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Utah Grizzlies

Series Preview: Grizzlies and Colorado Meet in Playoffs for First Time

April 11, 2016 - ECHL (ECHL)
Utah Grizzlies News Release


The Situation

The Grizzlies and the Colorado Eagles meet in the playoffs for the first time starting Thursday at Budweiser Events Center in Loveland. Utah went 7-3 against the Eagles during the regular season; including the teams splitting four games going down the stretch during the month of March. Utah started the year 4-0 against Colorado before the two teams split their final six games against each other. Utah has finished at .500 or better against Colorado in the season series in all five seasons since the Eagles joined the ECHL in 2011-2012.

Two Of The Hottest Collide

The Grizzlies and Colorado were the two hottest teams in the Western Conference going down the stretch. Utah was 6-3-0-1 in their final 10 games and the Eagles were 8-1-1-0.

Back For The Playoffs

Goaltender Ryan Faragher, (24-13-4) who was recalled to the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate in San Diego for the fourth time this year on March 30 and Matt Berry, (16 goals, 21 assists for 37 points in 38 games with Utah) who was recalled for the fourth time this year on Saturday; have both returned to the Grizzlies for the postseason.

Protecting Home Ice

Stealing a game on the road will be big in this series. Both the Grizzlies and Colorado continued to have exceptional home records in 2015-2016. Utah finished fourth in the ECHL with 23 home wins and Colorado finished third in the ECHL with 24 home wins during the regular season. Utah went 3-2 on "The Ranch" this season and is 11-6 the last three seasons under Tim Branham in Colorado.

Season Series

Barry Almeida led all scorers in the season series with seven goals and 12 points over nine games played. T.J. Syner was second among both teams in the season series with five goals for seven points in nine games.

Goaltending

Ryan Faragher went 6-3 against Colorado and Mark Owuya went 1-0 against the Eagles who combined to use five goaltenders in the ten games against the Grizzlies. Faragher will be making his professional playoff debut this year after ranking tenth in the ECHL with a 2.24 Goals-Against-Average during the regular season. Owuya, who went 8-6-0-1 this season with Utah, is 5-5 in the ECHL postseason, but carries a 1.91 Goals-Against-Average and a .930 Save Percentage with two shutouts in ten games for the Reading Royals in 2012 and 2013.

Special Teams

Utah drew more power-plays than Colorado in seven of ten games this year and held a 40-32 edge on power-plays as they outscored the Eagles 12-5 on the power-play. Grizzlies leading scorer Charlie Sarault finished second in the ECHL with 21 power-play assists during the regular season.

Scoring

Utah scored three or more goals in six of ten games against Colorado and four or more in six of the ten head-to-head meetings. Utah goaltending allowed two goals or less against Colorado in five of ten games and one or fewer in three of the ten games.

Scoring First, Early Leads, Second Periods

Utah scored first in seven of the ten games during the season series and finished 6-1 in those games as Colorado went 2-0-1-0 when scoring first against Utah. Utah was 27-6-0-2 this year when scoring first, Colorado was 30-8-1-0. Utah was 32-9-1-3 when tied or ahead after one period this year and 6-0 when tied or ahead after one period against Colorado, having led after one period in only two of the games, but outscoring Colorado 12-2 in the second period in their wins. Utah was outscored 5-1 by the Eagles in the second period of their losses. Colorado was 3-0-1-0 when leading Utah after one period this year and 22-3-1-0 overall. Colorado, however was only 13-14-2-0 this year when tied after one period and 0-4 against Utah.

The Coaches

Utah's Tim Branham is 114-78-23 in three seasons behind the Utah bench as he's led the team to their seventh, eighth and ninth consecutive playoff appearances. Branham has qualified for the playoffs in all seven years coaching after the Reading Royals reached the playoffs in the four years that Branham was their Assistant Coach. Colorado's Chris Stewart has led Colorado to 11 playoff appearances in 11 seasons at the helm.

Tickets

Tickets for the first round of the playoffs are on sale now at UtahGrizzlies.com, Maverik Center Box Office and at any Smith's Tix Location. Tickets start at $12 and fans can get a free Grizzlies Playoff T-Shirt for every ticket purchased when mentioning this offer at the arena box office only while supplies last.

On Television

The Grizzlies and KMYU will announce their first round television broadcast schedule on Tuesday. In its fourth season as the television broadcast home of the Grizzlies, KMYU broadcasted eight regular season games in HD during the 2015-2016 regular season with "Voice of the Grizzlies" Adrian Denny handling play-by-play and 2 News Talkin' Sports Adam Mikulich on color commentary from between the benches. KMYU's Kari Hawker-Diaz joined Denny for game previews leading up to the game broadcasts during the week on KMYU.

On The Radio

All Grizzlies games are broadcasted live on 1320 KFAN/.com/app and ECHL.tv.

The Grizzlies Minute has the latest news of the day every day at 5:20 p.m. during "Gunther and Ben in the Afternoon" on 1320 KFAN.

Head Coach Tim Branham makes his weekly appearance on 1320 KFAN every Friday at 9:05 a.m. with Tim Lewis and The Morning Huddle

"Voice of the Grizzlies" Adrian Denny joins Gunther and Ben every Friday at 3:30 p.m. during the "Wasatch Whiparound"

Check out the Utah Grizzlies Statistics

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