Kinasewich points Grizzlies past Ice Dogs

In a game punctuated by penalties and fights, the Utah Grizzlies were able to capitalize on Long Beach's inability to convert on a power-play and held on to defeat the Ice Dogs 4-2 Wednesday night at the E Center.

Ryan Kinasewich led Utah, managing to get a piece of each of the Grizzlies goals, assisting on three and scoring the opener. Kinasewich got the early goal on a power play at the 18:01 mark of the first period off an assist by Andy Sertich.

The Ice Dogs evened the score up later in the first with short-handed goal by Bo Cheesman.

The first half of the rough second period featured multiple penalties on both teams and the first fight of the night. Utah's Gordon Burnett and Long Beach's Stuart Kerr each got five minutes in the penalty box for a prolonged fight with 12:20 left in the second.

Brad Herauf scored a Utah goal off a Kinasewich assist at the 6:04 mark in the second to give the Grizzlies the lead.

In the third period, West Valley City native DJ Jelitto gave the Grizzlies a 3-1 lead with 8:59 remaining off another Kinasewich assist.

Rob McVicar blocked a flurry of Long Beach shots in the middle of the third period when the Ice Dogs had a 5-3 advantage to secure the lead for the Grizzlies. Herauf and Long Beach's David Walker got sent to the showers for squaring off in the second fight of the night with 2:56 remaining in the game.

Brandon Schwartz picked the corner to sneak one by McVicar with under a minute remaining in the game to close the gap for the Ice Dogs, but Utah's Joel Irving put the game out of reach once again by scoring an empty net goal for the Grizzlies with five seconds left.

Utah converted 1 of 5 power-plays on the night, while Long Beach went 0 of 8 .

Mike Brown blocked 20 out of 24 for the Ice Dogs, while McVicar stopped 23 of 25 shots for the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies and Ice Dogs face off again Friday night and Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. at the E Center.

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