Do-or-die for Grizzlies, Wranglers

WEST VALLEY CITY — The Utah Grizzlies survived one do-or-die situation on Sunday, and they're faced with another in their quest to get past Las Vegas in the opening round of the Kelly Cup playoffs.

Down 2-1 in its best-of-five series Sunday, Utah came from behind to beat the Wranglers and force a decisive game Tuesday night at the E Center.

All tickets for tonight's contest are $10. Heading into it, the Grizzlies understand that they must win to make Game 4's comeback victory ultimately count.

"We did part of it," said forward James Sixsmith. "We're gonna try to come out like we did in the third (period of Game 4). And if we do, I don't know if there's a team in this league that can compete with us. But it's consistency for us. It's that consistency."

After watching his team fight back in Game 4, Utah coach Kevin Colley echoed Sixsmith's sentiments.

Colley says his guys must bring it from start to finish.

"There's still a lot of room for improvement," said Colley. "The guys did a great job of finding a way to win (in Game 4). Now we need to play a 60-minute game with everybody having that passion and emotion."

Colley confirmed Monday evening that the Grizzlies will have the services of defenseman Jake Gannon Tuesday night. Gannon has been with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL. That addition could prove to be huge for Utah Tuesday night and throughout the rest of the postseason, should the Grizzlies advance.

Besides getting Gannon back, Utah will also attempt to draw strength from what it accomplished in Game 4.

Down 2-1 in the best-of-five series and down 2-1 on the scoreboard Sunday, time was running out on the Grizzlies before they responded with three unanswered goals to come-from-behind and force a winner-take-all Game 5.

"It was a great character win," Sixsmith said after Game 4. "These are the kind of wins that you look back on when you're in the (Kelly Cup) finals and say, 'The third period against Las Vegas propelled us into Game 5.'

"(Now) hopefully we can win Game 5 and everything else will be history."

Colley and company hope to have an energized crowd cheering them on to victory tonight, and they couldn't be happier about the fact that Tuesday night's game is at home.

"That's why you work hard all year — to get to that home ice," said Colley. "Now we got an opportunity to move on to the next round. It's gonna take quite a bit of dedication and sacrifice for 60 minutes."

ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs

Best-of-five

(Series tied 2-2)

Today's game

Las Vegas at Utah, 7 p.m.

e-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com