Sports stats



ECHL Utah Grizzlies

Grizzlies, IceCats End in Deadlock

December 20, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Utah Grizzlies News Release


Worcester, Massachusetts - The Grizzlies looked to get back on track Friday night after the largest offensive output against in the franchises' history occurred on Wednesday night in Hartford (10-6 loss to the Wolf Pack). However, when all was said and done Utah could only muster a point in a 3-3 tie with Worcester. The point was good enough to pull Utah into a first place tie with the Houston Aeros with 34 points.

Utah started the scoring when Eric Chouinard would keep his hot hand blasting a shot from just inside the far circle past Worcester goaltender Curtis Sanford giving Utah the 1-0 lead. Worcester would come back with a goal by Igor Valeev tying the score at one goal apiece. The IceCats would get a power play goal late in the period when Eric Nickulas would bang away a rebound past Corey Hirsch giving Worcester their first lead of the night 2-1 which is where the first period would end.

The second period saw the Grizzlies pick up with a tight-checking strong defensive game. Hard work behind Sanford by both Marc-Andre Thinel and David Gosselin freed up Jim Montgomery in the slot for his ninth goal of the season. The score was tied at two goals apiece after two periods.

The third period saw a pair of power play goals one by each team as John Pohl scored his 14th goal of the year regaining the one-goal lead for the IceCats but a redirection by Montgomery for his second goal of the night would tie the game once again and it would stay tied after regulation sending the game to overtime. Greg Hawgood assisted on Montgomery's goal extending Hawgood's point streak to seven-consecutive games (1-8-9).

In the overtime Chouinard would have a great chance for the Grizzlies with a breakaway with less than 17 seconds remaining but Sanford made the save preserving the tie for Worcester.

Each team generated 34 shots on net with each goaltender making 31 saves. Utah went 1 for 6 on the power play and Worcester went 2 for 4.

Check out the Utah Grizzlies Statistics

• Discuss this story on the ECHL message board...

ECHL Stories from December 20, 2002


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.

OurSports Central