WEST VALLEY CITY, UT- The Grizzlies and the Mavericks battled it out in the first of a three-game series on Friday Night where KC took the first game of the series, 5-2.
The first period had the appearance of a feeling-out process for both teams as they couldn’t get any kind of rhythm going as there were a lot of whistles in the first. It was Jesse Mychan getting his third goal of the season as he took a shot that went through traffic and took a bounce past Hunter Miska at 9:56 into the first period.
The hitting picked up after that as the hit totals for the 1st were 10-4 in favor of the Grizzlies. Of the 29 faceoffs, 27 went to the Mavericks.
More intensity and fewer whistles were the theme of the second period as 2:54 into the period, it was Charle-Edouard D’Astous getting his league-leading ninth goal of the season on the power play as the hits were only 8-6 in that period in favor of the Grizzlies. The intensity wasn’t the only thing picking up as the penalties also picked up with a total of six penalties in that period.
It was an intense and high-scoring third period as the Grizzlies scored early into the 3rd with 16:02 to play on a tic-tac-toe by Bailey Conger passed it to Quinn Ryan to make it 3-2, however it was the Mavericks all after that as it was one minute later it was Marcus Crawford tying the game it started to get intense after that as pushing and shoving happened.
The Mavericks took over the game when Willie Corrin scored on a wide-open rebound shot with 6:56 to play then it was Derek Angeli who got open on the breakaway and shot the puck from the slot to make it 4-2 62 seconds later. It was Angeli who got his 2nd of the game on a shot from the right circle to make it 5-2.
The game didn’t end without controversy as with 3:16 to play as Nick Pastujov took a high stick from D’Astous and it led to the brawl, but it was Jordan Stone and Pastujov getting two minutes each for roughing. The three stars went to the Mavericks as Crawford got the 3rd, Corrin with the 2nd, and Angeli with the 1st star honors in front of 4,535 fans.
The Grizzlies and the Mavericks battle again Saturday at the Maverick Center at 7:10 pm MST where the Grizzlies will look to end the two-game losing streak
