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An hour of hockey had been played between the Utah Grizzlies and Wichita Thunder on Saturday night at the Maverik Center and the score was deadlocked at 2.

As the two teams headed to overtime, the Grizzlies collected the faceoff, skating into the Thunder's defensive zone, and patiently awaited an opportunity. Mark Cantin found a crease in the Wichita defense, skated through, and dumped the puck to Barry Almeida, who leads the team in goals with 16 on the season.

Almeida the recorded his 17th goal when he fired the puck past the pads of Thunder goalie Grant Rollheiser, sending the crowd of 4,542 into a frenzy for a 3-2 final in the ECHL game.

"Those overtime sessions are all about puck possession and they had some guys out there that were pretty gassed and that's when good things happen," Grizzlies coach Tim Branham said.

In a game besieged by 14 penalties, the Grizzlies found a way to begin the second half of the season with two points, and continue their hold for the 10th consecutive week atop the Western Division by seven points over Idaho.

At 9:55 in the second, the Grizzlies grabbed a turnover and barreled down the ice. Eric Higby fed Jon Puskar, who dumped the puck under the pads of Rollheiser to level the game at 1. Wichita reclaimed the lead as Landon Oslanski rifled a shot all the way from the blue line past a shielded Matt Hackett to make it 2-1. Charles Sarault evened the score at 2 at the 18:32 mark of the second.

Goalie Ryan Faragher is second in the ECHL with 16 wins. With 26 games of NHL experience between Minnesota and Buffalo, Faragher stopped 23 of 25 shots.

In the first perio, the Grizzlies were presented with two five-on-three opportunities but failed to convert either. Having escaped from harm, Thunder forward Kenton Miller glided down the ice shorthanded and faked Hackett before scoring to make it 1-0 Wichita. —

ECHL standings

EASTERN CONFERENCE

East GP W L OL SL Pts GF GA

Adirondack 34 23 9 1 1 48 99 76

Manchester 38 22 12 1 3 48 111 103

Reading 38 18 15 2 3 41 114 98

Elmira 37 20 17 0 0 40 101 115

Norfolk 41 16 23 1 1 34 107 133

North GP W L OL SL Pts GF GA

Toledo 36 22 10 1 3 48 107 86

Wheeling 36 15 17 2 2 34 108 118

Kalamazoo 37 14 19 3 1 32 99 128

Brampton 37 12 18 5 2 31 100 129

South GP W L OL SL Pts GF GA

Florida 40 28 11 0 1 57 128 83

Atlanta 38 24 12 2 0 50 115 113

South Carolina 38 20 14 3 1 44 103 87

Greenville 39 18 15 6 0 42 116 124

Orlando 37 17 15 2 3 39 121 121

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central GP W L OL SL Pts GF GA

Missouri 36 30 4 1 1 62 127 68

Allen 36 21 14 1 0 43 105 101

Tulsa 34 17 13 2 2 38 93 85

Wichita 38 9 23 2 4 24 74 130

Midwest GP W L OL SL Pts GF GA

Fort Wayne 34 21 11 2 0 44 111 87

Quad City 37 19 15 1 2 41 99 105

Indy 39 17 20 2 0 36 88 104

Cincinnati 35 15 15 3 2 35 100 99

Evansville 36 13 19 3 1 30 99 124

West GP W L OL SL Pts GF GA

Utah 37 22 13 2 0 46 123 105

Idaho 39 17 17 4 1 39 106 112

Rapid City 35 17 15 2 1 37 89 94

Colorado 37 17 18 2 0 36 98 97

Alaska 37 14 18 2 3 33 100 116

Saturday's games

Adirondack 2, Reading 0

Norfolk 3, Manchester 2, OT

Florida 2, Brampton 1, OT

Alaska 5, South Carolina 4, OT

Atlanta 5, Greenville 3

Toledo 4, Wheeling 3

Fort Wayne 1, Rapid City 0

Orlando 2, Indy 0

Allen 3, Cincinnati 2

Quad City 2, Evansville 1

Utah 3, Wichita 2, OT

Colorado 5, Missouri 3

Tulsa 4, Idaho 2