Show Grizzlies Tenth Anniversary Off To Rough Start Justin McBride Sports Editor On paper the Tenth Anniversary Utah Grizzlies look like a solid team In their scrimmage scrimmage scrimmage scrim scrim- mage two weeks ago they looked like a team that could compete with any other team in the American Hockey League Friday night in their home opener against the San Antonio Rampage they looked confused and disoriented in a 4 2 loss that was marred with penalties One of the indicators that it was going to be a long night for forthe forthe forthe the Grizzlies should have been the fight that Barrett Heisten got into early on in the first period Heisten decided to drop the gloves against Sean OConnor Heisten three inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than OConnor O'Connor barely got the gloves off and i- i r m ySo Ap 04 J I N a 4 a I l 1 I T E M N. T rl H cf c. c ANNIVERSARY f A threw a punch then got tangled up with OConnor O'Connor who then had free reign landing five or six good punches before the officials separated separated separated sepa sepa- rated the two Usually a fight gets a team pumped up and excited about get- get Photo courtesy Utah Grizzlies ting out and winning the game This was the case on Friday night but it didn't light a fire under the right team as San Antonios Antonio's Jaroslav Bednar took a ice cross-ice pass from Denis and put the puck past Jason Bacashihua The Rampage didn't stop there as they capitalized on a Grizzlies penalty early in the second second second sec sec- sec sec- ond period then gave up another goal with four minutes left to give the Rampage a 3 0 lead going into the final period In the third period however it was more of the same as the Grizzlies gave up another goal five minutes into the period The Grizzlies finally came to life with seven minutes remaining remaining remaining remain remain- ing in the game With the Grizzlies shorthanded new Grizzlies forward Tim intercepted a pass in the neutral zone skated into the San Antonio zone unchecked and scored the first goal of the Grizzlies season and the first goal of his AHL career The Grizzlies would add one more with two minutes left as David poked the puck past Rampage goalie Travis Scott to bring the Grizzlies within two The Grizzlies pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker in inthe inthe inthe the last minute of the game but couldn't bring it any closer as the Rampage shut the Grizzlies offense down and held on to beat the Grizzlies 4 We looked lost at times said head coach Don Hay after the game but well we'll get better as we move along It would have been nice to get the first goal in a game like this and get the crowd into it but we weren't able to do that After losing the second game of their home and home series against the Rampage on Saturday night in San Antonio the Grizzlies have a week off to focus on what to do to get this team on the right track before facing the Chicago Wolves at home on Saturday night C |