Grizz win 9th straight, tie franchise record

WEST VALLEY CITY — With a seven-game road swing through the cream of the ECHL's Western Division staring the Utah Grizzlies in the face, the Grizzlies, who are a big part of that cream mixture, overcame what their coach called "a shaky game" Thursday night.

Utah, now 11-3, won for the ninth straight time to tie a 10-year-old franchise record and avoid turkeying out on Thanksgiving night in the E Center.

Utah stayed one step ahead of the Stockton Thunder (3-5-2) all night, but just one step ahead each time, to complete its homestand with a 5-4 win.

The victory put Utah into first place overall in the ECHL with 22 points to 21 for Idaho, which is its first stop on this long road swing.

Grizzly rookie Matt Craig had posted a goal and two assists to move into a tie for seventh place among ECHL scorers with 18 for the season, and linemate Barret Ehgoetz had a goal and an assist.

But Stockton kept coming back and tied it at 4-4 at 13:35 of the third period.

The Grizzlies, however, wouldn't be undone. Nine seconds later, high-scoring defenseman Tom Reimann picked up his second assist on the night's most important goal, sending Garett Cameron in on relief goalie Jake Moreland with a partial breakaway score that stood up for the win.

"It's different because we're going on a long road trip here, so we wanted to get these ones at home," said Craig about the way Utah kept knocking Stockton down each time it rose up to tie, which was on every goal the Grizzlies got except the last one.

"We were just looking to win these home games and then look forward toward this road trip," said Craig.

"We just keep plugging away, just sticking together as a team just doing the little things. We're handling adversity pretty well right now. A couple of their goals they had, we responded right away, just things like that."

Coach Jason Christie said his players felt that urgency to put this one in the bank. "The way they responded after the goals, yeah," he said. "They kept battling. We've got a lot of energy going, and we've got to make sure we keep it up.

"Give the guys credit, they found a way to come back. After two goals (Stockton) scored, we come back and scored," Christie added. The Ehgoetz goal came some 90 seconds after the Thunder's first score to hold Stockton's enthusiasm in check.

Added Christie, "It was a good effort by Cameron to get open on that last one and a good pass by Reimann. Reimann just caught their 'D' kind of standing there and got in behind them.

Utah is not home again until Dec. 10, when it hosts a new old foe, the San Diego Gulls, for a two-game set before leaving again for two at Idaho. The old Salt Lake Golden Eagles and the old Gulls sparred regularly in the 1970s.