Salmon Kings Storm Back To Down Grizzlies

Published on April 27, 2008 under ECHL (ECHL)
Victoria Salmon Kings News Release


Victoria, BC - The Salmon Kings kicked off Sunday night with Game 2 of their Best-of-Seven National Conference Semi-Final Series against the Utah Grizzlies. Friday night's game saw the Grizzlies win 6-0 to take a 1-0 series lead.

The Salmon Kings came out strong against Utah spurred on by a crowd of 5,413 fans. A ton of back-and-forth action occurred on both ends. Supreme passing providing a number of scoring chances as both teams were flying up-and-down the ice. Then during four-on-four play, Utah's Tyler Haskins was sent in on a breakaway. He was tripped up and was awarded a penalty shot. Haskins came in on the penalty shot and faked going to the forehand only to flip a backhand past Kings' netminder Julien Ellis for the 1-0 lead with just less than two minutes left in the first period.

The Salmon Kings came out strong and controlled the play for most of the second period of play, but Grizzlies' goaltender Nathan Lawson continued to stymie the Kings. With a minute left in the second period, a stretch pass from Lawson led to a breakaway attempt for Grizzlies, but Ellis stopped the shot dead with a glove save. At the end of 40 minutes the score remained 1-0 Utah.

The third period saw the Kings' finally get the puck past Lawson after going scoreless for the previous five periods. On the power play, Jacob Dietrich scored his first goal of the night and in the playoffs as he came in hard on the right side accepted a past from Ash Goldie and slapped it past Lawson. Milan Gajic drew the other assist that helped put the Kings on the board for the first time in the series. The Salmon Kings took the lead when Wes Goldie took a pass from Patrick Coulombe and cut through the slot area pulling Lawson from his left to the right. The Kings' sniper then slide the puck back to the left beating Lawson to notch the Salmon Kings second goal of the night. Minutes later Wes Goldie was sent in on a breakaway. The Utah defender tripped Goldie from behind and was awarded a penalty shot, but Goldie shot wide on the attempt to keep the game at 2-1.

Shortly after the Kings knocked in their third goal of the night when Ash Goldie stole the puck and blasted up the right side firing the puck into the Grizzlies net. Milan Gajic's one-time shot from the top of the left circle staked the Kings to a 4-1 lead. Wes Goldie hammered the puck from the blue line past Lawson, lifting the score to 5-1. Jacob Dietrich planted the puck in the Grizzlies' net for the Kings' sixth goal on the night and of the period. Victoria's six-goal third period matches the record for most goals in a single period in Kelly Cup Playoff history, and marked the first time since Mississippi accomplished the feat on May 28, 1999. The final score was Salmon Kings 6 Grizzlies 1. Victoria who went 2/5=40% on the power play and Utah went 0/3=0%. Shots on goal were 27-21 Victoria.

Victoria now travels to Utah for the next three games of the Best-of-Seven National Conference Semi-Final Series. The first game goes on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. from the E-Center. Catch all the action on the B2 Networks by logging onto www.salmonkings.com. If sixth and seventh games are necessary they will be play at the Save-on-Foods Memorial centre on May 6th and 7th.

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