Grizzlies turn back Wranglers

For the first time in five seasons, the Wranglers have failed to advance to the second round of the ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs.

Las Vegas, which reached the National Conference finals the past two seasons and made the league finals in 2008, was eliminated Tuesday by Utah in a 5-1 loss in Game 5 of their first-round ECHL playoff series at the E-Center in West Valley City, Utah.

The Grizzlies won the last two games of the best-of-5 series, and three of the last four, to advance to the conference semifinals against the top-seeded Idaho Steelheads.

Utah goalie Mikko Koskinen came up as big as his 6-foot-7-inch frame, stopping 38 of 39 shots by Las Vegas, which went 1-for-6 on the power play Tuesday and 4-for-29 in the series.

Ryan Kinasewich scored two goals, AJ Perry had a goal and three assists and James Sixsmith added a goal and an assist for the Grizzlies, who scored two goals in 14 seconds and three in 2:08 early in the second period.

"We got beat by a pretty good offensive team," Wranglers coach Ryan Mougenel said. "It's not how you want to end your season, but we battled extremely hard."

Kinasewich, who scored five goals in the last three games, gave Utah a 1-0 lead 7:36 into the first period.

Perry scored 2:57 into the second to make it 2-0, and Tim Crowder tallied his fourth goal of the series at the 3:11 mark to give the Grizzlies a 3-0 lead.

Chris Neiszner appeared to score shortly thereafter for the Wranglers to cut their deficit to 3-1. But the referee ruled it wasn't a goal.

Las Vegas defenseman Chris Frank was then penalized for cross-checking, and Kinasewich scored a power-play goal 11 seconds later to give the Grizzlies a 4-0 lead.

"The turning point was the disallowed goal and subsequent penalty," said Mougenel, who had no doubt that Neiszner scored. "That was a momentum killer. I thought we were playing well until that point."

Sixsmith, who led all scorers in the series with 11 points (two goals, nine assists), scored at 6:50 of the third period to make it 5-0.

Mick Lawrence netted a power-play goal for Las Vegas midway through the third to avoid a shutout.

Wranglers rookie goalie Jimmy Spratt stopped 32 of 37 shots.

Las Vegas won two of the first three games in the series and had a 2-1 lead early in the third period of Game 4 before Utah rallied for a 4-2 win.

"I was disappointed we didn't get the second win at home," Mougenel said. "It would've been a different series."

Las Vegas also had a chance to clinch home-ice advantage in the series in its regular-season finale against Ontario on April 3 but was routed 7-1 at home.

■ NOTE -- Wranglers right wing Alex Bourret sat out Tuesday's game with "post-concussion-like symptoms" after sustaining a hit in Game 4, Mougenel said.