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ECHL Utah Grizzlies

Despite Struggle and Injuries, Grizzlies Remain in Playoff Hunt

March 3, 2003 - ECHL (ECHL)
Utah Grizzlies News Release


UINTA BEER WHAT'S ON TAP

Fri. Mar. 7 -- at Cleveland Barons, Gund Arena - - 5:00 PM mst – ESPN Radio 1230-AM
Sat. Mar. 8 -- at Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, Cincinnati Gardens - - 5:35 PM mst – ESPN Radio 1230-AM
Sun. Mar. 9 – at Cleveland Barons, Gund Arena - - 2:00 PM mst – ESPN Radio 1230-AM

SLAP SHOTS

~The Grizzlies are winless in their last four games (0-3-0-1)
~Utah is winless in their last eight games versus West Division opponents (0-7-0-1)
~The Grizzlies have scored a power play goal in 18 of their last 19 games and in 11 straight road games
~David Oliver has 15 points (7-8-15) in 12 games since returning from injury
~Jim Montgomery and Greg Hawgood each missed the weekend games and will be re-evaluated this week
~Dylan Gyori has scored goals in each of his last two games
~David Gosselin has three goals and five assists in his last seven games
~Steve Gainey has assists in two of his last three games

A LOOK AT LAST WEEK (0-3-0-1)

Utah came into the week on a three-game win streak but things turned around with several injuries to key players as both Jim Montgomery (knee) and Greg Hawgood (groin) missed the three weekend games. The week started on home ice versus Milwaukee where the Grizzlies outshot the Admirals 35-28 but once again Milwaukee would come out on top with a 5-4 victory. Eric Landry, Greg Hawgood, Jim Montgomery and Mike Sgroi scored for the Grizzlies and Jason Bacashihua made 23 saves. Utah would then travel to Milwaukee for a game on Friday night without two of their top four scorers and they made a game of it falling 3-1. Wyatt Smith scored for Milwaukee in the first period and later Darren Haydar made it 2-0 before Barrett Heisten scored a power play goal making it 2-1 which is where the game would stand until the final few seconds when Jason Beckett scored an empty net goal. Mike Smith made 26 saves for Utah who fell to Milwaukee for the sixth time in seven games. The Grizzlies then traveled into Chicago for a pair of games that were very competitive. On Saturday, the two clubs went to overtime with a questionable call leading to a Chicago OT power play. With the 4 on 3 advantage, the Wolves Andreas Karlsson scored his first goal since mid-November giving Chicago a 5-4 OT victory. The third time this season the Wolves had beat the Grizzlies in an extra session. David Oliver, Marc-Andre Thinel, Jeff MacMIllan and newcomer Dylan Gyori scored for the Grizzlies. J.P. Vigier had two goals for the Wolves. Bacashihua took the loss making 35 saves. Sunday saw a couple of tired clubs take the ice. Gyori scored early for Utah giving them a 1-0 first period lead but Chicago had three goals on the board before the end of the first 20 minutes. Oliver would net a power play goal for the Grizzlies in the second period making it 3-2 which is as close as the Grizzlies would get. In the game's final five minutes, Karlsson took a face-off win from Simon Gamache and beat Smith extending the Wolves lead to 4-2. Jeff Farkas would add an empty net goal inflating the score to 5-2. Smith finished the game with 24 saves.

ROSTER REPORT

The Grizzlies were forced to summon a couple of forwards from the ECHL on Friday as Jim Montgomery was out of the line-up and Steve Ott was still on re-call with Dallas. Brett Draney was re-called from Lexington and Dylan Gyori was signed to a contract from Roanoke where he had scored 22 goals and had 50 assists. Injuries in Dallas, Rob Dimaio and Bill Guerin, could force the call-up of one or two forwards in the next few days.

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

Cleveland Barons – 20-35-4-4, 48 pts. (4th – Central Division)...Utah defeated the Barons twice in late December and defeated Cleveland 7-2 & 6-1...The Barons are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games...Goaltender Vesa Toskela leads the league with 29 losses...Jeff Nelson leads the team with 46 points (7-39-46)...Miroslav Zalesak leads the team with 25 goals. Cincinnati Mighty Ducks – 20-27-10-4, 54 pts. (3rd – Central Division)...Cincinnati won the only meeting this year 4-1 back in October...The Ducks had a five-game winning streak snapped Sunday...Travis Brigley leads the team with 42 points (16-26-42)...defenseman Mark Popovic is a team high +11.

GRIZZLIES THREE STARS OF THE WEEK

1.) David Gosselin – four assists
2.) Dylan Gyori – made strong first impression scoring twice in three games
3.) David Oliver – two goals and one assist

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