Rapid City, South Dakota – The Utah Grizzlies defeated the Rapid City Rush 6-3 Sunday afternoon at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
The Grizzlies trailed 1-0 and 2-1 early in the first period before tying the contest up twice and breaking a 3-3 third period tie in the win.
“I thought we played with a lot of energy,” said Head Coach/General Manager Tim Branham. “We played a pretty solid game for 55 minutes.”
Austin Ortega scored two goals 1:48 apart, with the first score coming 14 seconds into a power-play to make it 4-3. At 7:34, the rookie tipped home a Ryan Walters (one goal, two assists) pass to give
Utah the 5-3 lead before a Jon Puskar (10) empty-net goal with 1:12 left in the game. The Grizzlies outshot Rapid City 13-3 in the third period on their way to the win.
Goaltender Sean Maguire stopped 19 of 22 to earn his first win with Utah and finish at 1-0-1-0 in his first weekend with the Grizzlies to improve to 9-5-1-0 on the season overall.
The Grizzlies fell behind 1-0 3:53 into the first period before Brendan Harms (3) tied the game shorthanded from Walters and Taylor Richart as the Utah captain forced the puck free at the Grizzlies blue line. Rapid City took a 2-1 lead on a power-play 8:46 into the contest before Walters (16) took a pass from Brad Navin to again tie the game.
Cliff Watson (7) gave Utah a 3-2 lead 9:13 into the second period as he blasted in a puck from the circle on a pass from behind the net by Kyle Thomas. Puskar (one goal, one assist) also added an assist.
The 3-2 lead held for 7:11 before the Rush tied the contest.
With Utah Grizzlies release
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