Matchup: Utah Grizzlies at Idaho Steelheads, Wednesday, 7 PM. Alaska Aces at Idaho Steelheads, Friday/Saturday, 7 PM. All games played at Qwest Arena.
Déjà vu all over again? Barely a week ago, Idaho played two games against Alaska and a third game against Utah in a three-day span. Now here we are again. Idaho split the two contests with the Aces in Boise before bussing down to West Valley City to beat the Grizzlies in overtime, a win that improved Idaho’s record to an ECHL-best 18-4-1 after the first week of December.
Home-heavy: After opening the season with only seven home games in the first seven weeks, this three-game set concludes a stretch of eight home games in 17 days. The team returns to the Qwest Arena ice on New Year’s Eve.
Helping out on offense: Defensemen, much like offensive linemen in football, often don’t get the credit they deserve because they don’t accumulate a big pile of gaudy statistics. Rookie defenseman Brendan Milnamow is out to change that. Through Idaho’s first 23 games, the Union College product had 13 points – pretty solid for a blue-liner – and is on pace for a 41-point season. None of Idaho’s d-men topped 40 points last season.
The Idaho Steelheads (20-5-2) never trailed en route to a 5-1 win over the Utah Grizzlies (14-8-2) tonight at Qwest Arena. Ketchum, Idaho’s Cody Lampl scored his first professional goal, and rookie center Kevin DeVergilio had a goal and an assist after missing the previous 12 games with an injury. Also, on a night when Five For Fighting's John Ondrasik dropped the first puck, Idaho's Luke Gazdic and Utah's Ryan-James Hand dropped the gloves immediately after the opening faceoff.
Kevin DeVergilio was welcomed back to the lineup quickly after he opened the scoring at the 1:20 mark of the first period. For DeVergilio, the power play goal from the top of the right circle was his fifth of the season in just his seventh game, and first game since returning from an injury that caused the rookie center to miss Idaho’s last 12 games. Brad Miller also notched an assist on the tally.
At 17:48, Evan Barlow let a shot rip from the same right wing circle and beat Utah’s Mitch O’Keefe for his 12th of the season. Weston Tardy and John Swanson assisted on Barlow’s power play goal.
Steelheads captain Marty Flichel extended Idaho’s lead to 3-0 at 5:24 of the second period on an unassisted goal as an Idaho power play expired; for Flichel, the unassisted goal was his fifth of the season.
At 15:26 of the second period, Evan Barlow streaked to the middle of the ice with the Steelheads killing an Ashton Rome holding penalty, and Matt McKnight joined Barlow on the rush. Barlow found McKnight on a pass through the slot, and McKnight beat O’Keefe for his fourth of the season, and the Steelheads first shorthanded tally of the year. McKnight’s goal extended the Steelheads lead to 4-0.
Cody Lampl rifled a one-timer into the net for his first professional goal at 7:33 of the third period to give the Steelheads a 5-0 lead; Mark Derlago and DeVergilio assisted on the Ketchum, Idaho-grown Lampl’s goal.
Less than three minutes later, Utah’s AJ Perry capitalized off a scrum in front of the Steelheads net to break the shutout, but it would be the only shot to beat Idaho’s Rejean Beauchemin.
Beauchemin stopped 21 of 22 shots to improve to 10-3-1 on the season. O’Keefe stopped 24 of 29; he is also 10-3-1 after the loss.
The Steelheads are back in action Friday and Saturday night against the Alaska Aces at Qwest Arena. The puck drops at 7:10 PM.