Utah Grizzlies vs Alaska Aces Post Game 11/28/09

What a night for Alaska.

One of their players got a hat trick and two assists, several of their players had multipoint games, their captain got a 5-on-3 short handed goal, and their goaltender was on fire.

The Grizzlies 3 top players, on the other hand, finished up the game with a -5.

Seriously depressing.

However, Pavli did get his first goal of the season, which was probably the one good thing to come out of this for Utah.

But don't just take our word for it. Go read the official post game at the Utah Grizzlies site and the gamesheet at ECHL.com. Our post game is below.

FIRST PERIOD

Alaska gets the first goal a minute in on Parker.

1-0.

Damnit, this is going to be a repeat of last night.

In the neutral zone: Snatch, Perry, Hunter, Friesen, and Gannon.

Utah pretends to play some defense.

Gannon gets a penalty for tripping.

Killed.

Snatch talks to the ref.

But the Grizzlies hold off Alaska until the end of the period.

When they get their second goal of the night.

End of first. 2-0, Aces.

SECOND PERIOD

Alaska repeats the 1st period, getting a goal in under a minute of play.

3-0.

Different goalie, same lack of defense on Utah's part.

Hughes mourns a missed shot.

Alaska gets a penalty, and the Grizzlies capitalize.

May knocks one in. 3-1.

Points to Hughes and Vlady on the assists.

Goal celebration!

Then Utah gets a penalty.

Parnham goes to the box for high-sticking.

Alaska scores. 4-1.

Some guy at the game got arrested during the 2nd.

This was the most interesting thing to happen for the whole game.

Seriously.

Unfortunately, the picture we got of it is way too blurry.

Alaska gets two more goals in this period.

One of them was a short handed 5-on-3 goal.

Utah was alseep on the ice.

At this point in the game, Kinasewich, Hunter, and Perry all have a -5.

This is not the same team we saw two games ago.

End of second. 6-1, Aces.

THIRD PERIOD

The best thing about this period was Pavli's goal.

His first of the season.

We were actually talking about him getting a goal earlier in the game.

So we were excited about it.

Assists to Dale and Maxwell on that.

Dale is pretty much awesome.

If Kinasewich put in as much effort as Dale did during his shifts, this would have been a completely different game.

There were a lot of penalties.

And two Gannon fights.

The first he was totally punked from behind.

It was ridiculous.

But Alaska probably knew if they didn't cheap shot him, they'd be the one's going down.

Which is what happened in the second fight.

Gannon took Alaska out.

But our camera had died by that point.

Along with the Grizzlies will to live.

Game.

6-2, Alaska.

Post game skate with the team photo:

Stars of the Game:

1. Not Ryan Kinasewich

2. Not Dylan Hunter

3. Not A.J. Perry

NOTES

We're not going to sugar coat this at all. This was quite the pathetic display. And we're pretty sure the boys got an earful from Colley and Curcio, as they should have.

We did have a few questions, though . . .

What happened to our excellent defense?

It seems like Utah was stellar defensively prior to the last two games. Now, all of the sudden the Grizzlies can't break up a play to save their lives, let alone protect the net. There were a couple of moments last night where the defense just let the Aces waltz past them while they were looking at the bench. We could actually see the Aces' setting up the goal from center ice, yet our boys failed to stop it. What gives?

Why aren't we checking anyone?

When Vlady (and Dale) is the only one consistantly throwing a decent check, there's something wrong. May was the only one on our team that looked close to the size of the Alaska players, yet Vlady was the one throwing the checks on these guys? Come on.

Kinasewich, really?

We actually love Kinasewich, don't get us wrong. And when the kid is on fire, he's lethal. He even tallied 9 SOG during this sad excuse for a game. But when you play an entire shift in your defensive zone and your stick doesn't even touch the ice . . . dude. Really? That's a poor show of effort, no matter who you are - from Ovechkin down to peewee hockey. Now, there could be a myriad of reasons as to why Snatch put on such a sad show (jetlag, time zone changes, emo-ness, whatevs), but we still expect to see him play hockey when he steps on the ice.

But again. Who said we knew anything about hockey.
We're just calling it how we see it.

To better luck next time.

Go Grizzlies!