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AHL Utah Grizzlies

Fast finish not enough for Grizzlies

January 16, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Utah Grizzlies News Release


ROCHESTER, NEW YORK - The Utah Grizzlies road trip mercifully came to an end on Sunday night in Rochester and despite a fantastic finish the Grizzlies fell 3-2 to the Rochester Americans dropping the season series to the first place Amerks three games to one. With the loss, the Grizzlies have dropped nine straight road games and eight straight games overall.

Utah's power play struck for the second consecutive game as Kiel McLeod jammed home a rebound in front of Ryan Miller for his sixth goal of the season and second goal in as many games giving the Grizzlies a 1-0 lead. Jarrod Skalde and Peter White had the assists for Utah. The Amerks outshot the Grizzlies 9-8 in the period as David LeNeveu made nine saves staying sharp (.945 save percentage in his last three games). McLeod's marked the fourth time in four games the Grizzlies had scored the first goal versus the Amerks.

In the second period, Rochester came out strong with LeNeveu standing on his head as the Grizzlies defense scrambled in front of him. Rochester eventually tied the score on the power play with Norm Milley scoring his sixth goal of the season assisted by Nathan Paetsch and Jiri Novotny at 9:40 of the frame. Rochester outshot the Grizzlies 12-8 in the period. The power play goal for the Amerks ended an 0 for 32 drought.

Their was a little bit of everything in the final period as Rochester took their first lead with a goal just 34 seconds into the frame. Chris Thorburn beat Joe Callahan to a loose puck and stepped into a shot that beat LeNeveu for his fifth goal of the season. Jeff Hutchins added to the lead with his first goal of the season on a rebound after LeNeveu had made a solid save on a blast from Geoff Peters. Utah would battle back late in the game with a power play goal by Jarrod Skalde, his sixth goal of the season, assisted by Aaron Gavey and Randall Gelech at 15:30 of the period.

Trailing 3-2, the Grizzlies would be given an opportunity to tie things up as Jason Pominville was called for a major penalty for spearing Keith Ballard giving the Grizzlies 3:47 of power play hockey to finish the game. With 2:44 remaining Milan Bartovic stole a pass and looked to be going in all alone for a shorthanded chance but he was pulled down by Erik Westrum from behind giving Bartovic a penalty shot, the first against Utah this season. Last season, Jason Bacashihua turned aside all five shots he faced and dating back to a Corey Hirsch stop in the 2002-03 season the Grizzlies had stopped six penalty shots in a row and with the Bartovic v. LeNeveu match-up the Grizzlies would once again come out on top as LeNeveu blocked the five-hole keeping the Grizzlies to within a goal and on the power play. With 12 second remaining, Doug Janik was called for a cross-check and with the Grizzlies employing the extra skater they had a six-on-three advantage. Fredrik Sjostrom had the best chance with two seconds remaining on a blast that appeared to be heading for the back of the net but Miller somehow found the puck reaching back to his left for the glove save sealing the victory for Rochester.

Miller finished the night making 28 saves and LeNeveu was solid again fo rthe fourth straight game stopping 34 shots. Utah's power play bounced back with a 2 for 8 performance making them 3 for their last 11. The win for Miller was his league-leading 21st of the season.

The Grizzlies will begin a six-game home stand on Friday night versus the Cleveland Barons. Face-off is scheduled for 7:05 PM (mt).

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