BOISE, Idaho — A little overtime is paying off for the Idaho Steelheads, who return to Boise Monday night for game 6 of their first-round playoff series with the Utah Grizzlies.
The puck drops at 7:10 p.m. Monday in Idaho Central Arena, where the Steelheads lost the first two games of the series and were looking at a tough swim upstream in their quest for the Kelly Cup. Idaho, the top ECHL team in the regular season, rose to the occasion and gained a 3-2 advantage in the series with three straight wins, all in overtime and all on the Grizzlies’ home ice in the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah.
Steelheads right wing Ryan Dmowski said the turnaround has given the team much-needed momentum as they return to home ice.
“It’s huge. Coming back home to Boise, we wanted that 3-2 series and we’re really excited for this next game,” Dmowski said. “We’re not going to play any different. We’re going to come out with a lot of fire, we’re going to come out with a lot of energy from that. I think it got the boys going, and really put the ‘believe’ in us, so we’re excited for it.”
In game 5 on Saturday, Utah scored first, with a goal by Nolan Ritchie 3 minutes into the game, but just 27 seconds later with the Steelheads on a power play, Justin Ducharme evened the score at 1-1, assisted by Jordan Kawaguchi and Dawson Barteaux.
About midway through the second period, Dmowski put the Steelies ahead 2-1, but the Grizzlies evened things up with 37 seconds remaining in the period, and neither team scored in the third.
Just 86 seconds after overtime got underway, Dmowski and Owen Headrick set up Willie Knierim for the game winner and put the Steelheads in the driver’s seat for the series. Steelheads goalie Adam Scheel made 29 saves out of Utah's 31 shots on goal.
The Steelheads can punch their ticket to the second round with a win Monday night or, if a Utah win makes game 7 necessary, Tuesday night. Regarding tickets for Monday's game, the online ticketing site showed no available seats remaining Monday morning for the 100 level, and limited availability for 200-level seats.
The winner of this series will face either the Kansas City Mavericks or Allen Americans in the finals of the Mountain Division. Allen holds a 3-2 lead over Kansas City in their divisional semifinal series going into game 6, scheduled for Monday night in Allen, Texas.
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