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West Valley City, Utah - The Bakersfield Condors defeated the Utah Grizzlies 6-5 Wednesday night at the E-Center in a wild contest that featured four different lead changes.
The Condors took an early two-goal lead in the first period with the first score coming just 37 seconds into the game and the second at the 16:54 mark on a power-play. Exactly a minute and a half later, the Grizzlies Tim Verbeek scored a power-play goal of his own making it 2-1, scoring his team leading 22nd goal of the year. The Condors, though, extended their lead with a goal 39 seconds before the end of the first period making it 3-1. Bakersfield outshot the Grizzlies 19-8 in the period.
Utah went on a 3-0 scoring run to start the second period and took a 4-3 lead. The first goal came at 3:30 with a short-handed breakaway goal scored by Evan Kotsopoulos, his 12th goal of the year. The second goal of the period came at 10:35 on a slap-shot by Will Bodine that hit high off the back of the net and bounced out as if it had hit the cross-bar. After official review, Bodine was awarded his second goal of the year tying the game at 3-3. The third goal of the Grizzlies run came at 13:10 and was scored by Tim Maxwell, his fourth goal of the season, and was assisted by Rob Hennigar, his third assist of the game. At 14:50 Bakersfield tied it up at four with another power-play goal to end the second period.
The Grizzlies jumped out to an early 5-4 third period lead with a spectacular unassisted goal by Vladimir Nikiforov in his first game back with the Grizzlies after 15 games in the AHL. Just two minutes and 12 seconds later, Bakersfield tied it up at 6:25 of the third period for the third tie of the game. At 14:59, the Condors scored their sixth and final goal to put them up 6-5 and hold off the Grizzlies.
Two Utah players had three-point-games tonight; Evan Kotsopoulos (1 goal and 2 assists) and Rob Hennigar (3 assists).
Tom May extended his team season-high scoring streak to eleven games but had his ECHL-high ten-game goal scoring streak ended.
"That's just the way things are going for us right now. Nobody should feel sorry for us. We just need to continue to go out and play, " said Grizzlies Head Coach Kevin Colley.
Utah returns home Friday and Saturday hosting Stockton at the E-Center. Face-off both nights is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
(Courtesy Utah Grizzlies)
