Mid-Week Preview - Utah Grizzlies vs Idaho Steelheads

The Grizzlies are cramming four games in this week, and they're all on the road. First up is Idaho, with games Tuesday and Wednesday.

Utah has had good luck against the Steelheads this season, winning three out of five match-ups so far. We're hoping that luck holds for these two games. Or at least if it's not luck, the Grizzlies' good hard work will pay off for them yet again. They are currently on a 4 game winning streak, their last loss being to... Idaho. Hm...

The Steelheads haven't been so lucky recently. They've been on a 4 game losing streak since that win in Utah, and have actually lost 8 of their last 10. Two of those losses were shootouts, but still, it's an extra point they haven't claimed. We've said before that teams in slumps kind of make us nervous, just because they could be due a win in the fickle eyes of the hockey gods, and just really come out and put the skunk on the Grizzlies. But then again, the Grizzlies haven't had a really stinky loss in a while. When you work hard all the time like this team, it's hard to really lose by a lot, even if you run into a hot goalie.

As fate would have it, however, the hot goalie is on Utah's side. J. P. Lamoureux - he of the double shut out last weekend - was recently named as the ECHL's Goaltender of the Week. In Adrian Denny's game day blog he comments that it's hard to believe that during the season in which Lamoureux was named Goaltender of the Year, he was never once Goaltender of the Week. We find it harder to believe that a guy named Jean-Pierre is from North Dakota.

Anyway, the Grizzlies are still on top of the Western Conference which makes us very happy. They're 9 points ahead of Idaho, and 6 points behind Greenville. Why do we care about Greenville, you ask? Because they're leading the entire ECHL right now. A win tonight leapfrogs the Grizzlies over Florida into second place in the league, and makes that top spot even more reachable. We don't want to be greedy or anything, but how nice would it be to hit number one in the ECHL?

We would be remiss if we didn't mention what might possibly be the best motivator for the Grizzlies to get a win tonight. It's Coach Colley's birthday today, and we're pretty sure all he wants is a win in Idaho. Two would be even better. Plus we're guessing if they lose there won't be any cake after the game. (Happy Birthday, Coach!)

Puck drops tonight at 7:10 pm in Boise. You can listen on 1230 KFAN-2. Four points possible in the next two days.