Matchup: Utah Grizzlies at Idaho Steelheads. Saturday, November 7, Qwest Arena. Gametime 7 PM
Familiar Faces: These two teams know each other quite well. After playing 15 times during the 2008-2009 season, Idaho and Utah played twice in the preseason, twice in late October, and are playing twice this week in Utah before coming back to Boise on Saturday night.
Get to know … Utah forward Ryan Kinasewich. During Idaho’s recent visit to Utah, Kinasewich became the Grizzlies’ all-time leading goal scorer. The guy can flat-out score. In 223 career ECHL games, Kinasewich has 291 points – well-over a point per game.
Fast Start, Part I: Rookie forward Evan Barlow didn’t come to Boise with the fanfare or reputation of teammates Ashton Rome, Mark Derlago, or Tyler Spurgeon. But the Cornell product has been every bit as productive early in the season. The 23-year-old Barlow scored a goal in four of his first five games in a Steelheads sweater.
Fast Start, Part II: Coming into the season, Steelheads head coach Derek Laxdal had a record of 13-2-4 during the month of October. Buoyed by the team’s well-documented winning streak to start this season, his history of fast starts in Idaho continues.
The Idaho Steelheads (8-2-1) were blanked by a 3-0 score tonight as the Utah Grizzlies (5-3-0) took the rubber game of this week’s three-game set in front of a sellout crowd of 5,251 at Qwest Arena. For the first time this season, the Steelheads were held to less than two goals in a game.
Grizzlies forward Ryan Kinasewich was responsible for both Utah goals in their 5-2 loss to the Steelheads on Friday, and he wasted little time getting his team on the board tonight. Kinasewich one-timed home a power play goal eight minutes into tonight’s game to put Utah on top for good; Dustin Friesen registered the lone assist.
In the second period, as a delayed penalty was being called against the Steelheads, Utah’s James Sixsmith slid a puck along the ice to beat Idaho goalie Richard Bachman. Shea Guthrie and Vlady Nikiforov earned the assists on Sixsmith’s fourth of the season.
In the third period, Ryan Kinasewich registered his second goal of the game on an empty-netter with less than three minutes to go; for Kinasewich, it was his second consecutive two-goal effort.
Bachman falls to 4-2-1 with the loss; he stopped 16 of 19 shots. Mitch O’Keefe improves to 1-1-0 with the win; he was perfect, stopping all 22 shots that went his way.
The Steelheads are back in action Friday night when they begin a three-game series in Stockton against the Thunder.