WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – The Utah Grizzlies scored twice in the final five minutes to take a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Eagles in the first of three meetings in as many nights between the teams. They’ll face-off Saturday & Sunday night in Colorado.

The Eagles and Grizzlies played a fairly even first period, with each team registering nine shots. But Utah’s first shot on net marked the difference as Mitch Fadden’s spinning effort from the slot beat Andrew Penner at 2:04.

Things got chippy in the second period with three separate fights breaking out, along with several other skirmishes. The Eagles out-shot the Grizzlies 10-9, and were able to tie the game at 1 midway through the frame when Chad Costello added to his league-leading point total by putting a Jack Combs rebound past Andrew Engelage.

Combs put Colorado on top at 14:32 of the third when he knocked home a Jon Landry rebound on the power play. But less than a minute and a half later, Utah countered with a power-play tally of their own as Bryan Cameron knotted the score back up at 2.

And with just 34 seconds left in a game that looked destined for overtime between the two evenly-matched squads, John Armstrong scored on a one-timer from the high slot after taking a feed from Derick Martin.