The Utah Grizzlies beat the Colorado Eagles, 2-1, in overtime before 6,196 fans Monday night at Maverik Center as Danick Paquette hammered in a puck crashing the net on a rush up ice 2:30 into the extra frame.
“In the end, I thought Paquette 100 percent deserved that goal,” Grizzlies head coach and General Manager Tim Branham said. “He worked so hard tonight. He took a lot of abuse, held it in, and then got that scoring chance and it’s great to be rewarded for the hard work.”
The goal followed Utah killing the first two minutes of the overtime shorthanded, including 1:29 five-on-three where the Grizzlies never let Colorado get setup.
“I thought the team played really well tonight,” Branham said. “We battled, we found a way, [and] Meisner made great saves.”
Colorado broke the scoreless tie 9:01 into the third period as the Eagles fired a puck through traffic. Just 3:07 later, the Grizzlies ended up with an odd-man situation up ice started by defenseman Pat O’Keefe. Berkley Scott then kicked the puck left side to Rylan Galliardi, who after a brilliant toe-drag through the slot, roofed the goal for his fourth score in four games.
Utah goaltender Ben Meisner stopped 29 of 30 in his first win of the year for Utah, including 13 in the first period.
“It was great to get that first win this year,” Meisner said. “We had a bit of a shaky first period, but it was a real gutsy effort for our boys to come back like that, especially in overtime killing those two penalties. It was a huge win and I was happy I could do my part to help out.”
Utah finished its season-long home stand with three wins in the last four games.
The Grizzlies open three games in four nights on the road, starting Wednesday in Idaho. Faceoff is at 7:10 p.m.
Utah returns home Friday, Nov. 29, and Saturday, Nov. 30, for Thanksgiving weekend action at Maverik Center with San Francisco. Faceoff is at 7 p.m.