Grizzlies top tired Wranglers

A day after their season-high eight-game win streak ended, the Wranglers saw their nine-game point streak come to an emphatic end as well on Sunday afternoon at the Orleans Arena.

Playing its eighth game in 12 days, a tired Las Vegas team was outshot 39-23 by Utah and allowed three third-period goals en route to a 4-1 loss to the Grizzlies.

"We've played good hockey for the last 10 games," Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said. "Every now and then, you serve up a big egg, and that's what we did (Sunday).

"Those things happen, but it's how you bounce back the next day that's going to be key for us."

Las Vegas (26-19-5), which lost 2-1 in overtime at Ontario (Calif.) on Saturday, will host Phoenix at 2:05 p.m. today before embarking on a 10-game road trip.

"(Today) will be a better game for us. I think everybody's looking forward to resetting," Wranglers left wing Shawn Limpright said. "The streak's got to end eventually. Now we've just got to start a new one (today)."

Andy Sertich scored two third-period goals and added an assist for Utah (18-16-14), which was playing its seventh game in 12 days and, like Las Vegas, was missing several players to the American Hockey League.

"Both teams played short-handed, but they just had more juice than us," Limpright said. "They scored on every chance they had, and we didn't.

"That was the game right there."

Sertich rifled home a rebound from the high slot to give Utah a 2-1 lead 6:23 into the third period. He scored from the slot again on a power play with 7:40 remaining to make it a 3-1 game.

Tom May scored an empty-net goal for the Grizzlies with 1:59 left for the final margin.

In his second start for Las Vegas, goalie Matt Keetley stopped 35 of 38 shots.

Evan Kotsopoulos scored a power-play goal midway through the second period to give Utah a 1-0 lead. The Grizzlies finished 2-for-4 with the man advantage, while the Wranglers went 0-for-2.

Las Vegas tied it 1-1 with 3:49 left in the second period when Kelly Czuy scored from in front of the net.

The Wranglers had several other scoring chances, but Grizzlies goalie Peter Mannino turned away 22 of 23 shots.

"We didn't have any juice," Gulutzan said. "It was a real bad hockey game."

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.