Top two teams in the Western Conference tonight.
According to the stats, the Wranglers can be deadly when scoring first. They've gone 19-3-3 when they tally the first goal in a game. So, Utah will want to stop that from happening if possible. We expect to see a defensively played game on the Grizzlies end, since Vegas loves to create odd-man rushes with the speed of their players. David Schulz is out currently with an injury, but it looks like Matt Sorteberg will be stepping in on defense for the Grizzlies.
The Wrangler to watch out for in this game is Ryan Huddy. He currently leads Las Vegas with 23 goals. Damn. However, the Grizzlies can counter with Kevin Deeth who has the alternate statistic of 23 assists, then follow that up with secret weapon Tim Crowder who has scored 5 goals against the Wranglers this season.
Goalies are another area where we should see a duel between Vegas and utah. According to Denny's blog: "Las Vegas goaltenders Joe Fallon and Michael Ouzas, along with Utah’s Andrew Engelage and the recalled J.P. Lamoureux rank fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively in the ECHL in goals-against-average." Though, Engelage has the upper hand as the only unbeaten goaltender (4-0-0-1) in the series between the two teams. Denny has more interesting stats regarding the battle of the netminders on his blog.
Utah has dropped to 3rd on the power play, which still isn't bad. But of course, we're spoiled. We liked seeing the boys in the number one spot, so we hope they pick that up tonight.
Puck drops at 7:05pm.
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