ And you’re like, ‘Hockey.’ ‘Oh… do you fight a lot?’ It’s like, no.

“They know nothing else.”

Growing up as the youngest of three boys wasn’t easy.

Both siblings would often gang up on him.

“Whenever we’d play hockey, I was always on the short end of the stick,” Allen said. “But I think it helped me out in the long run.

“[Michael] was the one who kind of helped me with my hands…and helped me play defence.”

While in high school, Allen would travel around the country playing with the Dallas Stars Elite U-16 and U-18 teams, which was essentially AAA. Some trips were as far as Boston and Minnesota. They would often leave Thursday night and come back Sunday night, with school the next day.

It meant long hours, juggled with school work, but Allen said it wasn’t too difficult to manage.

“The thing that really helped was my counsellors at school also had both my brothers,” he said. “We kind of went through the same deal. Mine was a little more extreme but theirs was kind of the same, so they understood.

“I’d let [my teachers] know when I was leaving, they’d give me my work ahead of time and I’d get it done and they’d have no problems with it. That’s just how it went.”

Playing competitively in Dallas got him a tryout in the North American Hockey League, the tier-2 junior hockey league in the United States.

But he was ultimately cut last year.

So where would he go?

It turned out he’d be going roughly 3,500 km North to Fort McMurray to play junior A with the Oil Barons.

“After I was cut, I was kind of like, ‘Look at everything and see what there is.’ All I wanted to do was just play hockey,” Allen said. “I made a few calls, [Oil Barons general manager Tom Keca] got back to me. He said he wanted me up there, so I took it. I knew it would be the best option at that point so I just went with it.”

After suiting up for just four games in Fort Mac to start the 2016-17 season, he was traded to the North Stars, where he has now posted 39 points in 38 games. That puts him just outside the top-20 in league scoring and fourth on the team. It also places him second among first-year players.

Playing with all-stars Coby Downs and Layne Young has certainly helped, but it’s not like they’ve been doing it all on their own.

“He’s so crafty with the puck,” North Stars head coach Nate Bedford said of his 5’9” winger. “He can fish with pucks. He can pass pucks through four sticks. He can do little things that other guys can’t do. He’s got an exceptional skill set and he comes about it quietly.”

Allen is on quite the roll at the moment, with 12 points in his last seven games. He said the pace that Downs and Young play at has helped him.

“The speed that they have – that’s the game that I like to play,” he said. “Not really letting the other team know what we’re going to do just because we’re trying to go at such a high pace, that’s what I definitely like about being put on this line.

“With Downs and Younger on [either] side making plays to me, I think they’ve also really helped me be consistent.”

Despite being a smaller player in what can sometimes be a rough and tumble league, Allen hasn’t be affected.

He hasn’t really ever been told he was too small to play, either.

“I’ve always had a lot of speed [so]…people don’t really tell me [I’m too small] that often because I’ve kind of made up for it,” he said. “But I don’t think that way. Especially looking at rosters as you get older and especially in college, there are still small kids. You can never get your hopes down.”

Allen has one more year of junior eligibility left and he fully intends on using it.

College hockey has been a goal of his since he was little and that hasn’t changed. Even if hockey wasn’t involved, college is still the plan.

“I want to go to college just in case hockey doesn’t work out,” he said. “I can get a degree and still have a life after hockey. That’s always been my plan and always been what I was taught.

“I definitely want to finish out the next year of junior. If something was to come up and they wanted me, yeah I I’d take it. But I think another year of junior could really help me.”

Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca
@NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Allen piling up the points for North Stars

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