Grizz goalie gets shutout

WEST VALLEY CITY — It's tough jumping very high with 15 pounds of goalie equipment weighing you down, especially after 60 minutes of hockey. That didn't stop Grizzlies goalie Jason Bacashihua from nearly jumping through the E Center roof Friday night.

As soon as the final horn sounded on Utah's 2-0 win over the Houston Rampage, Bacashihua leapt off the ice as high as humanly possible.

"Right from the get-go the guys we're playing great in front of me," said Bacashihua.

While his teammates occupied themselves with a typical postgame shoving match, Bacashihua took the opportunity to skate to the back of the net and retrieve the puck from his first professional shutout.

For a player who's resembled an all-star goalie at times while recording 45-plus saves three separate times, was coach Don Hay surprised it took his rookie goalie so long to record a clean sheet?

"Not the way our team plays. We give up some pretty good scoring chances," said Hay.

Utah is surrendering an AHL high 37.2 shots per game. Knowing that, Bacashihua's 30-save victory Friday seemed somewhat simple.

In a sense it was until the third period. Thanks to second-period goals by Eric Landry and Steve Gainey, both via assists from Greg Hawgood and Jim Montgomery, the Grizzlies enjoyed a two-goal edge entering the third period.

Up until the final two minutes, Bacashihua wasn't forced into that many spectacular saves. Then Eric Chouinard and John Erskine were penalized within 10 seconds of each other, and San Antonio quickly called a timeout to pull its goalie and organize the ensuing 6-on-3 power play.

The Rampage's Serge Payer bailed the Grizzlies out slightly by recording a silly cross-checking penalty 10 seconds later. Nonetheless, Bacashihua still had plenty of work ahead of him before earning that elusive shutout

"We have to be a little better at knowing what the score is, especially with two minutes left in the game," said Bacashihua.

Bacashihua made a few great saves in the waning seconds to preserve the shutout. Not bad for a player who should've been on the bench.

All season Hay has rotated goalies between Bacashihua and Corey Hirsch. Bacashihua won Wednesday's game, so it should've been Hirsch's turn to start. However, with Hirsch set to join Team Canada at the Spengler Cup in Switzerland on Dec. 26-30, Hay wanted to give his rookie some experience playing back to back games.