Las Vegas, Nevada - The Las Vegas Wranglers (6-6) jumped up 1-0 fifty seconds into the game and built on a 2-0 third period lead to defeat the Utah Grizzlies (6-4) 4-0 Thursday night at the Orleans Arena.Utah was unable to get any shots to go as they fired 37 attempts on Wranglers goaltender Michael Ouzas who earned the shutout. In the process, the Grizzlies had their three-game winning streak snapped against Las Vegas to start the season as their bid for their sixth-straight win at the Orleans Arena was also diffused. Utah's five-game road winning streak to start the year came to a halt in the 60-minute defeat as well.
Trailing 1-0, the Grizzlies were awarded a four-minute power-play 3:17 into the opening frame as AJ Perry had blood drawn on a Las Vegas high-stick. Utah was unable to even the score on that early power-play, before Robbie Bina came out of the penalty box and drove towards the net to put the Wranglers up 2-0, 7:25 into the first.
Following some strong midgame goaltending by Parker Van Buskirk and four strong outings by Utah on the penalty-kill, including 90 seconds down five-on-three, the Grizzlies had a chance going down the stretch in the third period as they still trailed 2-0. However, crashing the net at 7:21 of the third, Chris Neiszner found the back of the net to put the Wranglers up 3-0. They added an empty-net goal with 1:11 left in the game to make it 4-0.
Ryan Kinasewich led the Grizzlies with ten shots on goal, James Sixsmith had five. Van Buskirk stopped 21 of 24 shots overall in the contest.
The Grizzlies and Wranglers meet again Friday in Las Vegas. Face-off is scheduled for 8:05 p.m.
Utah returns home to start a ten-game home stand Saturday when they will host Las Vegas at 7:05 p.m.
• Discuss this story on the ECHL message board...
• Digg this story
• Add to Del.icio.us
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.