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Utah Grizzlies

Grizzlies Win 5-4 After Digging 4-0 Hole

January 31, 2012 - ECHL (ECHL)
Utah Grizzlies News Release


West Valley City, Utah - The Utah Grizzlies battled back from a 4-0 deficit to defeat the Idaho Steelheads 5-4 in a shootout Monday night at Maverik Center.

Utah trailed 4-0 with 3 minutes left in the second period before a Nick Tuzzolino (6) power-play goal made it 4-1 going to the second intermission.

Late in the third, Utah made it 4-2 with 5:30 left and tied the game 2:45 later capping off three-straight goals with 2:45 left in regulation. Mitch Wahl (8,9) scored two of the three goals, with the first coming as he picked up a puck in front and went point blank on Idaho goaltender Jerry Kuhn. The tying goal came as he navigated through traffic from the blue line and drove towards the net. Logan MacMillan (4) made it 4-3 as he hammered in a puck 28 seconds after the Grizzlies made it 4-2 and then won an offensive zone face-off.

"The battle back is positive," said Grizzlies Head Coach Kevin Colley. "We need to start the games quick and get teams back on their heels instead of redeeming ourselves and trying to fight back. But, we haven't had a comeback game like this in a long long time and you can definitely build on this as a team. The guys fought until the very end and we got the two points in the shootout. It's another learning tool that we have to put under our cap for the future."

The Grizzlies battled turnovers and sloppiness as Idaho built a 4-0 lead 11:08 into the second period with the fourth goal coming shorthanded off of the stick of a Utah skater and rolling into the net. At that point, things looked bleak for Utah.

Tied at 4, Andrew Engelage made several big saves late to force the game to overtime, where he made five more saves and stopped all four Idaho looks in the shootout. Kory Falite scored in round four for Utah and Paul McIlveen finished the game off in the top of round five to end the game.

Utah had a season-high of 55 shots on goal, and were just five shots away from their all-time team high.

Wahl had two goals and one assist and Paul McIlveen had two assists as Grizzlies with multiple-points.

Utah continues their five-game home stand Friday and Saturday with Ontario. Face-off each night is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

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