ROCHESTER, Minn. – A tough weekend for the Rochester Grizzlies wrapped up with a tough home loss to the Alexandria Blizzard 5-1. This marks the first time this season the Grizzlies have suffered back-to-back losses.
“We can’t just show up and expect to win. I think this has been coming. We haven’t been great recently but we’ve been winning. We’re not going to win every night but to get the doors blown off because you don’t compete two nights in a row is not great,” Head Coach Casey Mignone said.
Last night, the Grizzlies (10-3-0-0) opened the scoring 12 seconds in and then the Blizzard responded with three straight goals in less than three minutes. The start of this game would be different, as both teams would be evenly matched to start the game.
Alexandria scored three goals in the second half of the first period, taking a 3-0 lead into the first intermission. Dylan Mattson, Caleb Strong and Zach Curry would be the goal scorers.
“I think we wanted to try to get to the way we play. It was 3-0, but I wouldn’t say we gave them three goals…I don’t think 3-0 after the first period is insurmountable with the way we’ve shown we can score goals,” Mignone said.
The second period would not be any better for the Grizzlies, as Strong would record two goals to complete his hat trick. Rochester had some chances on net, but Alexandria goaltender Ville Hyttinen would stop Vladislav Sorokin and Matt DeRosa on point blank chances.
“You have to give the goalie credit. That was a great save. He was standing on his head. When you see that happen you have to really bear down and see where you’re shooting,” DeRosa said.
Joey Fodstad would end the shutout bid for Hyttinen at the 9:59 mark of the third period, scoring on a great single-handed effort to make it a 5-1 game. Fodstad would get another chance in the third period on a penalty shot but Hyttinen would make the save.
The Grizzlies would actually outshoot Alexandria 46-40 on the game. Nick Bucklin got the start for Rochester after spending yesterday as backup for the Austin Bruins (NAHL).
“Sometimes when you’re on a 10-game win streak, you think it’s going to be easy. You have to come to work every day and we haven’t done that the past couple days,” Seth Bacon said.
Rochester will put in the work in practice next week to prepare for two road games against the Breezy Point North Stars. These two teams have met twice this season with Rochester winning both. The Grizzlies are back home in two weeks (Nov. 10) and that game is Military Night in Rochester.