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Playoff clinch put on hold for one night, Reber nets lone Thunder goal)

March 10, 2012 - ECHL (ECHL) Stockton Thunder

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah - Prospect Mitch Wahl scored one goal and added two assists to help the Utah Grizzlies defeat the Stockton Thunder (30-26-5, 65 points), 4-1, before 5,515 fans at Maverik Center on Friday night.

The Thunder earned a tie for a Kelly Cup Playoff berth after Bakersfield lost in a shootout, 2-1 at Idaho. The Thunder can seize an outright clinch tomorrow if they win, lose in overtime or in a shootout or if Bakersfield loses.

Matt Reber had the only Thunder goal, scoring in his return to Maverik Center for the first time since he left Utah via a trade in January. Andrew Engelage earned the win with 30 saves.

"We didn't have our legs tonight, but we did an equal amount of poor things when we did make a good play," said Thunder head coach Matt Thomas. "I thought it was a slow game for the first 40 minutes and we had an opportunity to take over by keeping things simple. Hopefully with a better effort and better focus, we'll see more out of everybody tomorrow."

Utah went up 1-0 on Ross Carlson's second goal of the year with 7:55 left when he capitalized off a broken play and stashed a wrist shot under the crossbar from the left circle.

Reber retaliated to tie the game, 1-1 at the 8:37 mark of the second period. He corralled Gabriel Levesque's saucer pass at the right wing, raced behind the Utah defense and beat Engelage with a wrist shot from the right circle.

Following a Thunder turnover at center ice, Wahl restored the Utah lead at 2-1 with 5:40 left in the period when he buried a rebound at the left post, following Thomas Heemskerk's stop on Kory Falite from the slot.

Utah entered the game at a 2-of-35 skid on the power play but came to life with back to back man advantage goals in the third period, extending their lead to 3-1 on Colin Vock's fluke deflection at the goal mouth with 12:22 remaining.

Following a boarding penalty to Cameron Brodie, a slapshot by Ryan Turek from the high slot lifted the Grizzlies to a 4-1 advantage with 5:12 left in regulation.

Heemskerk took the loss with 33 saves.

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