Wildcatters wallop flat Grizzlies

WEST VALLEY CITY — After two strong victories in the E Center against one of the leaders from the ECHL's Atlantic Conference, the Utah Grizzlies tumbled out of the clouds on Saturday, getting clobbered 6-0 in the finale of a three-game visit by the Texas Wildcatters.

Almost nothing the Grizzlies did Saturday night in the E Center seemed to belong with a proper game.

A team that had put the heat on the 32-18-5-4 Wildcatters, who moved back into a first-place tie in the ECHL Atlantic Conference with the win, in the first two games, outscoring Texas 5-3 and 6-2 on Wednesday and Friday, not only couldn't force a goal, it could barely get a shot on goal.

The Grizz managed four shots on goal in each of Saturday's three periods, while the Wildcatters, one of the league-leading shot-taking teams, had 39.

"We had guys that, the first two periods, didn't have shots — our go-to guys," said a puzzled Grizzly coach Jason Christie, noting Utah could have swept one of the two best teams in the other conference if it had put up the kind of effort it did the first two nights.

"Some of our guys that were successful the last two games didn't get shots on them," he said. "That wasn't good. What an ugly display of hockey."

Also strange was that the Grizzlies got into five third-period fights with the Wildcatters, out of Beaumont, Texas.

Why?

It made little sense because it certainly didn't send any messages — this is the first time the two teams have ever played, and they don't meet again this season and may not meet again in years the way the sprawling ECHL schedules are made.

Now, if they'd gotten into fights in the first period when the Grizzlies knew they were flat and needed a boost of adrenaline, it might have been a useful tool. To do it at the end merely dragged out the inevitable and let Texas add a goal.

"It started out we were just flat from the get-go, and it's almost like we were happy with how we played, and it shouldn't be like that," said Christie, surprised that his team didn't know enough to be ready for a team that's one of the elite in the other bracket.

"We have to know that we have to battle every single game, and we didn't have that."

For Texas, Mike Madill and Kevin Baker each had a goal and two assists, and goalie Matt Yeats got the shutout.

The Grizzlies could have moved within two points of fourth — a playoff-qualifying position — in the ECHL West with a win but instead remained mired in last place, four points out, at 21-31-2-3.

"We had something where we could have did well this week, and we end on a tough note like this," Christie said.

And coming up in the second half of this six-game homestand is Bakersfield, 32-13-3-6 and with the same 73 points as the Wildcatters.

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