By Steve Luhm

| The Salt Lake Tribune

West Valley City • In the next 27 days, the Utah Grizzlies play 12 of their 13 games on the road.

It might take coach Kevin Colley that long to forget Wednesday night’s frustrating 4-0 loss to Bakersfield.

At a glance

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In short

The Condors score three goals in the opening 7:13 and hand the Grizzlies their third straight loss.

» Bakersfield goalie Matt Keetley stops 29 shots during a 4-0 ECHL victory over Utah.

» Utah plays 12 of its next 13 games on the road.

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Against the worst team in the ECHL, which had lost five straight games and nine of its last 10, Utah didn’t show up until it was too late.

The Grizzlies fell behind 3-0 in the opening 7:13 and never recovered.

"We need to get better effort," Colley said. "Our guys have to be ready to play. We can’t just have three, four or five guys ready to go. We need everybody ready when the pucks drops. … We need to cowboy up."

Bakersfield needed only 5:17 to score two goals against newly acquired goaltender Jimmy Spratt.

When Andrew Engelage replaced Spratt, the Condors needed 1:56 to score again.

"I didn’t like some of our decision-making," Colley said.

"We let them score three goals on three breakdowns. We wanted to make it a chess game and not give them anything. But it was the total opposite. …

"Guys made bad pinches [and] we didn’t have a third guy high. We left our goalie [hung] out to dry. Guys need to be ready mentally and it’s just not there right now."

Bakersfield’s Parker Stanfield added a third-period goal — his second of the game — to give the Condors their most lopsided victory since Nov. 2.

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies lost their third straight game. Since a 7-1 start this season, they are 12-21.

"It’s been tough sledding here for the last 2 1/2 months," Colley said. "But we have to turn the page and man up and take care of doing our job."

Spratt didn’t have much of a chance to do his job. In his first start since being acquired in a Jan. 28 trade with Idaho, the Grizzlies struggled in front of him.

The result?

After stopping 68 of 70 shots in two Idaho-Utah games at the Maverik Center this season, Spratt stopped only two of the first four shots fired at him by Bakersfield.

Now, the Grizzlies start their most difficult stretch searching for answers.

Said Colley: "With all of our new faces and guys coming back from injuries, hopefully we’ll get out on the road, have a little team bonding and … play better."