WEST VALLEY CITY — The Utah Grizzlies' Pat Conacher is one of the most patient coaches around, but Wednesday night after a 5-3 loss to Houston in the E Center, Conacher spent a good amount of time yelling at his team - something he very rarely does despite having the AHL's last-place team.
"It's unacceptable," he said upon coming out of the locker room with a calm demeanor but still annoyed at what he considered a lack of effort from the Grizzlies.
What perhaps made it worse was that the Grizzlies had gotten four of six available standings points on their recent road trip. "I was so proud of our team," Conacher said.
Then the Grizzlies came home to barely go through the motions.
Even though there's only 11 days left in their season, Conacher reminded his team in the clubhouse that other organizations are still watching them and don't want players that quit.
And, "I can't accept when you don't try. That tonight, that was awful," Conacher said.
"I don't have a (practice) drill for trying."
Utah finishes the home season Friday and Saturday when the Grand Rapids Griffins visit, 7 p.m. each night. Its 11th season as a franchise, 10th in Utah, will end with four road games.
Conacher wasn't even happy with the first period, in which Utah built a 2-1 lead and had more shots on goal.
"They weren't very good yet," he said of the Aeros. "We had an opportunity to get better, and we got worse."
Utah was outshot 16-5 in the second period despite having three power plays and came out with a 2-2 tie.
A Houston penalty bonanza at 7:19 of the third period pretty left Utah little time for offense as the Grizzlies received both a holding minor and a high-sticking major at the same time, giving the Aeros a 5-on-3 for a couple minutes and three more minutes of major. Houston scored with about a minute left on the major when Jeremy Reich raced to a loose puck that caromed off the defense and put it in going to the goal.
Utah's Kiel McLeod one-timed a Peter White pass from behind the net to cut the lead to 4-3 at 14:17. Utah had some nice chances with just under four minutes to go but finally gave up an empty-net goal with 15 seconds left when Erik Westrum lost the hold on a puck in the Grizzly defensive zone with the goalie pulled a minute earlier.
White, who had two assists, was the one man Conacher praised, saying he wished he'd have had the AHL veteran since the beginning of the season and for three more years because every day he comes "spitting nails."
Utah had a chance to move up into a tie for last place in the overall AHL. With Springfield of the Atlantic Division losing, Utah could have matched the Falcons' 49 points with a victory.
With the loss, Utah took a wrong-way step toward the inevitable, a last-place finish again in the Western Division. The Grizzlies started the night 11 points behind idle San Antonio with 14 points possible if they had won out for the season. Now, they can only total 12 points if they win out.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com