Grizzlies fail to move into 3rd in ECHL West, drop home game to 'Runners
After going down by four goals to open the game, they finally came back with two scores late, but it was too little too late in a 4-2 loss to the 14-20-3-3 Phoenix Roadrunners on E Center ice.
"The breaks just were not going our way tonight," said Utah coach Jason Christie. "We just couldn't find the back of the net."
Phoenix played like a team wanting to break its five-game losing streak. It broke Utah's two-game win streak, too.
In those two wins, Utah had scored six goals each, with Tyler Haskins getting six goals in the first two games of the series and Ryan Kinasewich added a goal and nine assists through those two.
That combination finally put the Grizzlies on the board at 15:58 of the second period, Kinasewich throwing a cross-slot pass to Haskins on a rush, and Haskins putting in his seventh goal in three games.
Keith Johnson cut the Phoenix lead in half, to 4-2, midway through the third period off a pass from Garett Bembridge after Jordan Hart had hustled the puck out of Utah's defensive zone.
"Give them credit," Christie added about the RoadRunners. "They came out and played well. They played smart."
Christie also noted that Phoenix goaltender Dave McKee was outstanding. Even though Utah got a lot of pressure on him with 48 shots on goal and a lot of traffic, he pitched a shutout for 36 minutes and didn't cave even when Utah found some life.
"The goaltender was square. He didn't give us much," Christie said. "He played a heckuva game."
The coach said the saves that McKee made on Haskins in the first period were big ones and seemed to hurt Utah, keeping the Grizzlies from generating much energy.
"Some guys — a night like tonight is where we need everybody," Christie added, not entirely pleased with the effort.
One guy who tried to get things going was Kazuma Takahashi, linemate to Haskins and Kinasewich, who got into a fight 6:21 into the third period.
"Takahashi, you know what? Give him credit," Christie said. “There was a lot of times where stuff could have happened before and didn't, and Takahashi stepped up and tried getting the team fired up, and it's good to see. He took the initiative to get his team going.
"You do whatever you can to build energy."
Mitch Carefoot scored Phoenix's second and fourth goals, Daniel Siska opened scoring with a power-play goal 6:07 into the game, and Ryan Walsh had the RoadRunners' third goal.
Recent comments
heavenly days boys. let's get it together and play some hockey.
bobby hull | Jan. 22, 2008 at 4:06 p.m.
