Grizzlies Preview: Utah at Greenville. Feb 1, 2020

Grizzlies Preview: Feb. 1, 2020 Utah at Greenville

Utah Grizzlies (25-12-7) at Greenville Swamp Rabbits (23-22-2). Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Saturday February 1, 2020. 4:00 pm MST. ECHL.TV. Classic Country 1370 AM/104.3 FM HD2. cc1370.com

Greenville, South Carolina – The Utah Grizzlies continue with game 3 of their 9 game road trip as they make their only trip of the season to the state of South Carolina as they take on the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.

It’s a battle of teams who are playing well lately as Utah is 7-2-1 in their last 10 games while Greenville is 6-4 in their last 10. Grizzlies are tied for 2nd with Idaho in the Mountain Division with 57 standings points. Idaho hosts Rapid City tonight at 7:00 pm.

Grizz get goaltender Martin Ouellette back in the lineup after a stint with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. Ouellette was December’s Goaltender of the Month with Utah after going 8-0-1 with the Grizzlies after being acquired in a trade with Atlanta. Ouellette overall this season is 11-1-1-1 with a .924 save percentage.

Utah also get defensemen Josh Anderson and Kevin Davis back from the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. Anderson scored for a big 3rd period goal for the Grizzlies on December 30th vs Tulsa. Davis has 10 assists in 24 games this season for the Grizz. Davis has 6 power play assists for Utah.

For the Swamp Rabbits it’s the first time that captain Michael Pelech will face the Grizzlies, a team that he played on for 4 seasons. Pelech is 3rd in team history with 189 points. His 72 goals are tied for 4th in club history. Michael appeared in 224 games for Utah in 4 seasons.

Forward Travis Howe is also on the Swamp Rabbits roster. Howe has not played since December 20th. He spent 2 seasons with the Grizzlies in 2017 and 2018. It’s his 2nd season with Greenville, who currently are 3rd in the Southern Division with 48 points. Defenseman Ryan Black also plays for Greenville. He started the season with the Grizzlies, scoring 1 goal and 1 assist in October 4th’s preseason game vs Idaho. Black appeared in 1 regular season game for Utah before being traded to Adirondack.

Tonight’s game will be a 6 pm local start, 4 pm Mountain time. Grizzlies will head to Wichita next for a game on Wednesday, February 5th at 6 pm. Next home game is on February 17th vs Rapid City. It’s a Maverik Monday with DC Comics specialty jerseys. The Grizzlies are participating in the league’s Players Month campaign where all Grizzlies skaters will have the opportunity to put a nickname on the back of their jersey.

January Recap

Grizzlies went 8-4-1-1 in the month of January. Utah outshot opponents in 12 of 14 games in the month.

January Leading Scorers: 4 players have double digit point totals in 14 games in January. Since Jan. 1. Connor Yau has the best plus-minus in the month (+11). Yau leads all Utah defenseman in plus-minus (+20). Taylor Richart had 4 goals in January. Mitch Maxwell also had 4 goals in the month and that doesn’t include scoring the game deciding goals in shootouts in back to back games vs Idaho on Jan. 20 and vs Allen on Jan. 24.

RANK PLAYER        TEAM POS      GP       PTS     G         A         +/-

1       Tim McGauley   UTA    F          14        19        6          13        0 (Tied 3rd best scorer in league in Jan).

2          Ty Lewis          UTA    F          14        14        9          5          0 (leads club with 9 January goals).

3         Griffen Molino UTA    F          12        14        3          12        0

4          Yuri Terao       UTA    F          13        12        4          8          1