Utah Grizzlies: No Bones About It

After a 5-2 loss in regulation yesterday, the Grizzlies looked for redemption. The lines saw a bit of a shake up, though the personnel remained the same, except in net, where Brad Barone was backed up by Even Buitenhuis.

The game didn’t get off to an auspicious start, the Americans scoring 1:32 into the first. Things got chippy after that, Tiegan Zahn getting into it with Dyson Stevenson, and then Matt Hoover dropping the gloves with him at 3:15. Stevenson got the best of him, but Hoover put up quite a fight, and was remarkably strong on his skates.

The Grizzlies got the first power play of the night at 6:03, but though they moved the puck pretty well, and had some good looks, they were unable to turn the advantage into anything. The same was true for Allen when they got a power play at 12:40, following a hit on Miles Gendron, and a holding call on Riley Woods.

For a period that had a goal and a fight, it was remarkably quiet. The Grizzlies looked more prepared for the Americans’ speed, but then again, neither team really did anything worth noting. Shots were 7-4 for Allen at the end of it all.

The Grizzlies started better, Hunter Skinner looking quite poised, looked good, but the Americans drew the first power play as Skinner and Miles Gendron raced to break up an Allen chance. Skinner threw himself in front of some pucks on the kill, Barone made some saves, but the Americans scored on another redirection to make it 2-0 at 2:11.

Allen built on the momentum of the power play goal for a shift or so, but the Grizzlies pushed back, Skinner and the Woods line creating some opportunities. The Americans took a too many men penalty at 4:45, but Barone got dinged with playing the puck outside of the trapezoid, and the Americans got a brief four-on-four, then power play out of it.

Things got a little heated shortly afterwards around the Allen net, and the game devolved into more clutching and grabbing, with some big hits around the midway mark. Barone made some good saves, though shots for both teams remained low 13-7 with about seven left.

Utah had some long stretches in the Americans’ zone after that but largely were held to the boards. A.J. White and Kris Myllari woke up the fans at 14:55, flying in two-on-one. White took the initial shot, and the rebound found itself right on the stick of Myllari who scored his first pro goal to cut the lead in half.

With about a minute to go, the Americans came storming into the offensive zone, but a block from Garrett Johnston sent the puck the other way. White got a look of his own with forty something seconds to go, but despite evening up the shots (15-13 for the Americans), they were unable to tie it up before the end of the frame.

The Grizzlies came out hot to start the third, picking up two shots and making life interesting for the Americans around their goalie just 19 seconds in. That jump persisted as the period progressed, Utah doing a much better job of breaking up passes, and generally showing more creativity in the offensive zone than they had.

Zahn took a roughing penalty behind the play at 3:14, but the Grizzlies killed it off, allowing only one shot. Utah continued to build on their work, playing some of their best hockey since the roster got shaken up by injuries and call-ups, and drew a power play at 8:59. The Grizzlies passed better than they had all game, and the Americans took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with just over a minute remaining on the first penalty.

The Grizzlies held on to the puck five-on-three, making the Americans move, and then the puck went to the stick of Pat Cannone. Cannone’s fifth of the season tied the game, and the Grizzlies remained on the advantage.

They weren’t able to capitalize again, but retained control of the general flow of the game, outshooting Allen 26-21 through 15 minutes.

Skinner took a tripping penalty with under two to go, Barone made some big saves, and the Grizzlies kept Allen off the score-sheet in the third, heading into OT.

The Grizzlies killed off the end of the penalty, and though Allen got more zone time, the Grizzlies did a good job of helping Barone out. At the end of OT, shots were 33-29 for the Americans, and the game headed to the shoot out. Jesse Mychan was the only skater to score, giving Allen the 3-2 win.

It wasn’t the result the Grizzlies wanted, but it is definitely an encouraging sign that their third period was the best hockey we’ve seen in some time. Barone was solid in net, Jack Jenkins picked up the team-leading six shots, White had two assists, and overall in the third, passing was more crisp, the skating was strong, and the defense was up to par. Woods’ point streak came to an end, but he remains a point a game since his signing, and with his goal, Cannone extended his point streak to four. Skinner now has four points in his first four pro games. Guys like Johnston also had good games, despite not showing up on the score sheet. If Utah can replicate that third period for more of the game tomorrow, it should be a good game.

Goal

First Period: None
Second Period: Myllari (White)
Third Period: Cannone (White, Skinner) (PP)
Barone: 30/32 saves

Images courtesy of Tim Broussard and Rob Church.

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.