Weekend Preview - Utah Grizzlies vs Stockton Thunder

The Grizzlies host the Stockton Thunder this weekend as they try to bounce back from a loss to Idaho on Wednesday. The last time these two teams met up was December 11th, so it's been a while. Actually they've only played twice so far this season - both times in Stockton - so we've got a lot of them to look forward to in the second half of the season.

As far as the series goes, they've split the two games they've played. When all is said and done, we don't expect this series to end up an even split. We're not just saying that because they play 11 games either. It seems that the Grizzlies have really found their identity as a team and are playing and sticking up for each other like a family. (Check out Matt Sorteberg's interview here for a little more about that.) It may not always be pretty and they may get a little beat up, but more often than not they come away with a win at the end of the day. They may even end up with the girls once people forget about that little barn raising incident.

The Thunder have the statistic of being 11-3-4 when scoring first, so it looks like that is something the Grizzlies want to take away from them. While we're sure the Grizzlies can make a comeback if they don't score first, it's always a little more encouraging when they do, for the team and the fans. Then again, it's kind of embarrassing to blow a lead, no matter how small. So we guess what we're saying is we want Utah to go ahead first and stay ahead until the end of the game. We realize we may have dropped our hockey coaching IQ by a couple of points with that sentence, but it wasn't that high to begin with, and we're not actually hockey coaches, so the team will probably be okay. Besides, it's not a bad plan if you look at the big picture..

Adrian Denny pointed out in his game day blog that Stockton and Utah always have their physical battles when they meet. The last time these two teams played each other, the stat sheet ended up with 120 penalty minutes scrawled across it. Maybe there were two stat sheets to record all those penalties - it was a real barn raising. Anyway, we don't know if this will be the agenda for this weekend's games, but with an extra game day tacked on because of the holiday, these two teams could get sick of each other pretty quick. No stats on who has the better record if they win the first fight.

Stockton has won their last two games, but they've only won a total of three of their last 10. Not to be mean or anything, but recently they had a 7 game losing streak. Okay, so we're really not trying to be all that nice either. They haven't strung two wins together since a 3 game sweep of Victoria back at the beginning of December. It's Utah's job to get them started on another good losing streak this weekend.

We can't really let a game day go by without mentioning that even with the loss to Idaho on Wednesday, the Grizzlies are still at the top of the Western Conference. We never get tired of seeing that in the standings. The Aces and Wranglers are slowly creeping up the conference ladder though, so the Grizzlies need to take advantage of the chance to pick up 6 points this weekend. Again, they are only two points behind Greenville for the league lead, so there's another good reason to get all the points they can in the next three games.

First game of three starts tonight at 7:05 pm at the Maverik Center. The Grizzlies have announced so many concessions promotions that we can't keep track of them all, so check out their facebook page to see what the deals are. Maybe Millie's cooking...