Photo credit: Garrett Skinner
Salt Lake City, The Allen Americans, ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Utah Hockey Club, dropped a 6-5 decision on Wednesday night at the Maverik Center in front of an announced crowd of 2,052.
A back-and-forth affair saw Utah jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first two minutes into the hockey game, scoring both goals just 24 seconds apart.
The Americans responded with three of their own. Two goals coming in the first period. Jared Westcott (5) on the power play, and Jay Powell (2) even strength, scored back-to-back to even the game at 2-2.
The Americans grabbed their first lead of the night in the second period as Quinn Warmuth found the back of the net on the power play his fifth goal of the season to make it a 3-2 Allen lead. Utah came right back with a pair of their own from Keaton Mastrodonato his 16th and 17th of the year to give Utah the lead 4-3. Mark Duarte tied the game again with his team-leading 19th of the season to make it a 4-4 game after two periods.
The Americans took the lead again in the third period as J.C. Brassard scored to make it 5-4 Allen. Utah tied the game less than 30 seconds later to make it 5-5. The Grizzlies were not done. They put the nail in the coffin with their sixth goal of the night at the 11:57 mark. The Americans fought hard to tie the game late but could not get the equalizer.
The Americans scored a season-high four power play goals going 4-for-7 with the man advantage.
With the loss, the Americans dropped their eighth in a row. The two teams will take Thursday off and resume the series on Friday night.
They Said it:
Brett Ferguson: “Great effort by our group tonight. To get down 2-0 in the first on two shots wasn’t idea, but they showed resiliency to come back and take the lead. A special teams battle that we came up just a little short. It was the last team to score wins kind of night, Excited to get back after it this weekend and see our response.”
Three Stars:
1. UTA - K. Mastrodonato
2. UTA - R. Connors
3. UTA - R. Lebster
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