Utah Grizzlies: Grizz win with huge comeback

WEST VALLEY CITY — Things were going so badly for the Utah Grizzlies in their first-ever ECHL second-round E Center playoff game Thursday night that coach Jason Christie had to swap goaltenders less than five minutes into the second period.

The new goalie, Mike Mole, gave up a score just 39 seconds into his tenure. Utah was down four goals.

But Keith Johnson scored from up the slot at 18:34 of the second period, and he and Ryan Kinasewich combined for another score just 12 seconds later in a stunning play when the Salmon Kings tried to pass to Dylan Yeo, who fell, leaving the puck there for Johnson to catch up to it near the Victoria blue line. Kinasewich put away the 2-on-1, and Utah went into intermission with a chance.

"You've got to capitalize on plays like that," said Johnson.

In all, the Grizzlies scored the final six goals of the game, including an empty-netter that gave Kinasewich a hat trick, and Utah won the game 7-5 to take a two-games-to-one lead in this best-of-seven series with two more home games scheduled for Saturday night at 7 and Sunday afternoon at 4.

Mole had played less than 30 minutes in the last couple of months after spending time sitting the bench in the NHL with the New York Islanders and in the AHL with Bridgeport and then coming back to Utah to find Nathan Lawson the hot guy. But Lawson struggled Thursday.

"I think we really wanted to go out there and just battle for Lawson because he's got us here," said Kinasewich, who also had an assist to tie linemate Johnson with four points for the night while their center, Tyler Haskins, picked up three assists. "Molesy, he's been great, great attitude all along, and he stayed positive, and we wanted to play well for both of them.

"It's the best feeling that I've had this season, and probably in my three years here at the E Center, down 5-1 and just kept clawing and clawing, and we came back, and we're up 2-1 now. It's a great feeling," said Kinasewich, referencing the Grizzlies' playoff slogan, "Clawing towards the cup."

Utah scored two goals in 14 seconds — the Grizzlies' fastest consecutive goals this season — to open the third period, tying the game at 5-5. The Grizz had four goals in four minutes of playing time and five goals in about 8 1/2 minutes in their comeback.

Micheal Haley's game-winner came seven minutes into the third.

"I was just high, and I saw the puck go to (Rob) Sirianni down low," said Haley, "and I knew he was going to throw it to the net. So I just charged the net, and their defenseman got turned around, and luckily the puck was there for me. The puck went in the air, so he was trying to find out where it was, and luckily I never lost track of it."