West Valley, UT (12/30/17)— Charley Graaskamp scored the tying goal with his second tally of the night and added another in the shootout to help the Utah Grizzlies (12-12-8) mount a three-goal comeback and earn a 5-4 shootout victory over the Idaho Steelheads (18-10-5) at Maverik Center on Saturday night.
Ryan Walters, Jon Puskar, and Graaskamp all scored in a span of 5:59 in the third period to erase a 4-1 Steelheads lead. Graaskamp and Walters would both beat goaltender Ryan Faragher in the shootout to earn Utah its first shootout win of the season. Justin Parizek scored in the shootout for Idaho, but it wasn’t enough.
Walters cut the Idaho lead to 4-2 on a redirection of a Mitch Jones point shot at 3:30 of the third period, his 11th goal of the season and fourth this year against the Steelheads. At 5:40 of the third, Puskar cut the deficit to one with a power play goal from the slot, finishing a feed from Michael Pelech behind the net for his fourth goal of the year. At 9:29, Graaskamp tied the game with his second of the night and fourth of the year, burying the rebound after Chris Leibinger drove to the net.
Kyle Thomas temporarily gave Utah a 5-4 lead in the third, but his goal was disallowed due to goaltender interference.
The Steelheads scored the first two goals of the contest, with Jefferson Dahl netting his 12th goal of the season off the rush at 3:08 of the first period for a 1-0 Idaho lead. Dahl has seven goals in his last eight games.
At 6:49 of the first, Dahl’s forecheck pressure helped force a turnover along the right-wing wall in the Utah zone that was scooped up by Cole Ully. Ully skated to the slot and wired a wrister past Utah’s Angus Redmond for a 2-0 Idaho lead on his second of the year. Ully earned three points on the night with a goal and two assists.
Graaskamp got Utah on the board at 12:46 on a redirection of a Taylor Richart shot from the right point to make it 2-1.
Idaho netted two power play goals in the second period to build a 4-1 lead. Steve McParland scored his 14th of the season after Eric Sweetman found him alone in front with a pass from the left point at 5:24. Will Merchant followed it up with a power play goal of his own, burying his seventh of the season from between the circles in his 100th professional game.
The Steelheads killed off 1:29 of 5-on-3 penalty-kill time to close out the second period with a 4-1 lead.
Redmond was pulled from the game following Merchant’s goal, surrendering four goals on 22 shots. Kevin Carr stopped all 18 shots he saw in relief.
The Grizzlies scored three goals in the third period in back-to-back games. The Steelheads moved back into a tie for second place with the Allen Americans thanks to the overtime point, both teams now with 41 points in the standings.
The Steelheads return to game action after the New Year, hosting the Allen Americans for the first of two contests at CenturyLink Arena on January 5th. Puck-drop is scheduled for 7:10pm MT with the game available on 1350AM KTIK and seen on Cable One and ECHLTV.
With Idaho Steelheads release