Grizzlies Preview: Utah at Kansas City. Feb. 14, 2020

Grizzlies Preview: Utah at Kansas City. Feb. 14, 2020

Utah Grizzlies (28-15-7. 63 points, .630 Win %) at Kansas City Mavericks (22-24-4, 48 points, .480 Win %). Silverstein Eye Centers Arena. Friday February 14, 2020. 6:00 pm MST. Classic Country 1370 AM/104.3 FM HD2. cc1370.com

Independence, Missouri – The Utah Grizzlies continue with game 8 of the 9 game road trip with the first of a two game series against the Kansas City Mavericks.

Grizzlies will get very familiar with Kansas City as they meet 5 times in an 11 day stretch. They will meet at Silverstein Eye Centers Arena tonight and tomorrow. The Mavericks will make their one and only trip of the season to the Salt Lake valley for Grizzlies Fight Cancer Weekend Presented by Stadler on February 22nd-24th.

Utah is currently 4-3 on the longest road trip of the season. Griffen Molino has been a star for the Grizzlies. He had 1 goal and 1 assist in Utah’s 5-2 win at Tulsa on Feb. 11. Molino leads the club with a 9 point trip (4 goals, 5 assists). Josh Dickinson also had 1 goal and 1 assist on Tuesday night against Tulsa. Yuri Terao was the number 1 star of the game with a 2 goal performance. Terao has 14 goals and 18 assists this season for a Grizzlies squad that’s in 2nd place in the Mountain Division with 63 points.

Kansas City has won 3 games in a row and they have been pretty good at home this season with an 14-11-0-1 record. They made a coaching change 2 weeks ago, replacing John Scott Dickson with interim head coach Kohl Schultz. Mavericks are 4-3 since making the coaching change. Their leading scorer is captain Rocco Carzo, who has 17 goals and 17 assists this season.

Grizz return home for a 1 pm President’s Day Matinee against Rapid City. After the game join head coach Tim Branham and a couple others for an in-house postgame show at Level Crossing Brewing Company at around 4:35 pm. The address is 2496 South West Temple in South Salt Lake City. Tickets for every Grizzlies home game are available at utahgrizzlies.com or by calling (801) 988-8000.

2019-2020 Regular Season Totals

Overall record: 28-15-5-2

Home record: 15-6-2-1. Utah has outscored opponents 81 to 61 at home this season.

Road record: 13-9-3-1. Utah is outscoring opponents 93 to 77 on the road this season.

Last 10 games: Utah is 6-4.

Goals per game: 3.48 (8th in the league).

Goals against per game: 2.76 (6th). 

Shots per game: 32.80 (10th).

Shots against per game: 27.56 (2nd). 

Power play: 20.7 % (5th).

Penalty Kill: 83.1 % (8th). 

Record When Scoring First: 17-3-1 (.833 win %).

Team Leaders

Goals: Ty Lewis (22)

Assists: Tim McGauley (40) – Leads league.

Points: McGauley (58) – 2nd in league   

Plus/Minus: McGauley (+30) – 2nd in league.

PIM: Patrick McGrath (86)

Power Play Points: Tim McGauley (15) – All 15 points are assists.

Shots on Goal: Taylor Richart (161)

Game Winning Goals: Yuri Terao (5)

Wins: Martin Ouellette (12)

Save %: Hunter Miska (.947) 

Goals Against Average: Miska (1.62) 

Season Series vs Kansas City

It’s the 4th meeting of the season between the Mountain Division clubs. Kansas City swept Utah in a 2 game series in early November, outscoring the Grizz 9-3. On December 20th Utah won 4-2 as Tim McGauley had 2 goals and 2 assists to lead the way. McGauley and Ty Lewis each have 2 goals vs KC, while Taylor Richart, Ryan Wagner and Peter Tischke each have 1 goal this season vs KC. These teams will meet 5 times in the next 11 days.

Feb. 14 Utah at Kansas City 7:05 pm CST

Feb. 15 Utah at Kansas City 7:05 pm CST

Feb. 22 Kansas City at Utah 7:10 pm MST

Feb. 23 Kansas City at Utah 5:00 pm MST

Feb. 24 Kansas City at Utah 7:10 pm MST

Utah 4 @ Kansas City 1 (Dec 20 2019) Final

Utah 2 @ Kansas City 4 (Nov 9 2019) Final

Utah 1 @ Kansas City 5 (Nov 8 2019) Final

Road Trip Recap

Utah is currently 4-3 through 7 games on the seasons longest road trip, which is 3 weeks, 6 states and 9 games over a 3 week stretch. Mitch Maxwell leads the Grizz on the trip with 4 goals, including 2 game winners. It’s also been a great trip for Griffen Molino, who has 4 goals and 5 assists for 9 points in 7 road games. 

It’s been a tale of two weeks for the Grizzlies offensively. They scored 13 goals in the first 3 games of the trip but have scored just 4 goals in the middle 3 games and rebounded with a 5 goal effort on Tuesday night at Tulsa.