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.

Post Game: Grizzlies 6, Condors 4

No pink ice this year. I guess they got Bourne's memo.

Yesterday Coach Colley called out his power play team point blank, stating they needed to do a better job. Going 0/4 on the power play last night in a 5-0 game seemed completely unacceptable, but the boys made up for it tonight scoring 4 straight power play goals to give themselves a 3 goal lead over the Condors. With Jackman's two goals leading the way, the Grizzlies' power play came together picking up the loose pucks in front of the net and finally beating the goaltender. We'd definitely been waiting for this.

As happy as we were about the power play, the loss of a 3 goal lead by the end of the 2nd was a big disappointment. Really, guys? But instead of the dismal 3rd we were used to seeing in 2009-2010, the boys put in the effort and managed to regain the lead. As Colley saw it, the boys "stuck with it, got back to our game plan, and Hugo got a big goal." And the cherry on top was definitely Gannon's empty netter off of the glass and into the net. Highlight reel, anyone?

Parnham's hand - anyone see what happened? We noticed he was checking guys 3 times his size and was flying around the rink all over the puck, but missed the actual injury. All we know is that he was out by the midway point of the 1st.

Stars of the Game -

1. UTA - R. Jackman
2. UTA - H. Carpentier
3. UTA - B. Snetsinger


Game Photos -



Links -
post game || Grizzlies Score Late To Beat Bakersfield 6-4
gamesheet || Bakersfield at Utah - 10/23/10
game highlights || Game Highlights 10/23/10 vs Bakersfield Condors
interview || Kevin Colley 10/23/10 post game
photos || 10/23/10 - Utah Grizzlies vs Bakersfield Condors

Pink in the Rink - Jersey Auction

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last week or so, you know that Saturday night was the Grizzlies' annual Pink in the Rink night, where the ice is pink, the players are pink, and they auction off the pink jerseys to raise money for breast cancer after the game. The Grizzlies website reported that the team made "nearly $13,000" at the auction, but if you're like us, you're interested to know the breakdown on what each jersey got.

So here it is:

• Grizzbee - $400
• AJ Perry - $425
• Mark Pavli - $700
• Ryan Kinasewich - $1000
• Evan Stoflet - $625
• Evan Kotsopoulos - $825
• Josh Meyers - $400
• Vlady Nikiforov - $650
• Vic Bartley - $475
• Tim Maxwell - $475
• James Sixsmith - $575
• Tom May - $1000
• Mitch O'Keefe - $575
• Matt Caria - $575
• Matt Clarke - $525
• Jake Gannon - $500
• Dustin Friesen - $600
• Parker Van Buskirk - $575
• Shea Guthrie - $625
• Pink stick signed by the team - $400

That brings the total to $12,800. In other words, "nearly $13,000".

Good job, boys!

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the auction. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get one of Matt Caria almost biffing it... Better luck next time, I suppose.

AJ Perry shows off his jersey for the bidders:

Jason Dale poses for a picture with the fan who purchased his jersey:

James Sixsmith strikes a pose for the camera:

He hasn't quite got the cover look down yet though - we'll leave that to Kinasewich:

Shea Guthrie poses with a fan:

And Parker Van Buskirk poses with a whole crew of fans:

Even though the team didn't quite come out on top of the game, Pink in the Rink was a win for everyone. Except maybe the guy who has to scrape the pink off the ice.

Go Grizzlies!

Utah Grizzlies vs Idaho Steelheads Post Game: 10-24-09

Even though the Grizzlies couldn't pull off their 4th straight Pink in the Rink win, this game still made some Grizzlies headlines. Kinasewich scored his 112th goal during the game, making him the top goal scorer in Utah Grizzlies' history.

Finally. We're ecstatic, but also a little relieved. Even though it's just been two games, it feels like this has been hanging in the air forever.

Don't believe us? Just Google it.

As per usual, the official post game is up at the Utah Grizzlies site, and the official gamesheet at ECHL.com. Ours is below.

PreGame Introductions: We were late for these.

There was a ceremonial puck drop, but it was as we were taking our seats. We missed who dropped it.

The rink is pink.

FIRST PERIOD

Puck drops.

Under 2 minutes into the first, Kotsy drops the gloves with Idaho #3.

5 for fighting.

Perry mouths off in front of the net.

Idaho gets a penalty.

Grizzlies can't capitalize.

We look for Guthrie, but Idaho's on him like flies on poo.

Idaho gets another penalty.

Nothing.

Some Idaho schmuck gets bulldozed.

Kotsy gets a breakaway but nothing.

End first. 1-0, Idaho.

First Intermission: We got some good pictures of fans. Check this out.

Jen and her hockey posse. From left to right: Jessica, Emily, Amanda, Megan, Jen, and Judy in front.

Jerseys from past Pink in the Rink years:

This lady does a Cancer Awareness Golf match, but also comes out to support the Grizzlies:

SECOND PERIOD

Grizzlies come out looking for some goals.

Idaho penalty. Face off in Idaho's zone.

Hunter picks up a power play goal early in the 2nd. Nice. Tied, 1-1.

Points to Friesen and Snatch for the assists.

3 minutes later, Idaho scores, 2-1.

Grizzlies are looking about the same as in the 1st.

Boo.

Stoflet loses his helmet.

Penalties. Some for Idaho. One for May.

Nothing.

Friesen takes a killer hit from Idaho, but drops the puck behind to a teammate.

Slick move, Friesen!

Talk about taking one for the team.

Then, Pavli drops the gloves with some joke from Idaho.

Both go to the box for 5.

Ahem. Replay, please?

Well, we did our best. We were across the rink and cheering, so it's not the greatest - but it'll have to do.

The boys gain some momentum.

Snatch joins Pavli in the box for slashing a couple of minutes later.

Killed.

Then, Kinasewich gets his goal.

He becomes the top goal scorer in Grizzlies history with 112 goals.

They stop play to give him props. Very cool.
Standing ovations. Rejoicing.

Awesome.

Points to Caria for the assist.

Two minutes later, Snatch decides to do it again.

3-2, Grizzlies.

Points to Friesen and Caria for the assists.

O'Keefe makes some sexy saves.

We somehow manage to get pictures of none of them.

Fail.

Hunter is injured. Damnit.

End of second. 3-2, Grizzlies.

Second Intermission: Snack time. And a Colley jersey sighting.

THIRD PERIOD

Grizzlies come out looking like the 1st period version of themselves.

Crap.

Kotsy goes to the box for hooking.

Idaho capitalizes, 3-3.

Grizzlies get a power play, but can't capitalize.

Pavli is on fire. He somehow manages to keep the puck away from two defenders and pass it to Perry who's right in front of the net.

Unfortunately, Perry was being so stealthy, he didn't even notice himself and missed the pass.

Damnit.

Then, Idaho gets another one, 4-3.

Sixsmith almost knocks it in, but gets punched in the face.

Perry gets in someone's face.

End of the third, Caria and Idaho punk #13 go to the box for roughing.

Grizzlies pull their goalie.

Idaho gets an empty net goal. Boo.

Grizzlies hang on to the puck for the last few minutes, but can't get another one in.

Game.

5-3, Idaho.

#1 star of the game is Kinasewich with 2 goals and one assist.
Nice.

Caria and Friesen pick up 2 points a piece.

NOTES

It's obvious that we're as skilled, if not more, than Idaho. The Grizzlies just seem to have a hard time keeping it together for some reason.

Basically, we here at GrizzBlog feel that we won the game for Idaho last night.

As to how to fix that? We don't know. We'll leave that to Colley and Curcio who know what they're doing.

Even though Snatch totally stole the show for the Grizzlies tonight (and well deserved - hear, hear), we wanted to highlight our two fave moves of the night:

Dustin Friesen taking a hard hit from Idaho to save the puck from their clutches. Friesen passed the puck back to one of his forwards before taking a killer hit and stalling Idaho from getting at the puck. Those few seconds helped the Grizzlies play the puck down to the Idaho zone.

Mark Pavli controlling the puck as he passed behind the ISH net with two Idaho punks all over him. After taking it to the far right of Idaho's zone and drawing the goalie's attention, he makes a clear, solid pass to Perry directly in front of the net. Also, +5 props to Mark for the fight.

That's it for now.

Go Grizzlies!

Pink in the Rink Game Day: Utah Grizzlies vs Idaho, again.

Game day.

Pink in the Rink.

Against unbeaten Idaho.

The boys want to recover on home ice.

Snatch still going for Grizzlies' top goal scorer.

Pressure much?

We scoured the web for something new we could say about this. Yo's got his game day blog up, and there's an awesome news article on the Grizzlies site which confirmed our growing suspicion over the last few years . . .

The Grizzlies have a habit of turning into an Eeyore team.

Since we're running late for the game, we'll only briefly explain.

An Eeyore team can't seem to pick themselves up after a turn against them in momentum, even though the team is chock full of potential. This was originally coined by Vancouver fans when discussing the Canucks, but we think it also applies here. James Sixsmith puts it best:

"We get a goal, and we think we're on top of the world. And before you know it, we're down and then we're in the dumps."

Loss of confidence, first - followed by a downfall of their mental game which is a necessity in winning in hockey . . .

This equals Eeyore.

But when they boys are on, they are magna-white-heat-sizzling hot.

So . . .

Let's do it, boys.

Go Grizzlies!

Utah Grizzlies News & More Game Day Ramblings

We've all heard by now that J.D. Watt was recalled to Abbotsford earlier this week. And that one more goal for Ryan Kinasewich makes him the leading goal scorer in team history. And of course that the Grizzlies want to do well on their home ice this season, especially for their home opener.

Yet, we've seen the Steelheads (ISH) win their first 3 home games against Stockton, all with 3 goals per game. We also watched the ISH beat the Grizzlies in the preseason TWICE. (Granted, not all of our players made it to Idaho, but . . .) So what does all this mean come game time?

Well, we don't know.
But we have some (probably wrong) predictions to make.

With Watt in the AHL, the Grizzlies need to dominate physically on the ice.
Let's be brutally honest, here. When Watt picked a fight with the Vegas goal scorer in the 2nd, he changed the momentum for the team which in turn won us the game. Watt's still at it up in Abbotsford, gaining a Gordie Howe hat trick in his first game with the Heat. With Watt gone, we have a void to fill for that sort of physical presence on the ice. However, we think we have the players necessary for the job: Kotsopoulos and Pavli. If anyone remembers some of the fights these guys started/finished on home ice last year, you can really visualize the dynamic duo they made. We only ask that the boys keep their heads in the game (note: Kotsy's suspension, anyone?) as they fill this role of phyisical play on the ice. But when all is said and done, we're placing our bets on Kotsy and Pavli. No, really. We're placing our bets on Kotsy and Pavli. We have this brother in Reno . . .

The Grizzlies need to play for a full 60 minutes if they want to beat the ISH.
The ISH seem to have a strategy of letting opposing teams wear themselves down as they figure out their patterns. We saw this in the preseason game in Logan. The Grizzlies came out strong in the 1st period, mediocre in the 2nd, then Idaho prevailed in the 3rd. It looks like the ISH used this same pattern against Stockton on Friday. So if the Grizzlies want to beat the ISH, they need to pace themselves and play for the entire game. With our relatively young defense, Colley may need to stay on top of this one until they figure it out for themselves.

Kinasewich needs to focus on figuring out the ISH goalie, then focus on scoring.
Ryan Kinasewich can score goals. There's no doubt about that. But when he figures out the goalie, he can be unstoppable. As a case in point, the last two power play goals made by Kinasewich in Vegas were almost identical. However, we often see Kinasewich getting a goal early in the first, but then nothing for the rest of the game. If he takes his time to figure out the goalie, we think the magic that was Vegas can repeat.


In other news, it looks like Thauwald has signed with the Arizona Sundogs. We look forward to adding him to our stalker list for future blog posts. Glad to see him find a spot for the season!

Tomorrow night is Pink in the Rink for Cancer Awareness. And of course following the game, the auction of the jerseys. Looks like the boys made some serious cash for a good cause over the last few years. If we had money, we'd help this trend continue. For those of you who AREN'T broke and really want to help this cause, do it.

For anyone not at the game (or watching/listening to the game), we're ashamed of you. Just kidding . . . sort of. But we also found that some AHL games, including Abbotsford and Bridgeport will be streaming online for free tonight.

And um, Denny? Where's our game day blog?!?

The message boards are still on lockdown, so feel free to comment here if you want to discuss the game . . . if anyone reads us.

Just a few more hours, folks . . .

Go Grizzlies!

Grizzlies news, updates and shout outs for today.

3 DAYS UNTIL THE HOME OPENER!! (Yes, we're excited)

We're still trying to figure out why we didn't end up at the luncheon today . . . We think it was due to this major inconvenience we like to call work. Well, and poor planning, if we're going to be honest. However, we still have some updates and shout outs to post today.

THE NEWS:

The Utah Grizzlies' site has a nice article up about opening weekend. We'll eTA if they get more news up today.

Luncheon today, which we missed due to work. Boo. However, we work to fund our hockey addiction, so we suppose it's better to miss now than to miss opening weekend. Anyone who went that wants to share details feel free to email us or comment!

Grizzlies message board is still locked from the spam-fest which happened this weekend. We can't find an ETA on the fix on the Grizzlies' site, so we're just waiting.

On a sadder note, former Grizzlies coach Jason Christie was dismissed today by the AHL Chicago Wolves. Christie was working as Assistant Coach under Don Granato who was also let go. Haven't heard any other news yet regarding Christie, but we'll post as it comes along.

In the same strand, one of the Wolves' candidates for the position is another former Grizzlies coach Bob Bourne. He's been discussed as a possibility for the Wolves' organization, but we're not sure if it's for head or assistant coach. We'll also post more news on that if we hear it.


THE CREDS:

Thanks to Dancing Bear for totally schooling us on the Hamburger Helper post! We figured it was probably a sponsor, but DB verified it for us. We're still amused that they had the boxes on the table. But that's probably because we're easily amused . . .

Here's Richard the Canadian sporting his Grizzlies/Kinasewich shirt in Draper near some sheep. Unfortunately, you can't see the lovely #9 he's got on the back of that from this angle, but it's still nice to see Grizzlies gear around the valley, even if it's an import from Vancouver. Thanks for the pic, Richard!


If you have pics of people sporting (and supporting) Grizzlies gear, just mail it to grizzblog@gmail.com and we'll get it up with full creds!

We also want to give a random shout out to all of our friends (and apparently new hockey fans) texting, emailing, and calling us about the Home Opener and Pink in the Rink. We've been dragging you to games and now you're one of us! So . . . Jenny, Ashley, Caleb, Stacy, Shaun, Steph, and Jacob - this is for you. :)

ADMIN (BORING) CRAP:

We got a new header. Thumbs up or thumbs down?
We're going to get a new calendar.
The end.

3 more days, folks . . .

Go Grizzlies!