Utah Grizzlies: Too Much to Overcome

Ahead of AHL camps starting up, and facing the likelihood of losing at least some (if not all) of the five players in Utah on contract with Colorado, the lineup saw even more shakeups. Tanner Jago was released, and Riley Woods, Ryker Killins, and Ryan Lowney all signed and dressed to play. Despite the extreme makeover, the Grizzlies hoped to bring some stability to their game, and get back in the wins column.

Utah got an early chance to try to redeem their penalty kill after allowing quite a few on the power play on Saturday. It did not go to plan, as Luke Scheidl scored at 1:58. The Grizzlies got in a little zone time after that, getting some shots in on Matt Greenfield, but the Mavs picked up their second goal on three shots at 4:50. Though he didn’t get a lot of help from his team, neither goal was great on Payton Jones’ part.

Once again following the goal, the Grizzlies spent some time in the offensive zone, but the Mavericks did a good job of clogging the lanes. Charlie Gerard got a mini breakaway, and shortly thereafter, Kansas City took a slashing penalty, and an additional two for unsportsmanlike conduct. The power play saw passing improved from Saturday, but though they got some chances, they weren’t able to get a much needed goal.

The parade to the penalty box continued as Willie Corrin exited the box, and Gerard entered it. Utah dodged a bullet as, with eight seconds left in the penalty, the puck went into the Utah net. However, upon review, it was clear that it went in off his foot, and the goal was called back.

Unfortunately, Bradley went to the box for interference at 15:02, and this time the goal the Mavericks scored counted. The Mavericks scored again at 17:10, and Jones got pulled in favor of Parker Gahagen to finish the period.

An inglorious first saw Utah down 4-0, shots tied 10 a piece.

The second period did not begin very auspiciously, with Matt Abt heading to the box for holding. However, the penalty kill looked much more like itself, and spent more time in the offensive zone than the Mavericks did. Though Utah looked much better as the second progressed, the Mavericks were able to hold the zone for longer stretches of time, and outshot the Grizzlies 5-2 in the period through the first five minutes.

Cedric Paré was slow off the ice shortly thereafter, and Jenkins was at the heart of another scuffle around the Mavericks’ net which drew a power play. Grizzlies fans got a good look at new guy Woods, as he was at the center of some really nice passing a couple of times on the advantage. But, once again, they came up short.

Fortunately, Paré returned to the ice, and seemed alright, but the penalty problems continued, Pat Cannone heading to the box for goaltender interference. Jenkins again chased the power play into the offensive zone, and the Grizzlies proceeded to score short-handed, Bradley from Woods in a former Growlers teammates connection goal.

Utah continued to look more organized as the period continued, getting some good goaltending from Gahagen when they still found themselves in the defensive zone, including one where he got knocked down and made the save anyway. A scuffle between Scheidl and Gerard sent them both to the box, and with a little more open ice, A.J. White made it 4-2 with slightly over three to go.

Boucher drew a cross-check penalty in front of the Mavs net with seconds to go in the second sent Utah into the intermission outshooting Kansas City 24-22.

Bradley made life interesting on a Utah power play about five into the period when Greenfield left his net to play the puck, and put it right on Bradley’s stick. Greenfield dove back to make the save, and the power play came to an end without a change in score. However, Utah also took the shot lead 30-25.

They got another crack at the power play with just under nine to go, but weren’t able to capitalize. The Grizzlies played well through the end of the period, but were unable to cut down the score, despite outshooting the Mavs 38-28 into the last couple of minutes.

They pulled Gahagen with 2:30ish to go, but unfortunately the Mavs scored into the empty net to complete the victory.

Gahagen was a perfect 19/19 at the end of the game, and the Grizzlies played much better in the second and third, but that dreadful first period proved too much to overcome.

Bradley led the team with eight shots, while Boucher and Horn had four a piece. Overall, it was an improvement on Saturday’s game, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

“Obviously, it’s tough to climb out of a four nothing hole, right?” Coach Branham said. “I thought in the second and third, we played extremely well and played our kind of game. And, you know, I think it’s an adjustment adding so many players all the time. Hopefully, we can just manage the roster here a little bit and get some chemistry amongst guys. I thought we finally got a little better on the penalty kill as the game went on. But our power play goes one for six, that’s not a good thing. We’ve been getting on special teams all year, it’s just too bad that we didn’t carry it through at all this weekend. We’ve got a little bit of work to do. And we’ll get back at ‘er.”

When asked what needed to happen to get that complete sixty minutes that has eluded the Grizzlies, some of it’s about experience, and some of it is just a matter of time.

“When you when you look at our roster, we’re pretty young, when you look at our guys up front, we’ve got a couple of veteran guys, but a lot of first year players. You look at our back end with Scheid and Myllari, and even Gendron and Johnston, there’s gonna be some ups and downs, and there’s gonna be some inconsistencies. That’s something that we’ve talked about every game, playing a full 60 minutes, and that’s part of being that professional.”

“Here’s one thing I know,” he added, “We’re off to a decent start. Decent. There’s a couple of games there where we could easily have won. I think it’s an unbelievable group of guys. They’ve got a ton of character and they want to do well. So we just got to find a little bit of consistency and a little bit of chemistry amongst each other — and keep working. I think this is a special team, and once again, we’re losing five guys, tomorrow to the American League, and we’re adding six guys, so there’s a little bit of movement here. But we got a couple days of practice to try to get on the same page and a big weekend against Rapid.”

One of the biggest challenges the team has faced is the above mentioned turnover of personnel. Currently they have what amounts to an entire starting lineup and then some either injured or on reserve, and then some in Diego Cuglietta, Joe Wegwerth, Mitch Maxwell, Yuri Terao, Garrett Johnston, Alex Lepkowski, Teigan Zahn, and Brad Barone, and it’s not about to slow down. Such is life in the ECHL, so it’s not an excuse, but it does effect the game.

“It’s a huge challenge. I mean, we already had three guys tonight that have no idea what kind of systems we play, and two of them are defenseman. But you know, it’s what I was telling them, we’ve got three losses, we’re above 500. We’re doing okay. We’ve won a few games. It’s a long season, we’ve got 60 something games to go, so, like I said, it’s a good group they want to do well, they’ve got the ability to do well. I like our chances.”

There were a couple of bright spots in the game as well, as players like Woods teased a little of what he has to offer the Grizzlies.

“Woodsy’s a good player, he’s good on the face off, he’s tenacious, he’s a good penalty killer, which you can never have enough of, he’s gonna be a special player. That’s for sure. That’s one guy you want to keep an eye on.”

The other new additions, defencemen Ryan Lowney and Riker Killins had quiet nights, but Coach had good things to say about them too.

“Ryan, he’s a proven player at this level. You can tell he’s a savvy vet back there who can move the puck, he’s a good two way guy. Riker is a young kid, still trying to find his way in this league and bring a consistent game, but he’s very talented offensively, which we didn’t really use a whole lot tonight. We just didn’t want to throw too much at these guys, we wanted to kind of get their feet wet. But I thought they both had a real strong game today. They haven’t skated a whole lot at all, so for them to jump in and have a strong game that was pretty good.”

Fortunately with all this roster turnover, they’ve got a week to spend getting guys familiar with each other and with the system before they head out to Rapid City to hopefully return to their winning ways.

Goals

First Period: None
Second Period: Bradley (Woods) (SH), White (Boucher)
Third Period: None
Jones: 6/10
Gahagen: 19/19

Image courtesy of Rob Church.

Utah Grizzlies: Costly Lapses

In the second of three games in four days, the Grizzlies’ lineup looked more or less the same, sans Tiegan Zahn (suspended for two games) and Parker Gahagen in net for Payton Jones. In net for Kansas City was former Grizz Joel Rumpel.

The game got off to a wild start, the Grizzlies striking just 1:23 in, A.J. White scoring his first from Matthew Boucher and Chris Myllari, then Tanner Jago took an interference penalty barely twenty seconds later. The Mavs scored on their power play at 3:26, and put up four shots to Utah’s one.

As might have been apparent from that fleury of activity in the opening five minutes, both teams came out with a lot more energy. Utah got their first power play of the night at 8:51 drawn by Jack Jenkins. The power play was not the Grizzlies’ friend though, as a pass to the point was picked off by Brodie Reid, who beat Gahagen one-on-one.

Utah got a second chance on the power play as Christian Horn drew another cross-checking call on Willie Corrin. With 22 seconds to go on the advantage, both White and Crawford were sent to the box for matching minors. The parade to the penalty box continued, Charlie Gerard heading there at 14:42, and the Mavs striking again. Utah then got a power play of their own, and then a goal of their own. Christian Horn got his second of the season from Miles Gendron and a goalie assist from Gahagen.

Just over a minute later, Pat Cannone tied the game from Gendron and Gerard, and the period ended 3-3, shots 10-10 — a marked contrast from Friday’s quiet opening twenty.

43 seconds into the second Boucher took a double minor for high-sticking, putting Utah on the PK for four minutes, and the Grizzlies gave up a third power play goal.

The period steadied up a bit after that, but shots increasingly went in favor of the Mavericks, 19-13 at the half-way mark, despite a power play for Utah.

In the minutes that followed, the Mavs kept the Grizzlies in their own end for long stretches, but surprisingly didn’t add up that many more shots, outshooting Utah 22-14 by the five minute mark.

Utah was able to counter-strike, though, Paré passing the puck to a flying Gerard, who broke in all alone and tied the game at 14:40.

They then took and drew penalties at 15:56 and 16:50 respectively, but the second ended in a 4-4 tie (though the Mavs had a 24-16 lead in shots).

The Grizzlies got an early power play to start the third, but the best chance on it was a short-handed one, turned calmly aside by Gahagen.

The game quieted down significantly after that, Utah finally establishing some zone time in the second half of the period, and gradually chipped into the Mavs’ shot lead.

Both teams picked up the pace a bit as the game hit the final three minutes of regulation, but neither team scored, sending them OT shots 31-24 for KC.

Trey Bradley had a nice chance, as did Boucher, Abt and Leier tangled following a chance from Paré, and both took roughing penalties at 1:53. Things almost got too interesting when one Utah player drew a holding call, Gahagen went to the bench for the extra skater, another Utah player got tripped up playing the puck, and Cannone dove to keep the puck out of the net. Because the last person to touch it was a Utah skater not a Mavericks skater, the goal would have counted, so Cannone had to make the play. Unfortunately, in what was technically the correct call, but which also felt a bit chintzy, Cannone got a delay of game penalty for knocking the net off as he knocked the puck away, to match the holding call on KC, and the Mavs scored to end the game.

“Obviously, our defensive effort wasn’t quite there tonight” Coach Branham said, “We were terrible on the on the penalty kill, you know, sloppy on the power play, our five-on-five play was sloppy. We weren’t making plays that we normally make. And you know, when that happens you let a team stick around. I liked the way that we battled back in the first, we battled back in the second, had a lot of chances there in the third just didn’t bury, and when you leave it to chance when you go in overtime, it is what it is. We’ve got to learn from that and be better for next game.”

When asked what needs to be improved he said, “We need to focus on playing a full 60 minutes. There’s not one game this year where we’ve played a full 60, where we’ve come back and been like, you know, all three periods were solid. We haven’t been able to say that. We’ve got to fight. But we’re young. That’s the thing. We’re a very young team. Yeah, we’ve got guys like Pat Cannone and Teigan Zahn, but the majority of our team is rookies and really young guys. You’re gonna have those ups and downs, you know, so we’re just gotta get to learn from it. We got to make sure we come out play hard, play fast. But keep things simple. We try to do too much at times at the offensive blue line and we make bad decisions. At the end of the day tonight, we’ve got to be better defensively. We left Parker [Gahagen] out to dry a few times. And they scored three power play goals, one short-handed goal, and a goal in overtime. And that’s just not good enough. That’s not us, you know, so we got to get to get back to what makes us successful for next game.”

It was a rough night for a number of players, but Charlie Gerard wasn’t one of them, and was named one of the stars of the game with one goal, one assist, and three shots.

“Honestly, Charlie’s gonna be a really good pro. You know, we’ll see him next game, and then he’ll be going to Colorado and I wouldn’t be shocked if he never came back. He’s a very talented player, very good kid, a super hard worker, great skater, and he’s special. We’re lucky to have him right now. Hopefully we can use him one more game and then see what he’s got up in the next level.”

Gerard is one of a number of players, including Joe Wegwerth, Ian Scheid, Matt Abt, and Payton Jones who will likely be heading to the AHL when Eagles camp opens.

“It is what it is” Branham concluded, “We made a lot of mental mistakes tonight that we gotta clean up and learn from.”

The Grizzlies have Sunday off before playing the Mavericks again on Monday.

Goals

First Period: White (Boucher, Myllari), Horn (Gendron, Gahagen) (PP), Cannone (Gendron, Gerard)
Second Period: Gerard (Paré)
Third Period: None:
OT: None

Photo courtesy of Rob Church.

Utah Grizzlies: Happy Homecoming

After going with some small tweaks here and there, the Grizzlies’ roster saw quite the shake-up prior to their first game against the Kansas City Mavericks. Joe Wegwerth and Diego Cuglietta are both out with injuries, Alex Lepkowski and Yuri Terao both were also out of the lineup, while Jared Pike, re-signed a few days ago, Tanner Jago and Matt Hoover all drew back in.

The game got off to a pretty quiet start, both teams getting two shots before play was briefly delayed to repair a stanchion, but things picked up first with Payton Jones shutting down a breakaway attempt, and then Teigan Zahn was given five and a game for an illegal check to the head.

Utah rose to the challenge, Kansas City only getting two good sets of opportunities on the five minute power play, and the Grizzlies getting one on a two-on-none breakaway. Jones also made at least one really nice save, and the Utah defense blocked several other shots.

A couple of shifts later, Utah got a great chance, the puck seemingly hitting the post, then trickling out from under the KC goalie. The officials reviewed the play, but there was no goal.

Matthew Boucher drew a power play at 15:19, but weren’t able to capitalize, and the Mavericks got a power play of their own as Utah got dinged for too many men.

Despite the multiple penalties and the five minute major, shots a nice, even 8-7 for Kansas City at the end of the first.

Utah got off to an excellent start in the opening couple minutes of the second, outshooting the Mavericks 3-1 to start. They continued hold the shot lead, and at 9:32 Miles Gendron opened the scoring from Horn and Pat Cannone. Unfortunately, KC answered about a minute later, when Brodie Reid put the puck over the shoulder of Jones from a tight angle.

Utah continued to work though, and at about the 15 minute mark, Bradley and Canonne flew in together, Bradley making a beautiful pass across the crease to Cannone, whose second of the year was as nice as you please.

At the end of a much more lively second period, Utah had established the shot lead 18-13 in addition to the 2-1 lead were it mattered most.

The first power play since the first period went to Utah at 1:36 into the third, and Cédric Paré rocketed an elevated pass from Cannone into the back of the net.

Abt caused a ruckus behind the Mavericks’ net with about five gone, and a couple of shifts later, Hoover was manhandled down to the ice and held there directly in front of a ref with no call. However, the Grizzlies decided that revenge was best served on the score sheet, Boucher getting his first pro goal at 6:41 from A.J. White and Bradley.

The Mavs showed significantly greater signs of life after their time-out following the goal, but they remained without a shot through the first ten minutes of the third, being outshot 14-0.

After that, it was just a matter of keeping Kansas City off the scoreboard, which Utah did without getting much push-back. The trio of Horn, Hoover, and Boucher looking especially good.

When the game ended to the cheering of the 1680 fans in attendance, Utah had outshot the Mavs 36-16. In a very convincing win.

Cannone’s goal and two assists earned him first star, while Boucher’s first pro goal and assist took second, and Bradley’s two assists took third. Jones made 15/16 saves for his fourth win of the season.

“Patty’s unbelievable,” Branham said of Canonne after the game. “Obviously, we’re lucky to have Patty. He doesn’t really belong at this level. You know, he’s got a brand new baby. And he didn’t want to make the trek over to over to Europe. He’s here to earn a call up to the American League. So we’re extremely lucky to have him. He’s an unbelievable person off the ice, a great leader in that room, and you see what he does on a nightly basis.

“Boucher is a great addition,” he continued, “young kid, who again, we’re lucky to have. If it wasn’t for COVID, we wouldn’t have him because he’d still be in school. His dad played in the NHL, and he’s a solid, solid defensive player. You see what he’s got offensively, but he’s so smart defensively. It’s nice. You can put him out there in any situation. He’s got a very, very high hockey IQ.

Trey Bradley had another good night. He was all over the map and making plays and stuff like that, Paré had a nice goal on the power play so those big guns came through for us tonight.”

“I am excited about this group of guys,” he said. “Next week, we’re gonna have a different group of guys because we have five or six guys leaving for the American League. So that’s gonna present a new challenge in itself.”

“We’ve got some injuries right now right with Wegwerth, Terao, Cuglietta” he added, “Those are three pretty good players out of the line-up. On the back end Lepkowski’s out, those are four high end players for us, so I don’t think our depth is as good as it could be right now. But we’ve got a lot of hard work up front, that’s for sure. Our D are pretty solid… It’s a big mobile D core, which I like, they’re not overly physical. They’re not super offensive besides Scheid. He’s a really special player, that’s for sure. Ian Schied, he’s really special.

“The other guys are good two-way D men that move the puck really well. And obviously we’re solid in net. You see Jones and you see Gahagen and Barone. They’re good goalies. So we’re extremely deep. We’ve got high hopes for this team.”

As is life in the ECHL though, especially with the AHL season starting up soon, the lineup is going to be shaken up further. But before that, they’ve got to play the next two games against Kansas City, a task which is going to be all about consistency.

“We need to play the way we did at the end of the game, play the same way tomorrow, get a day off, then find a way to play that same way on Monday.”

Goals

First Period: None
Second Period: Gendron (Horn, Cannone), Cannone (Bradley, Boucher)
Third Period: Paré (Cannone, Scheid) (PP), Boucher (White, Bradley)
Jones: 15/16 saves

Photo courtesy of Tim Broussard.

Utah Grizzlies: No Dice

In game two against the Oilers, the Grizzlies lineup saw a minor shuffle, as Teigan Zahn drew into the roster in place of Alex Lepkowski, and Parker Gahagen got the start.

The Oilers got the first chance on net to start the game, but Utah jumped on the puck thereafter, getting a couple of shots, and causing some scuffles in front of the Tulsa net due to their insistence on trying to get second chances.

Both teams showed good speed, and the Grizzlies looked more alert and cohesive than they had the previous night. Especially of note was some nice puck movement from Scheid and the Boucher-Gerard-White line. Shots are 5-4 for Utah with 11:44 to go.

Zahn took an interference penalty at 8:25, and Gahagen made a nice save on an Oilers player who muscled his way past a Utah defender. Utah killed off the penalty fairly comfortably, but Diego Cuglietta took a hooking call at 11:57 to send Utah back to the penalty kill.

In the final five minutes, Tulsa got the best of the zone time, doubling Utah up on shots, but Gahagen was calm under pressure, shutting down the Oilers’ chances.

After 20 the Oilers outshot Utah 16-7, but there was no score.

Utah challenged a little more to start the second than they had at the end of the first, and drew a power play at 4:44. The good news was that by the end of the advantage, they had as many shots in the first seven minutes as they had in the entirety of the first, but the bad news was that they didn’t score.

They picked up momentum, and got some zone time, but took a too-many-men penalty ten minutes into the period. The kill started and ended with Utah in the offensive zone, as the Grizzlies killed it efficiently.

There wasn’t much of note between then and the end of the period, but the Grizzlies did significantly close the shot gap, outshooting Tulsa 12-9 in the period, though the Oilers still held the shot lead 25-19. Over all, the Grizzlies’ second period was superior to their first, but neither team was able to break the deadlock.

The Oilers got a power play 46 seconds in as Gerard tripped up an Oilers player in the offensive zone. Tulsa didn’t score on the advantage, but they did score just seconds after Gerard returned to the ice. Former Grizz J.C. Brassard got the primary assist.

Utah got a power play opportunity of their own, and there was some question of a puck going in with 14:48 to go which resulted in a very lengthy review. After about five minutes it was eventually concluded that there was no goal, and the power play continued.

Miles Gendron and Maxim Golod took matching minors as a crowd gathered at 12:35. Utah continued to close the shot-gap, but were unable to beat Roman Durny. The Grizzlies pulled Gahagen with a minute to go, but when the buzzer sounded, Durny’s shutout remained intact.

Overall, the Grizzlies struggled to hold the offensive zone for any extended period of time, and when they did, despite picking up quite a few shots, missed the net a surprising amount at crucial moments.

No one was particularly bad for the Grizzlies, but no one really looked great either, except Gahagen, who was excellent in net. Matthew Boucher and Charlie Gerard led the team with four shots.

These two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon.

Goals

First: None
Second: None
Third: None
Gahagen: 31/32

Photo courtesy of Tim Broussard

Utah Grizzlies: New Faces

It’s the very beginning of the second week of the year, and it turns out that there are, in fact, teams in the league other than the Rapid City Rush, contrary to all that the Grizzlies games have showed us this year.

Since the last series of games, there have been some roster changes. A.J. White and and Matthew Boucher joined the roster, which meant that Brayden Gelsinger, Edwin Hookenson, and Jared Pike were all released. Payton Jones once again got the start, while the line of Boucher, Cédric Paré and Yuri Terao and the pairing of Garrett Johnston and Miles Gendron started in front of him.

Utah drew a quick power play just 27 seconds into the game, and picked up three of the game’s first four shots in the opening five minutes, which they largely controlled.

They returned to the power play at 6:41 on a slashing call near the Tulsa net, Tulsa had a two-on-one short-handed, but didn’t get the shot off, and the Grizzlies returned to the offensive zone. Utah picked up two more shots, but the Oilers returned to full strength with no further changes.

Past the ten-minute mark, Tulsa began to even up the flow of play a little, but Utah largely kept them away from the center of the ice. Christian Horn took an offensive zone penalty at 16:25 and the Oilers evened up the shots 9-9.

The first period was definitely a feeling-out period for both teams, who have, obviously, not faced each-other yet this season.

Paré drew an early penalty in the second, but Utah was unable to capitalize, and Jack Badini got a breakaway straight out of the penalty box to make it 1-0. The Grizzlies didn’t let the lead stand long though, Gerard getting his third of the year from Pat Cannone at 3:59.

Tray Bradley took a hooking call and Tulsa scored, but Matt Abt protested that the play was made with a high-stick. Some review occurred, and the goal remained, though there was an angle played eventually that showed that Abt was probably right. Tulsa seemingly made it 3-1 on the next shift, but the net came off, and Jones ended up without his helmet, and it was waived off.

Alex Lepkowski was rocked in the defensive zone with about half the second to go, and Mitch Maxwell was not pleased, though play went the other way, and Utah evened shots up at 15 around that time.

Wegwerth took a penalty with about four to go, once again for hooking, but the Oilers only got a shot on the advantage.

After 40, Tulsa led 2-1, shots 18-17 in their favor.

Utah had a decent start to the third, outshooting Tulsa 4-0 in the first five minutes, and drew a power play. They did not score on the advantage, but they did establish the offensive zone time that led to two chances for Paré that were turned aside, and a third that beat Olle Eriksson Ek to tie the game.

By the half-way mark of the third, Utah was outshooting Tulsa 10-1, and looking far more focused overall. Despite that, they took yet another hooking call in their own end at 11:08, but killed it off.

Both teams got offensive zone time, Utah getting the better of it, but neither team was able to break the deadlock. Unfortunately, Ian Scheid took a delay of game penalty with five seconds to go, meaning that the Oilers got 1:55 of power play time to start OT. The pace picked up considerably following the return to three-on-three, which started out going in favor of Utah, but Tulsa ended the game with a goal from Bryce Kindopp.

Utah did pick up a point in the loss, and outshot Tulsa 28-25.

Gerard picked up third star. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible game, but the Grizzlies didn’t look quite so cohesive as they had previously — though that is understandable, considering the roster changes. Utah plays Tulsa again on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

Goals

First Period: None
Second Period: Gerard (Cannone)
Third Period: Paré (Johnston, Maxwell)
Jones: 23/25 saves

Photo courtesy of Tim Broussard.