WEST VALLEY CITY — Fast, really fast was the way the Grizzlies started in their 4-3 win over the Las Vegas Wranglers Saturday night at the E-Center.
As soon as the puck was dropped, Utah's Travis Rycroft and the Wranglers' Shawn Limpright threw down their gloves and went at it. Obviously, the fight carried something over from the games the teams played in Las Vegas the past two nights, both Wrangler wins. Once the officials got both players to the penalty box, it took Utah only 56 seconds to light up the scoreboard. Nearly everything after that just snowballed Utah's way.
"Energy wise, that was just a great start," said Grizzlies coach Jason Christie. "Travis gave a little boost with a good tilt right off the bat. He'll do anything to get the guys fired up and tonight it worked."
Jimmie Kraft got the goal for the Grizzlies in the first minute. The center from Sweden intercepted a pass and fired a slap shot that deflected off the right pad of Las Vegas goalkeeper Mike McKenna and trickled into the net.
Tyler Liebel kept things rolling for Utah as just over a minute later he took a pass from local D.J. Jelitto and fired a shot that deflected off McKenna's left pad and in for the score. The bounces just seemed to go that way for the Grizzlies.
"I've never seen things go against a team like they have so far this year," said Christie. "It was nice to see it go our way for once ... You've got to create your own breaks and tonight they did that."
The Wranglers pulled closer at the 13-minute mark when Derek Edwardson scored a power-play goal, but Jelitto answered with a short-handed goal just three minutes later to cap perhaps the Grizzlies' best period of the year as they led 3-1. Statistically, it was Utah's best offensive period. It fired 19 shots on the net, and scored a season-high three goals.
Another positive the Grizzlies can take from the win was a power-play goal, something the team has struggled with all year. Matt Craig made it 4-1 in the second period on a slap shot to the top-right corner with a man advantage.
Christie was a little disappointed, however, with the fact that after Utah jumped out to control the action, it didn't maintain its intensity — just 11 minutes into the game the Grizzlies enjoyed a 14-2 shots-on-goal advantage, but they were out-shot the rest of the way 43-23.
"That's just the game," he said. "You are going to have your ups-and-downs. We just needed to keep the job at hand in mind and go out and execute."
Las Vegas made the Grizzlies and the 5,416 fans in attendance sweat it out as it scored two third-period goals to pull within one. Lucas Lawson and Chris Neiszner each scored making the Grizzlies and goalie Rob McVicar — who finished with 42 saves — work hard the last 11 minutes to not spoil the great beginning.
The Grizzlies (8-19-3) head off on a seven-game road trip beginning in Alaska where they play a three-game series next week. Their next home game is January 19 where they will face the same Las Vegas team.
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com