WEST VALLEY CITY — The stage was all set for the hometown kid to perhaps force another round in the shootout Friday night at the E Center, but as the Utah Grizzlies' final shooter, D.J. Jelitto met his match in Las Vegas goaltender Mike McKenna.
McKenna stopped the West Valley City native's shot, as he had three of Utah's other four shootout contestants (Matt Craig's shot wasn't on net, so McKenna didn't have to save it), and the Wranglers made off with a 3-2 shoot-out win to spoil a strong evening for the Grizzlies in their 2006-07 home debut.
Las Vegas defenseman Jason Jozsa not only had the only goal of the shoot-out to win the game, he sent the game into overtime in the first place. The Wranglers had pulled McKenna with about a minute left, down 2-1, and Jozsa snaked a shot from the right point through the traffic in front of Utah goalie Rob McVicar to force overtime at 19:31 to tie the game 2-2.
The same two teams meet again tonight at 7 in the E Center for "Pink in the Rink" night dedicated to breast cancer awareness, with some proceeds going to the Huntsman Cancer Institute and Mary Jay Ash Foundation. Grizz players will wear pink sweaters that will be auctioned off after the game, the money going to the charities.
Utah (1-2-1) had this one salted away, and allowing a goal in the last minute of any period is a real no-no.
"I thought the guys went hard, but when you give up a goal in the last minute, that hurts a little bit," said Utah coach Jason Christie, adding quickly,"McVicar played well to keep us in the game.
"It's a tough loss," Christie continued. "When you work that hard in a low-scoring game like that and lose in a shootout — and don't even get a goal in the shootout — it makes it burn a little bit."
The Wranglers had the first goal of the game on a 5-on-3 power play at 10:14 of the first period by Marco Peluso, but second-year Grizz Matt Craig evened it up at 11:20 with a hard slapper on the move from the top of the right faceoff circle.
The second period was scoreless, but Justin Cox, who's spent parts of several seasons with Utah and is back after a season's absence, scored three seconds into a power play, again from the right faceoff circle off the draw. His score at 3:10 of the third period gave the Grizzlies the advantage until Jozsa's goal.
It's the third time in four games Las Vegas has gone to overtime. It lost the first two. Utah has not had an overtime game until Friday.
"We've got to be stronger in certain areas," Christie said. "They're a skilled team over there, and we've got to come ready to play tomorrow. We just have to make sure we take this game as a positive and be ready to go tomorrow."
GRIZZ BIZZ: Goaltender Sean Fields was placed on the 30-day injured list with a bad knee, and new defenseman Tobias Liberg of Sweden was also placed on the injury report with a knee injury. The Grizzlies added Jon Volp from Pensacola as a goaltender ... Grizzlies' owner David Elmore didn't make it into town for the game, so his wife Donna Tuttle, did the pre-game on-ice honors. It's the second straight season opener in which Elmore missed at least the first goal. Last season he was slightly late due to baseball meetings ... The Wranglers are coming off an outstanding 2005-06 season in which they were 53-13-8 for 112 points, third-best in ECHL history. Howver, they ran up against the best team in league history, point-wise, in the eventual Kelly Cup-champion Alaska Aces in the second round of playoffs and were eliminated, just like the Grizz were by the same team ... Former Grizzly player Jeff Sharples is an assistant coach for the Wranglers.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com