Wranglers shut out Grizz

WEST VALLEY CITY — After a week's rest for the All-Star break, the Grizzlies were poised Friday to clash with the Las Vegas Wranglers and get back into the true spirit of hockey — fighting.

It took exactly three seconds for the fireworks to begin as the Grizzlies' Travis Rycroft assaulted a Wrangler on the opening face-off and hostilities were under way. This was a hard-fought game. But the Wranglers emerged with a 1-0 victory, and Grizzly coach Jason Christie was so drained he looked like he had been on the ice himself. And he wasn't happy. "You can't score if you don't get shots," said Christie.

Utah had a number of power plays and in the first two periods the Griz could hardly get off a shot, let alone score. It wasn't until the third period they finally outshot the Wranglers, ending up only three behind on a 35-32 count for the game.

The goalies for both teams were the heroes in this game. For the Wranglers, Kevin Lalande pitched a shutout. Utah's Michael Mole stopped 34 of 35 shots, and he said on the play in which Las Vegas scored, there was a big scramble in front of the net and "it's hard to pick up the puck in that situation." He added, "They are a strong team and sometimes you just don't get the bounces."

Christie blamed that goal on a turnover but then he credited Las Vegas: "They did a good job pressuring us," he said.

It seemed ironic this was a defensive battle after last week when Tyler Haskins recorded two hat tricks and both he and Ryan Kinasewich were named ECHL co-players of the week. And Justin Bourne notched two points in the ECHL All-Star game earlier this week.

But Haskins and Kinasewich were both kept in check with strong physical play by the Wranglers.

After the opening fight, the crowd was into the contest, but no amount of cheering helped the Griz to score. No penalties were meted out on that initial incident, and the Griz got the first power play at the16:15 mark but failed to cash in. Adam Cracknell registered the only goal of the game for the Wranglers at the 5:03 mark of the first period.

This game marked the end of a six game home stand for the Grizzlies and they left immediately after the game for Las Vegas where the same two teams will meet tomorrow night.

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