WEST VALLEY CITY — Game over.

The Utah Grizzlies played a smarter, much more energetic game Friday night than they did Thursday, and yet the result was even worse.

The Alaska Aces closed out the first-round ECHL playoff series as fast as it could possibly be dispatched, sweeping Utah in four straight games with Friday's 6-2 victory in the E Center.

"They played with a lot of pride," Utah coach Jason Christie said, repeating himself a few minutes later about his team.

"It's so funny," he said, looking back on a game that was quite competitive until midway through the third period, knowing his team gave a lot more of itself in its final appearance. "We gave ourselves a chance tonight. That's all a coach can ask for. ... We had pressure on them, and then it's down in our net.

"Guys that have been here all year, they can hold their heads high," Christie added.

The Grizzlies, fourth in the West in the regular season, simply couldn't score in this series against the Aces, who won the ECHL regular season with the second-most points, 113, of any ECHL club ever.

And the Grizzlies couldn't make a break for themselves. The worst luck probably of the series came at 10:11 of the second period, just about four minutes after Ryan Kinasewich had tied the game at 2-2.

Winger Joe Dusbabek tried to clear a puck from right in front of Alfie Michaud's goal line, and somehow the puck stuck in the ice shavings that had built up. Ace Vladimir Novak took a stroke at the puck and it went right into Michaud's net.

"When the bounces aren't going your way, that's what happens," Christie said.

From there, Ace winger Chris Minard scored at 1:49 of the third period on a power play and at 10:57 to make it 5-2 during a 4-on-4 session.

When Christie pulled Michaud with about three minutes to play during a Grizzlies power play, Ace defenseman Louis Mass put in an empty-net short-handed goal — the second straight night Alaska scored short-handed into an empty net.

Utah will have its exit meetings on Monday and then part ways, though some players likely will stay in Utah over the summer as the team attempts to build some chemistry and know-how.

Unlike Thursday's 4-1 Grizzly loss in the E Center, Utah stayed away from taking penalties, not retaliating, being smarter about the man-advantage plays it gave up, and it skated step for step with the very fast Alaskans until the third period.

With Kris Kasper tying the game at 1-1 at 18:16 of the first period on a power play and Kinasewich scoring in the second, Utah doubled its goal output of any of the first three games in the series, but that stuck puck seemed to start the unraveling of the luck.

Kinasewich was the only one of Utah's strong scorers to get goals in this playoff. Louis Dumont got his first playoff point on Kinasewich's goal, along with defenseman Brent Henley, who had two goals in the first three games and three points for the series.

Matt Craig was scoreless for the four games, as were Barret Ehgoetz and Ed Hill. Travis Rycroft had two assists, Brad Herauf one.

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Still, the Grizzlies the Aces in every period this game. "We had a couple chances we can't capitalize on, and then it's back in our zone. A team like that, any opportunity you get, you've got to make sure you bury them because they're going to be coming hard at you," said Christie.

"We battled hard, worked hard, and we've got to build on this for next year.

"That's a good club we just played. I thought our offense had trouble generating stuff, but that's just something we've got to build on. You've got to soak it in and know what to get better in."


E-mail: lham@desnews.com

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