WEST VALLEY CITY -- Rick Tabaracci could not remember his last shutout. "One of those pit stops back there earlier in the season -- probably Cleveland," said the Utah Grizzly goalie, who blanked Manitoba 2-0 on Tuesday night at the E Center.
    What a difference 48 hours makes. Or 30 minutes. Or five seconds. Sunday night, Tabaracci was pitching a shutout at IHL Western Conference-leading Chicago for half the game. Only a Wolves goal with less than a second left in regulation kept Tabaracci from a 2-1 win. Chicago eventually took a 3-2 shootout win.
    "We figure that [loss] was rock bottom," Tabaracci said Tuesday after stopping all 27 Manitoba shots -- 13 in the first period, when the Grizzly goalie must have wondered where his colleagues were hiding out.
    Tabaracci, like Grizzly Coach Bob Bourne, was talking about confidence again after Utah recorded its first victory since a 3-2 decision at Long Beach on March 24. The Grizz had lost two outright and four by shootout since then, plummeting them into a fight for a first-round bye in the playoffs two weeks hence.
    "Once confidence starts slipping, it's tough to get it back," said Tabaracci, who has made stops this year at Orlando and Cleveland of the IHL and Colorado of the NHL. "We've found it tough to finish off a game. But once we got the jitters out of the way tonight, I could sense the confidence building."
    Bourne said, oddly enough, that the stunning loss to Chicago was not that devastating. "It wasn't that tough coming back. The team had a great attitude," he said. Maybe it was because the Grizzlies had a rare day off Monday.
    "We haven't had the advantage of a day off for a long time," Bourne said.
    It was, as Bourne said, not a great game -- not nearly of the playoff tenor Sunday's game exuded. But he said he saw a little fun creeping back into his club's play. "We didn't have a lot of fun there for about three weeks. I just told them to go do their job and have some fun."
    "Fun" in this case met choking off the Moose at nearly every opportunity, especially during the Manitoba shooting blitz of the first period. After Ted Crowley got his second goal as a Grizzly at 10:57, a rebound from up the slot off a save by Moose goalie Manny Legace,Utah checked Manitoba into submission.
    The Utah penalty-killing unit was superb. "That kind of play can make a goalie look awfully good," said Tabaracci, taking note of five kills by his teammates. "We've been good at [penalty-killing] all year," said Bourne of a team that's ranked second in the IHL.
    Utah will welcome the return of leading scorer Jarrod Skalde, who has finished a four-game IHL suspension. "Let's see," mused Bourne, "we got five points in the four games he was out." Still, the Grizzly coach says Skalde will add to the team's confidence.
    The Grizzlies gave Tabaracci some breathing room at 12:49 of the second period when Paul Purves scored his 32nd goal of the season. Purves had just emerged from the penalty box and took a pass in the left face-off circle off a 3-on-1 break.
    This time, the Grizzlies didn't blow their lead. They preserved the shutout for their fourth different goalie this year with Tabaracci's gem following those by Corey Hirsch, Ian Gordon and Rick Parent. It marked the first time in franchise history four different netminders registered a shutout in a season.
    Even if Tabaracci couldn't remember the last time he had one.