WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – After limiting Josh Soares to a single assist in the first three games of the series the Utah Grizzlies failed to mark him in the fourth game. With the shackles off Soares responded with a pair of goals, including the game-winner, and an assist.
Alaska pounded the net and scored most of their goals off rebounds given up either by Utah netminder Michael Mole or the end boards. The first goal of the game came when Tyson Marsh fired home a puck that had rebounded off the backboard from a Alexandre Imbeault shot attempt. Soares scored just under a minute and a half later when Mole failed to corral a Brett Hemingway shot and the Aces were out to a quick 2-0 lead prior to the middle point of the first period.
The goal would cause Utah coach Kevin Colley to expend his lone time out. Colley’s words must have been inspirational, but they failed to have long-term affect. Just seconds after the timeout Grizzlies forward James Sixsmith sprang Vladimir Nikiforov on a breakaway. Nikiforov deftly beat Alaska netminder Jean-Philippe Lamoureux for the score and the Aces were back in Utah’s sight. Soares ended the Utah rally when he screamed home a shot from the slot after a Cam Keith set-up.
Soares goal was a back-breaker for the Grizzlies, but they were done for sure when Lance Galbraith tucked in Imbeault’s rebound with Utah skater Bo Cheesman in the box for interference late in the second frame.
The two clubs would trade goals early in the final period, but the outcome had already been decided. The first goal in the twenty second blitz was a slapper by Alaska’s Luke Erickson after a Utah turnover. Sixsmith answered for the Grizzlies just twenty seconds later, but his goal was far too little and far too late to help his club win.
Notes
Alaska will try to wrap up the series on Saturday, April 18. If they cannot do so, the series will return back to Anchorage until it reaches its conclusion. Should the Aces move on it would mark the team’s sixth consecutive advance to the ECHL’s second round.
A scoring change was made after game three which took away Utah’s first goal in that game from Nikiforov and gave it to Sixsmith. Nikiforov was given an assist on the goal and finished the game with a goal and an assist rather than two goals.
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