Grizzlies hold off Condors
Utah Grizzlies goaltender Mike Mole said he was talking that morning with team captain Travis Rycroft, and they decided after seeing the blue sky that it was, indeed, a new day after their difficult loss in the E Center Thursday night to the Bakersfield Condors.
They told each other, "Let's whitewash yesterday and start fresh here."
Friday night in the E Center against the same Condors, Mole was between the pipes again as coach Jason Christie gave him a chance to rebound after giving up six goals the night before.
"You definitely want a chance to get right back on the horse again," said Mole, who stayed in the saddle well for a 2-1 Utah win Friday night, stopping 23 shots in a much more civilized game than the heavily penalized, free-for-all, 7-6, 26-penalty overtime shootout Grizzly loss of Thursday.
"Last night we realized we made some critical mistakes," said Mole. "We had a lot of turnovers that created a lot of odd-man rushes, and that was something we were really adamant about improving on for tonight, and I thought the guys did a great job eliminating turnovers and odd-man rushes."
"They had a couple odd-man rushes, but that's why we have goalies," Mole said. "It's nice to be able to make the save when the team counts on me. There's games where I make a mistake, and the team has to pick me up. That's why it's a team game."
"I thought he rebounded really well, made some key saves on the penalty kill," said Christie, who said his goalie hadn't played badly Thursday. "Just bounces went a different way."
Utah's Olivier Labelle scored on a power-ply at 7:26 of the first period, but that was matched 22 seconds later by Condor Jason Kostadine. Unlike Thursday when it was goal after goal after goal in the early going, there wasn't another score until Ryan Kinasewich scored short-handed at 12:03 of the second period, and that became the game-winner.
Christie said it was a "blah game. We had to find energy within ourselves, and I thought the guys really came out in the third and worked hard" to preserve the win.
With the win, Utah moved to 27-20-0-5, just two points away from tying Idaho for second place in the ECHL West, while Bakersfield dropped to 15-25-2-7.
The same two clubs play again tonight at 7. The Condors will be without their captain, Sean Venedam, who broke a leg in the final 1:07 Friday after being checked into the boards.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com Grizzlies 2
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