Fuel Sweep Series Against Grizzlies

The Indy Fuel have yet to play a home game this season as they await the renovation of their arena.

The club ended a 15-game road trip in West Valley City Saturday night with a 4-1 win over the Utah Grizzlies to sweep the series. Kevin Lombardi scored two goals to lead his club to victory.

The game may not have been a close affair, but there were plenty of fights and rough stuff to go around.

It was a penalty-ripe first period, with more infractions than goals at the outset. Indy went to the Sin Bin once, while the Grizzlies had two penalties. A total of 14 penalty minutes were assessed between the two teams in the opening frame.

It was the Fuel who finally took advantage of a power-play following a Kabore Dunn slashing call at the 14:04 mark. Cam Hausinger scored just as the man advantage was coming to an end at 16:03.

Lombardi went to work, scoring two goals in the first 27 seconds of the middle frame for a 3-0 Fuel lead. His two goals within 14 seconds of each other set a franchise record for the two quickest goals by the same player. The previous record was 28 seconds set by Kenny Ryan against Quad City in 2017.

The Grizzlies broke their scoring drought at 14:40 of the second period when Briley Wood found the back of the net to narrow the deficit to 3-1.

In the third period, Colin Bilek gave Indy a 4-1 lead 63 seconds into the frame, giving him his third goal of the season and second in the three-game series.

That would be all the scoring, but the on-ice fireworks were only getting started.

The game, which had been chippy almost from the beginning, grew even hotter as tensions boiled over. Six total penalties were issued at the 7:47 mark, including three to Cam Hausinger. One would be a game misconduct.

With 3:22 left in the contest, Darby Llewellyn was checked hard into the boards following a whistle, leading to two misconducts against each team. By the time the final horn had sounded, 117 penalty minutes would be assessed, 68 to the Fuel and 49 to Utah.

Indy dominated the Grizzlies in shots on goal in all three periods, outshooting them 37-17 for the game.

The ECHL will be busy sorting things out after this one.