WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – The Allen Americans tied the game with 3.5 seconds left and beat the Utah Grizzlies 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night before 5,263 fans at Maverik Center.
Utah takes one standings point in the contest and now sits at 6-5-0-1 on the season.
“We have to play with consistency like we’re doing,” said Head Coach/General Manager Tim Branham. “We collected a point, which is big, but they’re a division rival and obviously we would’ve liked to close it out. But we’re playing good hockey.”
The weekend belonged to Allen goaltender Riley Gill who stopped 38 of 40 shots on Saturday and 78 of 81 overall as the Grizzlies totaled 40 shots each night and tallied three total goals.
“We played an unreal game,” said Branham. “I thought we could’ve won 6-2. Riley Gill made some huge saves once again; that’s why he’s won as many championships as he has. We have to be proud of the way we played. I thought we played excellent in both games.”
Grizzlies goaltender Ryan Faragher(5-3-0-1) started for the third time in four games for Utah and stopped 35 of 37 through overtime.
Utah took a 1-0 lead 2:37 into the second period and 30 seconds after Travis Howe’s fourth fight of the year as Kenton Helgesen found Jon Puskar for his team leading fifth goal of the year. Tim Daly also added an assist on the play.
Allen tied the game 4:38 into the third period before Taylor Richart’s first pro goal on the power-play gave Utah the lead back 3:42 later with Mathieu Aubin and Carlos Amestoy drawing assists.
The Americans won a draw with 13 seconds left and tied the contest with an extra-attacker.
Utah outshot Allen 7-2 in overtime and Ralph Cuddemi clanged a post at the buzzer as the Grizzlies remained snake bitten against Allen.
“I liked our effort,” said Branham. “I thought our system play was much better tonight. We did a lot of good things tonight. We played an unreal hockey game for 59 minutes.”
With Utah Grizzlies release
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