Andrew Engelage who returned to the Utah lineup Friday and stopped 31 of 33 shots in the 4-2 comeback win improved Utah to 8-4-1-0 when he is involved in the decision this season.

Utah is 9-14-1-3 without Engelage in the lineup this year, though a solid performance from Shane Owen last night improved him to 2-2 with Utah as he stopped 27 of 30 shots.
 

Engelage improved to 5-2 the last two years against Stockton with his win on Friday.
 

Utah has a chance to sweep a three-game series on the road for the second time in team history after also doing it February 22-25 last year in Idaho.
 

The Grizzlies have rallied back from four deficits already this weekend to get both wins. They were down 1-0 and 2-0 Friday and down 2-0 and 3-2 last night.
 

Adam Estoclet and David Eddy have returned from five days in the AHL and rejoined Utah in California last night. They will be in the lineup this afternoon. Estoclet tied Trevor Smith and Ryan Kinasewich with an all-time team high of 13 shots in the contest on Monday against Idaho.
 

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The Grizzlies last night welcomed five big faces back to the lineup who all had major contributions.
 

Andrew Engelage stopped 31 of 33 shots, Ian Schultz had two power-play goals,  James Martin was a plus-two, Tommy Maxwell led the team with five shots and had an assist and Nick Tuzzolino had two assists.
 

Adding Tuzzolino, puts a big slap shot back on Utah’s power-play and along with Mark Isherwood gives Utah two puck moving defenseman back for the power-play that last night scored on two of their final four chances.
 

The Grizzlies penalty-kill killed four-straight minutes in the third period and 1:52 down five-on-three in the first last night on their way to a 7-7 effort shorthanded. The Utah penalty-kill has been perfect in seven of their last 11 games and five of their last seven games. They have definitely seen massive improvement after having stretches of allowing power-play goals in eight and nine-straight games earlier in the season. Utah is 13-14 on the penalty-kill against Stockton in the last three games.
 

Utah and Stockton have seen only one first period goal in their last three games, with Stockton’s tally late in the opening frame last night.

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The Grizzlies will have Montreal prospect Ian Schultz along with Nick Tuzzolino back tonight as he returns from Abbotsford. Tuzzolino had one assist in 11 games with the Heat after being recalled on December 16.
 

In addition,  captain Riley Armstrong, Andrew Engelage and Tommy Maxwell are all on the trip and will be game time decisions tonight as they prepare to return from minor injuries.
 

Adam Estoclet and David Eddy have been recalled from Abbotsford since Utah’s last game on Monday.
 

Rookie T.J. Battani has dropped the gloves in three of his first five games with Utah.
 

The Grizzlies have recorded 50 or more shots in two-straight games, which has put them at the top of the league in shots at 33.24 per-game.
Stockton, Colorado and Alaska are the only home teams this weekend out west with Las Vegas, Bakersfield and Idaho all opening the post all-star break stretch out east.
 

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Saturday was just the sixth time all year in 37 games that the Grizzlies didn’t score a power-play goal, but allowed at least one. Utah looks for their fourth-straight game of not allowing a power-play goal in a contest in which they surrendered three or more. Utah had killed 29-straight shorthanded situations before Saturday. Utah has lost two-straight games in regulation just once since November.

Utah has had a lead in 20 of their last 26 games.

Utah tied a season-high with 22 shots in the first period, marking the third time this year that they have recorded 22 shots in a period. 50 shots in the game was the second most shots that they have recorded in a game this year. Adam Estoclet led Utah with six shots; Evan Stoflet and Bryan Cameron each had five shots on goal; Jimmy Martin, Colin Vock, T.J. Battani ,David Eddy and Berkley Scott all had four shots on goal. Utah has 10 of more first period shots in 11 of their last 12 games. Utah has 10 or more shots in a period in 18-straight periods.

Utah is 4-1 against Idaho this year and 3-0 against the Steelheads in Utah. The Grizzlies beat the Steelheads 4-2 in their last meeting on December 19. This is the sixth of 13 meetings on the year between the two regional rivals.

Mark Isherwood has scored in three-straight games with one goal and three assists.
 

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Mitch Wahl, Adam Estoclet and David Eddy were all assigned from the Calgary Flames organization to Utah this morning after being with the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat. All three have spent time with Utah this year. Estoclet had two goals and five assists for seven points in ten games. Eddy had two assists in three games with Utah December 15-21. Wahl is in his second-straight point a game year with Utah.

Bryan Cameron had his best game of the year last night with one goal, one assist and eight shots. He has 20 shots in the last three games. Mark Isherwood extended his scoring streak to two games with one goal and two assists.

Utah’s last three wins have been by three goals or more. 10 of Utah’s first 12 wins came by two goals or less.

Utah’s last three wins have been by three goals or more. 10 of Utah’s first 12 wins came by two goals or less.

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The Grizzlies meet Bakersfield as the eighth and final Western Conference opponent that they will see this season.  The Condors last visited Utah February 8, 2012 and beat Utah 4-0. Utah beat Bakersfield 4-0 in their last meeting, the last game of the regular season on March 31, 2012 as they scored three goals on   Bakersfield goaltender Scott Greenham for his only loss after the season. Bakersfield is 4-2 in their last six after a 7-24-1-2 start.

43 shots for Utah Saturday was the second time in their last three games that they have tallied 43 shots or more in a game. They had 44 in a 4-0 win over Las Vegas on January 6. Saturday marked the 5th time this year that Utah has recorded 43 shots or more in a game. Utah is third in the ECHL averaging 31.97 shots-per game. Stockton averages 32.18 shots-per game and Toledo averages 33.13.

Owen beat Bakersfield 4-3 on October 21, 2011 in his only start against Bakersfield last year as he stopped in 24 of 27 games. Ironically, it was also Owen’s first start of the year.

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The mass transition that occurred this week hasn’t happened to the Utah roster in one lump sum since five players were called-up to the AHL on February 5, 2009 as Ryan Kinasewich, Mike Walsh, James Sixsmith, Jordan Hart and Jon Gleed all departed. Utah lost 6-1 on February 6, 2009 to Phoenix at home in the first game following, before bouncing back the next night with a convincing 6-1 win after falling behind 1-0 early. Nine of Utah’s 13 skaters scored in that game as James Brannigan had a hat trick and Rob Hennigar had three assists. Then Islanders prospect Peter Mannino stopped 24 of 25 shots in the game and later appeared for the New York Islanders that March.

Utah looks for a win to split this set of four-straight games versus Las Vegas and wins in games two and four of the set. The set completes four games in eight nights between the two groups. Utah hasn’t lost back-to-back games at home in the same home stand all year. Utah is 3-0-2-1 on Saturday nights at home this year. Grant Rollheiser hasn’t lost two-straight starts all year

Utah has 10 or more shots in each of the nine periods against Las Vegas over the last week. The have allowed 10 shots or less to Las Vegas in seven of the nine periods.

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Utah has collected points in six of their last seven home games at 3-1-1-2. The Grizzlies (14-14-2-3) and Wranglers (15-15-1-3) enter tonight with identical records. Utah is 4-2 at home and 7-5 overall in the first game of a series this year.

Utah held Las Vegas to 47 shots or 23.5 shots per game last weekend, their third lowest back-to-back total this year. Utah is 1-1-0-1 against Las Vegas this year, blowing a 3-1 third period lead on December 21 and losing 4-3 in a shootout.
 

The Grizzlies have signed T.J. Battani, Berkley Scott and Mike Adamek in the last two days. Battani was with Utah in training camp and had one goal a plus-one and one fight in two preseason games. Scott has played the last two years with Knoxville in the SPHL and played one game last year with Cincinnati.  Scott had 13 goals and 18 assists for 31 points in 27 games with the Ice Bears this year. Adamek, who lives in Park City had one goal and one assist in seven games filling in for Utah last year. He previously played with Idaho of the ECHL, Bloomington then of the IHL and Tulsa of the CHL..
 

In addition, two Utah players are game time decisions to return to the lineup tonight from injury.

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With the NHL lockout having come to an end, so has Trevor Lewis’ tenure with the Grizzlies. Trevor left Las Vegas early this morning to return to Salt Lake in preparation to quickly return to Los Angeles where the Kings will soon be presented their championship rings and raise their Stanley Cup Champion banner to the top of Staples Center.
 

Lewis time with Utah was a great experience for the organization as the Grizzlies drew three of the top crowds of the season in his first three games, including a season-high of 8,226 fans Monday.
 

The Salt Lake native, who turns 26 on Tuesday, scored in all six games with the Grizzlies and had multiple-points in three of the six contests. In total, Lewis’ ECHL career ends with three goals and six assists for nine points in six games. He factored in on nine of Utah’s 19 goals during his stay.
 

In addition, Colby Armstrong will soon be returning to Montreal to join the Canadians and start the season after signing a one-year contract with them over the summer. Colby came close to making his Grizzlies debut on the ice, but the end of the lockout obviously ends his stay. Though while here, his impact was definitely felt on the bench and in the locker room as he joined the group in the coaches office in game planning and strategy, bringing his insight to the table.

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The Grizzlies are putting up goals, they have scored four goals or more in six of their last nine games and in 16 of 31 contests this year. They have scored three or more in 20 of 31 games.

Averaging 3.32 goals-per-game, this is Utah’s highest scoring team since joining the ECHL. They averaged 3.26 goals-per-game in 2005-2006 and 2007-2008.

Mitch Wahl, who has 38 points in 28 games and has scored in 17 of his last 19 contests ranks third in the ECHL and leads active players with 1.35 point-per-game. Only Jack Combs and Chad Costello of Colorado, who are currently in the AHL, have scored more points-per-game.

Colin Vock, who has been playing with Brad Mills and Trevor Lewis, was playing well even before the creation of that line. He is an even or better in eight-straight games and 14 of the last 16 games.

Las Vegas has been off since losing to Ontario 2-1 at home on Wednesday.
 

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Today is Grizzlies Head Coach Kevin Colley’s 34th birthday. He remains the fourth youngest coach in the ECHL and the longest current tenured coach with his current team. Brad Ralph in Idaho is 32 and John Wrobelewski of Gwinnett and Spencer Carbery of South Carolina are both 31. Kevin was the youngest Head Coach in the league from September of 2008-August of 2011.
 

The Grizzlies are 5-2 all-time in Ontario on Friday nights. The Grizzlies and Reign went past regulation  in both games played last weekend. Utah was 6-2-0-1 all-time in Ontario before last year’s 1-4 when Jason Christie took over as Head Coach of the Reign.
 

Trevor Lewis returns to the Los Angeles area with one goal and five assists for six points in four games with Utah. Five of his six points have come on the power-play.
 

The Grizzlies have escaped the freezing temperatures of Utah for a few days where highs in Ontario today will be in the 60s, with highs near 60 Saturday and Sunday in Las Vegas.

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Utah beat Stockton 5-1 Monday, scoring an all-time team high three shorthanded goals in a 5-1 win. It was the ninth time since 1994 that the Grizzlies have scored two shorthanded goals in a game, but only the first they had scored three shorthanded goals. It marked the first time since January 9, 2008 that they had scored two shorthanded goals in a game. Before Monday, Utah had just one shorthanded goal all year and Stockton had allowed just two. Riley Armstrong became just the third Grizzlies player all-time and the first since Claude Lapointe on October 19, 1996 to do so. Niklas Andersson scored two against San Francisco on October 7, 1995. All three Grizzlies who have scored two shorthanded goals in a game have played in the NHL. Utah is 20-11-1-0 all-time against Stockton at home, the most of any ECHL team, along with Las Vegas (20).

Utah enters tonight with the fifth best winning percentage in the Western Conference at .534. If the playoffs started today, based on winning percentage, Utah and Stockton would face each other in the first round for the second time in three years.

Utah is 3-1-1-2 through the first seven games on this eight-game home stand. It is on pace to be
Utah’s best home stand of six games or more since joining the ECHL.
Utah went 4-4 on an eight-game home stand last year from 11/11/11-12/2/11 after a 1-3 and 2-4 start.
Utah went 3-3 on a six-game home stand from March 4-13 of 2011.
They went 7-2-0-1 on a ten-game home stand from November 14-December 5 of 2009.
They went 4-3-0-3 on a ten-game home stand from November 28-December 19 of 2007.
They went 4-4-0-2 on a ten-game home stand from January 31-February 19 of 2007.
They went 2-5 on a seven-game home stand from January 11-28 of 2006.

Brad Mills, Riley Armstrong and Mitch Wahl have scored in 15 of the last 16 combined games.

14 of Utah’s 29 games have been decided by a goal and Utah is 6-3-2-3 in such contests. Utah is now 4-1-1-0 at home against the Pacific Division and 5-2-1-1 overall. Utah is 2-0-2-1 on the fifth game of a series at home this year.

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