The Utah Grizzlies have been living on borrowed time. "Four of our last six games," said coach Butch Goring, "we really haven't played very well. We've made very poor efforts and fortunately found ways to win, but it really has not been because we played well.
"We'd better wake up pretty soon, or we won't have to wake up. It's as simple as that," said Goring, admittedly shocked and frustrated over perhaps the most lackluster effort in those six games Thursday night at the Delta Center.The Las Vegas Thunder made Utah pay for recent hockey sins, winning 6-2.
Tuesday, Utah beat Vegas 6-3 in a game that was more like 4-3, with two goals starting with an empty-netter 10 seconds apart in the last minute, Utah's fifth straight win over its rival.
Thursday, it was more like 8-2 than 6-2. "We got out-worked on every shift, and we deserved to lose," said Goring. "We can't even make excuses. We got a team that came in here short-handed and wanted to win a heckuva lot more than we did."
Goring's been distressed with his team's play since March 28 when it completed a two-game road swing to Houston and Vegas with short-handed wins, but he said he never saw this meltdown coming. "No, not at all. I'm really surprised. Actually, I'm a little shocked at the way we played tonight. After we played as poor a game as we did the other night, I thought we'd come out and play a very strong, very solid hockey game, and we didn't," he said.
Utah (42-32-6-90) could have clinched home-ice advantage for the first playoff round even with a shootout loss Thursday. Now it has just two regular-season games left (hosting Western Conference leader Long Beach (114 points) Saturday and at No. 2 San Antonio Sunday) to do it. Utah hoped to pass No. 3 Houston (92 points, two games left) and still could, but now there's almost as much chance of ending up fifth and starting the playoffs on the road.
Thunder Martin Gendron, the IHL's No. 3 goalscorer, was scoreless and -4 Tuesday. He had two goals and an assist to lead Vegas Thursday. His power-play tally at 14:01 of the first period was his 46th goal this season. Thunder leading scorer Patrice Lefebvre set the tone for the game 5 1/2 minutes later when he stripped Grizz captain Gord Dineen of the puck in the Grizz defensive zone for a short-handed goal. Vegas scored two each period and led 4-0 after two. Utah only had nine shots on goal in those two periods.
Utah's Chris Taylor finally solved Thunder goalie Parris Duffus on a power play 2:48 into the third period, rebounding a ricochet of a shot from the point by Yan Kaminsky that hit Vegas' Kevin Dahl. Duffus made that save, but Taylor made the put-back. It wasn't a turning point.
Steve Bancroft stepped to the puck out of the penalty box, passed to Gendron and received a drop pass that he rapped in off a goalpipe. Less than 11/2 minutes later, Thunder Rick Judson swooped in for a wrister using Grizz defender Jeff Sirkka as a screen for a 6-1 lead.
Beaupre thwarted a Gendron hat-trick attempt, coming out to poke-check the puck to Grizz defenseman Jeff Sharples, playing his first game since a March 15 injury. He hit Ray Whitney for a triple-deke goal in the slot 15:01. Beaupre, in his third game since joining the Grizz, got a rare goalie assist on the play, but few of those who booed him at 4-0 were left to cheer then.