Grizzlies Blank Roadrunners 4-0

by Andrew Nordmeier
February 27, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL)
Phoenix RoadRunners


The Phoenix Roadrunners were a lot like Dave Cousineau's face following Sunday night's game at the US Airways Center. The Phoenix defenseman took a shot, inadvertently deflected off the stick of teammate Shawn Snider, and had the puck smack him just between his nose and lips. Cousineau bled on the ice and left the game when that happened in the third period. It only took a few stitches to close the gash and his teeth were not affected by the dangerous deflection.

For the rest of the team, they must have felt like they took a puck to the teeth when the Utah Grizzlies (32-20-5) scored three goals in the final six minutes of the opening period. Utah was up 3-0 and never looked back en route to a 4-0 drubbing of the 18-31-3 Roadrunners. Utah won the season series 6-3-0 over Phoenix and finished 3-1 against the Roadrunners in Phoenix.

"They didn't show up in the first period. It's that simple," Phoenix Head Coach Ron Filion said, "We took a period off in all three games his weekend and we don't have that kind of team that can rest for twenty minutes and hope to come back. For us to win we have to work 60 minutes."

Utah started the scoring with a Louis Dumont goal on a two-man advantage. Dumont one-timed a pass and zipped the puck past Phoenix netminder Michael Mole at 13:59 to get Utah on the board. Ryan Kinasewich picked up an assist and started on his way to a four-point night for Utah.

Kinasewich picked up a goal of his own, his 30th, when he got around the check of Roadrunner defenseman Paul Ballantyne and slipped the puck under Mole's left pad at 15:53. It became 3-0 when Barrett Ehgoetz found a loose puck from an unintentional centering pass and stuffed it into an empty net as Mole was caught out of position. Phoenix defenseman Brent Henley had a shot to poke it away from the net but barely missed.

Phoenix came out firing in the second period and out shot the Grizzlies 23-10 in the second period and held a 36-22 edge in shots after 40 minutes. Utah netminder Alfie Michaud kept stymieing the Roadrunners' shots. It didn't matter of the shots were slap shots or wristers, screened or unobstructed, deflected or not, Michaud stopped them all. Even despite the high shot count, Michaud was challenged just a handful of times on the night.

"Even a person that knows nothing about hockey could see we were all over them in the final two periods," Filion said about the Roadrunners' 35-16 shot advantage over the final two periods.

Utah's Colt King scored with 17 seconds left in the second period to close out the scoring. Phoenix fired a season-high 48 shots on goal while Utah launched 28 against Mole. The Grizzlies finished 2-of-5 on the power play while Phoenix failed to score on its five tries with the man advantage.

Phoenix starts its own version of March Madness, a month where they have 16 games in 31 days, by traveling to Boise to take on the Idaho Steelheads in a three-game series Wednesday, Friday and Saturday this week.

"Pride for professional athlete means a lot," Filion said about what's left to play for, "If you can't play for that then you can't play pro hockey that's for sure."

Three Stars

3. Dumont-UTA Three-point night for the Grizzlies

2. Kinasewich-UTA Had a hand in on every Utah goal

1. Michaud-UTA 48-save shutout

Notes: Utah is 4-1-1 on its current nine-game road trip but the final three games are against the Alaska Aces...Phoenix is tied with the Stockton Thunder for most losses in the conference...Three of the top four men in penalty minutes played in this game with Brad Herauf at #1, King at #2 and Henley at #4...Utah is 24-6-2 when scoring the first goal; Phoenix allowed it for the 38th time and is 8-27-3 when doing so...This is the third time in as many months Phoenix was shutout twice in a three-game span...Ehogetz finished as a +8 against Phoenix this year but is just even for the season...The Roadrunners finished the weekend 0-for-16 on the power play...Phoenix finished the month 4-7-0, its fifth straight losing month...Phoenix is 4-9-0 when outshooting opponents this season...Attendance was 3,758.



ECHL Stories from February 27, 2006


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