WEST VALLEY CITY — Saturday night's all right for anything if you're the Utah Grizzlies. The Grizzlies improved to 3-0 on Saturday nights and jumped into second place in the ECHL Western Division with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Alaska Aces Saturday night in the E Center.
The victory extended Utah's winning streak to three games and Grizzlies coach Jason Christie credited the play of goaltender Alfie Michaud, who stopped 27-of-29 shots.
"Alfie made some key saves and really kept us in the game. I thought the boys should great character battling back and it was a really great win for us.'
Utah came out flying and dominated the first period, battling hard and peppering 15 shots on the Aces goaltender Chris Beckford-Tseu in the opening frame.
Utah opened the scoring at 12:58 of the first period as Matt Craig netted his seventh goal of the season. Craig pounced on a rebound and swatted a bouncing puck over Beckford-Tseu for a 1-0 lead.
The Aces rebounded in the second period, scoring their first marker of the game after former Grizzly Peter Metcalf hit Alex Leavitt with a 60-foot breakaway pass. Leavitt put a smooth deke on Michaud and roofed a backhander to even the score at one.
The game was punctuated by gritty, physical play and penalty killing units had to be sharp as undisciplined penalties caused several trips to the penalty box for both clubs in the second period.
"Things were a little scary for us there in the second period," Christie said. "We had to fight through some adversity, but we just kept plugging away."
Undisciplined penalties finally caught up with the Grizzlies as a slashing penalty by Jeff Doyle resulted in an Aces power play goal early in the third period. Former Grizzly Barrett Heisten redirected a centering pass past Michaud, snapping Alaska"s dreadful 0 for 15 power play drought and giving the Aces a 2-1 lead.
Utah has made a habit of coming from behind and evened the score with a power play tally of their own less than eight minutes later. Four Utah players entered the Aces zone and Tom Reimann fired an easy-looking wrist shot that beat Beckford-Tseu stick side.
Both goaltenders came up big late in the third period to send the game to overtime. The Grizzlies were able to capitalize on a poor line change by the Aces in the extra frame and Garett Cameron blistered a wrist shot that beat Alaska goaltender Chris Beckford-Tseu on the stick side to give Utah the thrilling overtime victory.
The Grizzlies improved to 5-3 with the victory and hit the road for a three-game swing next weekend, visiting Fresno Nov. 11 followed by games at Long Beach Nov. 12 and 13.
E-mail: rgarner@desnews.com