Grizzlies Win Preseason Opener 5-2
West Valley City, Utah – A crowd of 6165 at Maverik Center saw the Utah Grizzlies defeat the Idaho Steelheads 5-2 as Joe Wegwerth scored 2 goals and Ryan Black had 1 goal and 1 assist in the preseason opener.
Utah took a 1-0 lead 13:17 into the first as Ryan Wagner scored on a pass from Griffen Molino. Utah led 1-0 after 20 minutes of play as they outshot Idaho 9 to 6.
Ryan Black scored 2:38 into the second period to give Utah a 2-0 lead. Idaho got on the board as Zack Andrusiak 5:47 into the period. Utah made it a 3-1 game as Joe Wegwerth got it past Idaho goaltender Austin Lotz, who stopped 22 of 26 shots in the loss.
The Grizz added an unassisted shorthanded goal from Travis Barron to make it a 4-1 game. Anthony Nellis scored for Idaho to close out the second period scoring.
Wegwerth added an empty net goal with 15 seconds remaining, his second of the game. Wegwerth comes to the Grizzlies after a 4 year career at the University of Notre Dame.
Utah outshot Idaho 27 to 23. Grizzlies goaltender Mason McDonald stopped 21 of 23 shots. McDonald also got an assist on Utah’s 3rd goal of the game. McDonald is coming off two seasons with the Kansas City Mavericks, where last year he had a record of 23-10-3 and a .917 save percentage with a 2.54 goals against average.
The preseason concludes on Saturday night as the same two teams meet at CenturyLink Arena in Boise. 7:00 pm face-off. Follow the game on the Grizzlies and Steelheads twitter feeds @utahgrizzlies and @steelheads.
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