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Utah Grizzlies

First periods continue to do in the Grizzlies

February 28, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Utah Grizzlies News Release


The Utah Grizzlies went 1-2 this past week splitting a pair of home games with Houston and dropping a road contest on Saturday night in Chicago. The week began with a Monday afternoon game in honor of President’s Day versus Houston. Utah took a 1-0 lead behind Fredrik Sjostrom’s first goal since December 22nd on a delayed penalty call with an extra skater on the ice. Stephane Veilleux returned the favor later in the game with a coast-to-coast goal with an extra skater scoring his 16th goal of the season. The game eventually went to a shootout where Erik Westrum scored his second game-deciding goal of the season in a shootout giving the Grizzlies the extra point. On Wednesday, Utah fell behind 2-0 in the first period and never recovered. Houston went on to a 3-0 triumph giving Josh Harding his fourth shutout of the season. On Saturday night in Chicago, it was once again a poor first period that proved to be the Grizzlies un-winding. Chicago scored four first period goals improving their first period dominance to 14-3 over Utah in six games. Aaron Gavey scored in the third period for Utah breaking up the shutout bid but it was not enough as Utah has dropped 15 of their last 16 away from home.

Feb. 21 Grizzlies 2 Houston 1 (SO) Erik Westrum scores game deciding goal in shootout
Feb. 23 Grizzlies 0 Houston 3 Utah shutout for ninth time this season
Feb. 26 Grizzlies 1 Chicago 5 Wolves score four first period goals

WEST DIVISION STANDINGS: GRIZZLIES THREE STARS OF THE WEEK
Milwaukee 36-17-3-4 79 pts. 1. Jamie Storr (1-1, .939 save %)
Chicago 33-19-4-2 72 pts. 2. Fredrik Sjostrom (1G, 1A)
Cincinnati 31-25-1-3 66 pts. 3. Erik Westrum (G in shootout)
Houston 26-21-5-3 60 pts.
Grand Rapids 28-25-1-1 58 pts.
San Antonio 23-31-3-5 54 pts.
Utah 15-37-0-3 33 pts.

VIRTUE NOW 21ST ON AHL’S ALL-TIME GAMES PLAYED LIST:
~Utah defenseman Terry Virtue moved into a tie for 21st on the AHL’s All-Time games played list on Saturday night joining Tim Tookey at 824 games played. Also last week, he past Tommy Williams at 823 games played. His next target will be John Stevens at 834 games played.

OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES:
~The Grizzlies offense has struggled for most of the season sitting last in the AHL with 103 goals scored and a 1.87 goals per game average. In their last six games, Utah has scored just six times and on Wednesday were shutout for the ninth time this season sitting two shy of last year’s record setting 11 shutouts against.

THREE-IN-FOUR:
~The Grizzlies will play three road games this week in four nights traveling to Chicago on Wednesday, Milwaukee on Friday and Cincinnati on Saturday. Utah is 1-5 versus the Wolves this season including 0-3 at the Allstate Arena. Their battles versus Milwaukee have not shown much better results as they are 1-6 versus the Admirals, 0-2 at the Bradley Center. Versus Cincinnati, the Grizzlies are 0-3-0-1 and are winless in two games at the Cincinnati Gardens. Utah is a combined 2-14-0-1 versus their three opponents this week.

Upcoming Schedule:
Mar. 2 – Utah at Chicago Chicago has won four straight games versus Grizzlies
Mar. 4 – Utah at Milwaukee David LeNeveu is 2-2 with a 2.22 GAA and a .928 save %
Mar. 5 – Utah at Cincinnati Peter White has a goal and four helpers versus the Rampage

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