Grrrowl's goaltending downs Lynx

Just when the Augusta Lynx seemed to have gathered momentum and turned a corner on their season, they were held back by some familiar demons.

Trying to close out their longest homestand of the season with a victory Saturday night, the Lynx were brought down by their own inconsistency and the Greenville Grrrowl in a 4-1 loss at Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center.

Augusta (16-19-3) had won four of its previous six and was threatening to move up in the South Division, but Greenville (21-11-1) continued its red-hot play and pushed the Lynx into a seven-game road stretch with a humbling loss.

With a chance to win three consecutive games for the first time all season, the Lynx were overpowered by a much more physical Greenville team, surrendering a trio of first-period goals.

The Grrrowl, who have won nine of their past 11 games, moved to 11-3 on the road and 4-1 against Augusta this year.

Lynx captain Ryan Lang scored Augusta's only goal after the game was out of reach, with an assist from Ken Scuderi.

Augusta remained in sixth place in the standings, a point behind South Carolina, which the Lynx visits next Friday.

Augusta appeared to have the upper hand early Saturday, keeping pressure in the Grrrowl zone and outshooting Greenville, 11-2. But Grrrowl netminder Mike Morrison, down on a conditioning assignment from the Edmonton Oilers, thwarted several near scores and was strong all night.

Greenville turned around and netted three in a row, from Cody Blanshan, Jason Jozsa and Allan Sirois.

Blanshan deflected a long Sirois shot over the right shoulder of Jason Wolfe at the 8:20 mark. Jozsa scored with 2:33 left in the first, deflecting a long floater between Wolfe's legs for a power play tally, and Sirois took advantage of some fancy passing 90 seconds later to beat Wolfe high stick-side.

Greenville extended its lead to 4-0 in the second when John Snowden flipped in a Les Haggett rebound at 13:55 into the period. Wolfe made several impressive saves during the middle 20 minutes, but Augusta could never seem to put together legitimate offensive threats.

The drought ended when Lang rebounded Scuderi's shot and put it past Morrison with 8:11 left.

Augusta, which entered ranked 24th in the league on the power play, continued its struggles, going 0-for-2.

NOTES: Lynx emergency back-up goaltender Brian Haaland, with the team because Mike Wall was called up to Portland this week, is a rear tire changer for Rick Hendrick's NASCAR motorsports team. Haaland played with Augusta's Joe Pereira at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Reach Steve Sanders at (706) 823-3216 or steven.l.sanders@augustachronicle.com.