Game Day: Bakersfield Condors

Bakersfield tonight.

The Grizzlies are fresh off a road win in Las Vegas, which saw Kevin Deeth tally up another 3 points. This makes the rookie 3 points in the last 3 games according to Adrian Denny's game day blog. So, Bakersfield will definitely have their eyes on the Gig Harbor native.


In order to beat the stats, Utah will want to score first against the Condors who are 10-3-1 when they tally the first goal. With the top ranked power play in the ECHL and a firepower defenseman like Nick Tuzzolino, the Grizzlies should have ample ability to accomplish scoring the first goal of the night.

The Condor to watch for in this series is Stephane Goulet, who has picked up 7 points against Utah so far this season. And while we're kind of getting sick of Bakersfield (as the boys have played them 8 times already this year), this game will also be Brad Snetsinger's return to Grizzlies ice, as he was traded to the Condors about a week ago.

The Grizzlies are advertising that if you brave the weather, you can get a free voucher to the January 12th game. Not a bad deal if you can make it there.

Puck drops at 7:05pm.

Character Development

If you're anything like us, you probably uttered (or yelled, depending on where you were) something not repeatable in polite company when you found out last week that the Grizzlies had traded their leading scorer, Brad Snetsinger, away to Bakersfield. Our rant went from "Wha- why?" to "That makes no sense," to "They'd better get someone amazing back," to "Why do they do this to us?" in just under five minutes. Yeah, we get that this is the ECHL and players move around a lot, but the leading scorer? Not to mention how well he was doing in the Grizzlies' line up as of late. It almost seems like a conspiracy to make us pull our hair out before the playoffs even start. (It's probably Coach Colley's revenge on us for commenting on his highlights last season.)

During the game on the 21st, Adrian Denny interviewed Simon Ferguson, and he mentioned this trade. He pointed out that Coach Colley felt pretty secure in making this move, even though Brad Snetsinger had been great for the team. Ferguson's response was this:

"I think we've got a lot of really good character guys in there, that everyone wants to work for each other, everyone wants to play for each other. So it's a good mix, and hopefully we can continue the way things are going right now."

We've been saying for most of the season that this team isn't really a team of all-stars, nor do they have any one player who is the big scoring threat, but we don't even really listen to ourselves half the time. But Simon Ferguson IS a character guy, and they say it takes one to know one.

Ferguson has 287 games of AHL experience (including 19 playoff games) with 4 different teams, including last season's Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears. He's been around a while and has seen it takes to make a successful team. This is a guy who isn't afraid to put in the effort to improve himself and his game. He even trained with boxer Jesse James Leija, and it's telling what Leija had to say about him after the workout - "You know why he's good - because he wants to work hard all the time." (Watch here - interview about the 6:39 mark.)

So when Simon Ferguson says the team is full of character guys who want to work for each other, we can trust he knows what he's talking about. As much as we fans like to whine and complain, the team is still going in the right direction.

Not that we still won't miss Snetsinger... especially when we play Bakersfield.

Speaking of Simon Ferguson, he had two goals in last night's 5-3 win over Las Vegas. Tim Crowder also had a goal, just like we guessed he would. Apparently Timmy likes playing in Vegas. Next up, the Bakersfield Condors on Wednesday. Uh... welcome home, Brad?

We would be remiss if we didn't mention just a couple of items outside the Grizzlies realm.

First of all, the World Junior Championships started last weekend in Buffalo, New York. USA and Canada both won their first games. Anyone hoping for a gold medal rematch from last year? For more information, you can check out USA Hockey's website.

Secondly, the NHL Winter Classic is on Saturday, January 1st in Pittsburgh. The hosting Pittsburgh Penguins will match up with the Washington Capitals on an outdoor rink. Check out the Winter Classic website - you'll find everything you ever wanted to know about this event, including a live webcam where you can watch the ice being built at Heinz Field. If you're not a little bit excited for this, turn in your "hockey fan" badge now.

And if you're planning on going to the game on Wednesday night, watch out for the weather. We're hoping our mom will let us spray down her back yard before the cold front settles in. Hey, it's Winter Classic time.

Fake Weekend Preview - Utah Grizzlies vs Idaho Steelheads

We know it's not really the weekend, but since an actual weekend preview would read something like this...

We expect Santa to be dropping by sometime tonight to bring us presents. Or coal. We're not sure how good we've been.

...we're just going to move the traditional Weekend Preview post up a little bit.


Tuesday and Wednesday the Grizzlies host the Steelheads at the Maverik Center. For at least one game - the game on Tuesday - both teams will be down a player. Idaho will be missing Kael Mouillierat due to a one game suspension, and Utah has just traded forward Brad Snetsinger to Bakersfield for a player to be named later. We don't know how much later, but we're not sure they'll get it announced in time for the game tonight. We could be wrong though - it's happened before. Either way, we're not all that excited about the prospect of our team playing against Snetsinger - we rather liked him on our side. But such is life in the ECHL, and we wish Brad the best of luck in Bakersfield. (Except when playing the Grizzlies.) We'll miss him. Merry Christmas, we guess.

Even though the Grizzlies are tied with Vegas for points, they're not quite at the top of the Western Conference right now, since the Wranglers have played fewer games. But they are at the top of the division. It's a pretty close race and Idaho is only two points behind them, so the games this week are going to be important in determining who goes into the Christmas break on top. Four points for the Grizzlies could put them at the top of the conference, since none of the other western teams play until the 26th. Conversely, four points for Idaho could put them on top. The standings are a complicated place this season.

The Steelheads just finished losing three games - one in Victoria and two in Las Vegas - so they are looking for a good showing in Utah. Streaks of any sort don't typically last too long in hockey, and especially in the ECHL, so the law of averages says they're about due for a win. It will be up to the Grizzlies to make sure that doesn't happen.

Utah just wants to keep getting a good effort from everyone, because we've seen as long as they can do that, they get the results they (and we) want. They lost their last one at home - a close one - but their play has been improving in the Maverik Center. We're very grateful for that. We'd rather not see them digress. We think it's best that they win at home before going into the break so they can spend it full of holiday cheer. And maybe a little egg nog.

Two games against Idaho for the fake weekend. Puck drops at 7:05 pm. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Post Game: Salmon Kings 4, Grizzlies 3

Grizzlies lose, but take 4 of 6 points for the weekend.

Utah didn't seem ready coming out in the 1st, but their play picked up beautifully in the 2nd and 3rd. Lamoureux was switched out for Engelage at 15:40 in the 1st period, but to JP's credit, we didn't see anything in the goals he allowed to make such an early switch. Perhaps Colley could tell from Lamoureux's play that it just wasn't his night. We'll leave that one for the coaches.

Our favorite part of the night was definitely the Kilburg fight, especially the part he got the 10 minute misconduct for. The boys hit the ice and Kilburg comes up swinging. Poor Victoria is attempting to hide between the ref's legs when they're finally able to pull Kilburg away. Rage. We found it clipped on YouTube from prairiedog26:



We really need to comment on how awesome Brad Snetsinger has been doing. He tallied a goal and an assist in this game, but we noticed over the past three games his ability to create a turnover by snatching the puck away from the opposing team with panache. And the best part is, he looks so bored all the damn time. Has anyone else noticed this? Anyway, nice job to Brad on his work this weekend.

That's all we have to say for this one.

Game Photos -



Stars of the Game -

1. VIC - C. Painchaud
2. UTA - B. Snetsinger
3. UTA - B. Parnham

Links -

post game || Victoria Holds On 4-3; Utah Settles For Two Of Three Wins On Week
gamesheet || Victoria at Utah - 12/18/10
highlights || Game Highlights 12/18/10 vs Victoria
photos || 12/18/10 - Utah Grizzlies vs Victoria Salmon Kings
interview || Kevin Colley 12/18/10 post game
interview || Tom May 12/18/10 intermission

And we would like our keeper back thank you very much!

Yesterday Colley announced that we got our goal keeper J.P. Lamoureux back from the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat, which is good news for our games this weekend. J.P. is one of our newest players yet seems to be fitting in great and is an awesome asset to the team. He has the drive and the skill to help take us a long way this season.

We have games coming up this weekend against the Alaska Aces. I think we proved to them on the road that we have what it takes to become a fighting power in the ECHL. We won our last game with a 3-2 over time win - it was a nail biter! The Grizzlies are currently ranked number one in the Western Division and Alaska is ranked number two. Our team has been doing so well, to mess it up this weekend would cost us the number one seat. And seeing as many of us Grizzly fans aren't okay with the Aces having the number one seat, the boys need to come out on top this weekend.

Just a note Brad Snetsinger is ranked number 11 in scoring stats for the ECHL!

In other ECHL news, Peter Vandermeer, who played for the Grizzlies last year but is currently with the Victoria Salmon Kings, had an interesting game against Las Vegas. Peter got multiple penalties in this game including smacking Mosienko below the belt. Vandermeer continued to try and beat him up after the officials had already pulled them apart. He was called for spearing among other things during the game so he spent a lot of time in the penalty box.

Don't forget out two home games this week on the 19th and 20th against the Aces! Friday the 19th is maverick day so bring your receipt from maverick and get a ticket for 5$!

Go grizzlies!

Peace :)
GrizzGirl

A Well Deserved Award

The ECHL named Brad Snetsinger of our Grizzlies as the player of the week. This is very well deserved, as he racked up 6 points last week: 4 goals and 2 assists. He led in points for both the Grizzlies and the ECHL. This included an awesome hat trick. Sher-Wood Hockey will donate a box of pucks to youth hockey in Utah. (Thanks to the Utah Grizzlies website for that pic)

The Grizzlies also captured sole possession of the lead in the Mountain Division, one point above Alaska. Way to go, boys! Keep up the hard work.

More to be proud of: even though the Grizz have only played 2 home games of their 11 so far this season, the two biggest crowds they played for were the home games! Currently we rank 5th in the ECHL for number of people attending games. Hooray for the fans! (I'm really not making this up, you can read it here.)

Apparently our games in Bakersfield this past weekend resulted in some fines and suspensions. Rylan Kaip was fined an undisclosed amount for a major penalty and game misconduct in Friday's game, while Josh Tordjman was fined and suspended 6! games for physical abuse of officials during Saturday's game. Boy, don't pick on those guys in the black and white striped shirts, they don't take kindly to it! After digging a little deeper, it appears Tordjman was already frustrated by a shot that hit him hard under his pads on his collarbone. After the trainer looked him over and Tordjman returned to net, an official told him he was ready even though he felt he wasn't. Then the winning shot by Jackman went in the net. Tordjman tossed his stick in the air, which then landed on an official's head. Oops. You've got to control your frustration a little better there! Someone is going to get hurt!

"You can't be tossing your stick," Condors coach Marty Raymond said. "But he told the referee he wasn't ready."

Post Game: Condors 4, Grizzlies 3

Grizzlies lose.

The boys looked amazing in the 1st, picking up two goals and dominating the puck. Utah piled on 11 SOG to Bakersfield's 6. However, the Grizzlies didn't look so hot in the 2nd.

We'd mentioned before that the boys have been starting out the 2nd period sloppy, yet so far they'd been fortunate enough to hold on until the opposing team lost the post-intermission momentum. But last night, the Condors picked up 2 goals before the halfway mark of the period to tie things up and snatch control away from Utah. We'd actually been waiting for one of the opposing teams to realize that the Grizzlies were slower in the beginning of the middle frame and take full advantage of that, so we weren't particularly surprised when the Condors figured it out.

We were a little surprised at some of the calls in the top of the 3rd, though. Yeah, if you were watching on the B2, you saw the leveling hit on Morency that took him out of the game . . . several hundred times. To us, it looked clean: Morency had the puck, his head was up, but the Grizzlies ended up shorthanded. Fair enough - this is the ECHL after all and we're not officials.

But honestly, Kaip . . . what was with the joke move on Tuzzolino before the puck dropped? Cute one, chief.

Utah improved on their power play, going 2 for 6 on the man advantage. I'm sure this was a relief to Colley after the 0 for 7 job the boys pulled on Wednesday. We'd like to see them keep improving on this tonight (and we're sure Colley would, too).

Stars of the Game -

*Wha? All from Bakersfield. Whatevs.

Links -
post game || Grizzlies fall 4-3 in Bakersfield
gamesheet || Utah at Bakersfield - 11/12/10
highlights || Game Highlights 11/12/10 at Bakersfield
interview || Matt Clarke 11/12/10 intermission

Weekend Preview - Utah Grizzlies vs Bakersfield Condors

The Grizzlies are still stuck in Bakersfield, right at the start of Tule fog season. Not that the fog has anything to do with this weekend's match up, but it came up when we Googled Bakersfield, and we thought it was kind of cool. Then again, according to Adrian Denny's game day blog, the Condors have been outscored 19-4 in their last four games. Maybe they are playing in a fog after all.

The thing to remember about fog, however, is that it eventually lifts, and when it does, the Condors are going to attack with the ferocity of seven suns. (Being stuck in fog will do that to you.) The Grizzlies need to be ready for this. After a strong showing on Wednesday, they need to be able to come out just as strong this weekend, if not stronger, if they want their four points. They're currently second in the division behind Alaska. Both have 14 points, but Alaska has played one less game.

Even though they were awesome in their last game, one thing the Grizz can improve on is their power play. They went 0-7 on Wednesday - more like a powerless play. Another thing Utah needs to watch out for is keeping the score at least tied through the first two periods. The Condors are 4-0-0 when leading after the second, so they're good at holding a lead and shutting it down in the third.

Riley Emmerson has been activated off the IR, so we expect him to return to the line up for Utah tonight. Kevin Deeth will be out - he's now on the IR. Brad Snetsinger has five points against the Condors already this season, so we're hoping he can keep up this trend. Another hat trick would be nice... but we'll take whatever we can get. Hopefully that's a couple of wins.

Both Friday and Saturday night's games start at 8:00 pm and will be broadcast on KFAN 1230 AM. You can also listen online, or watch online pay per view. Live scoring updates are also available on the ECHL website, or the Grizzlies' Twitter page.

We can see clearly now... six points for the Grizzlies emerging from the fog in Bakersfield.

Post Game: Grizzlies 4, Condors 2

Grizzlies win. Bakersfield looked so depressed we wanted to feel bad for them, but we figured turnabout is fair play.

While the talk of the night was definitely the Snetsinger hat trick, we also wanted to highlight the goaltending of the second star of the game. Engelage was solid throughout the show, stopping the first 24 shots he saw. It's hard to express how much solid goaltending has done for this Grizzlies team on the back end, but Andrew definitely carries his weight and more in every contest. Thumbs up.

We noticed Riley Armstrong shares his brother's habit for checking himself into the boards.

We couldn't help but notice that the boys started out the 2nd period a little sloppy yet again, but were fortunate enough to hold on until the shorthanded second goal put some wind in their sails. There were some pretty goals in this game. And of course, Brad Snetsinger with a hat trick, which means we get to post this:


Nicely done, Brad.

We could snark about the power play, but . . . we're not gonna.

And also, just a quick hats off to former Grizzly Vladimir Nikiforov for his power play goal which brought the Condors to 2.

The only question we were left with at the end of the night was - what in the hell is the goalie from Slap Shot doing in Bakersfield?


He did want to get traded after all . . .

Go Grizzlies!

Stars of the Game -

1. UTA - B. Snetsinger
2. UTA - A. Engelage
3. BAK - J. Lepine

Links -

post game || Grizzlies Continue To Roll On Road: Beat Bakersfield 4-2
gamesheet || Utah @ Bakersfield - 11/10/10
highlights || Game Highlights 11/10/10 at Bakersfield
interview || Paul Crowder 11/10/10 intermission

Post Game: Grizzlies 3, Wranglers 2 (OT)

Utah wins. Huzzah!

The Grizzlies really dominated the 1st period, even though no goals were scored on either side. What we really noticed was the amazing control the boys had over the puck during that initial frame. Whenever Vegas touched the puck, it seemed like Utah snatched it right back. And throughout the game, the Grizzlies piled on more SOG overall with 37 to the Wranglers 27.

Of course it wasn't all roses. The boys came out pretty sloppy in the 2nd period, but with back to back goals in that frame it is hard to complain about it. Though, we have our suspicions that was the only way to appease Colley after such a start.

And of course, the Crowders and Carpentier were definitely the talk of the night with all 3 goals being a product of that line, with a little help from Nick Tuzzolino for the game winner. Also wanted to point out Brad Snetsinger's 7 SOG as well. Another fun fact we found in the official post game: "Goaltender Andrew Engelage stopped 25 of 27 shots, including 23-straight" Nicely done boys.

And for anyone watching on the B2 you'll have noticed Vegas named their power play the Roulette Power Play. We tried to find out actual roulette odds to compare to the Wranglers power play percentage, but we only figured out that they went 0 for 3 on the power play for Friday. (Nice PK, boys!) So our guess is that you might have slightly better odds with roulette.

Stars of the Game -

1. UTA - T. Crowder
2. LV - C. Long
3. LV - V. Bellissimo


Links -

post game || Grizzlies Beat Las Vegas 3-2 in Overtime
gamesheet || Utah at Las Vegas - 11/5/10
highlights || Game Highlights 11/5/10 at Las Vegas

Utah Grizzlies Transactions and Other News

Mason Graddock and Chad Denny have been released from their contracts with the Grizzlies over this week. Graddock was released on November 1, and Chad Denny on November 3. Both players were pretty feisty, so we'd like to see them land somewhere soon. Best of luck, boys!

Brad Snetsinger was placed on the 3 day IR November 2. We hope this means he'll be back for this weekend against Vegas.

In ECHL news, the Gwinnett Gladiators and the Trenton Devils both set records during their game on Friday, October 29. The Gladiators set the new record for shots with 70, and the Devil's goaltender Caruso responded in kind by setting a new record for saves with 67. Gwinnett won the match 3-2 in a shootout, but we're assuming that's because Caruso's arms fell off.

Pink in the Rink 2010-11 Jersey Auction

Another Pink in the Rink game, another pink jersey auction.

The Utah Grizzlies website reported that "Nearly $12,000 was raised to fight breast cancer following the team’s live post-game pink jersey auction." Nicely done, boys.

Auction Photos -

Captain Gannon is first up.



The other boys mill around waiting for their turn on the auction block.



Tim Crowder and Brad Stensinger hang out in the back.



Paul Crowder up for auction.



More milling about - Carpentier is up next.



Tim Crowder waits for his picture with a fan.



We also tried to get a clear shot of Brock heckling the bidders, but to no avail. And no classic GQ shots like we captured of Captain Kinasewich last year, but still some fun pictures.