Hot, stable Grizz return home

WEST VALLEY CITY — With a roster as stable as it's been probably since the Utah Grizzlies joined the ECHL three years ago, Jason Christie's club comes home to start a four-game homestand tonight on the heels of a four-game road-winning streak and having won seven of its last eight games.

It also has the league's hottest scorer over the last six weeks in Ryan Kinasewich, who has 26 points in the 17 games since he was returned to Utah Jan. 8 by the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers, and the Grizzlies have outscored opponents 45-32 in their last 10 games (7-2-1).

Utah won its four straight road games without Kinasewich's also-hot linemate, Tyler Haskins (34 points in 33 games), who sat out the road trip with injury.

Tonight's game at 7 opens a three-game series in the E Center with the Bakersfield Condors (14-24-2-7), whom Utah defeated 9-3 Saturday to complete its road trip. Bakersfield lost 7-3 at home to Las Vegas Tuesday and is the last-place team in the National Conference, but it is 6-4-3 in its last 13 games.

Utah (26-20-0-4) — which hasn't lost a player to a callup to Bridgeport since Jan. 31 and hasn't made any other roster moves since releasing an emergency backup goalie Jan. 10 — is fifth in the conference and third in the West Division.

It has a chance to move to second on this homestand that concludes Tuesday with Idaho, which, with 61 standings points, is five ahead of the Grizzlies (56). Victoria leads the West with 65.

Scott Burt, coming off a hat-and-feather at Bakersfield Saturday, his first hat trick of the season and the ninth by a Grizzly this season, still leads Utah scoring with 46 points in 50 games. Rookie Keith Johnson has 38 points in 47 games, and Olivier Labelle has 35 in 35 games and has a four-game scoring streak.

Bakersfield is led by Tim Konsorada with 44 points and Sean Venedam with 43.

The series that begins on Valentine's Day night is a matchup of the two most-penalized teams in the National Conference. Bakersfield has 1,197 penalty minutes, and Utah 1,106. Bakersfield pays a heavy price for its penalties with the second-worst penalty kill in the ECHL (77.4 percent), and Utah's not a lot better, killing 79.8, 21st in the 25-team league.

Saturday's game will be the second Pooch on the Pond promotion, for which fans may bring their dogs to the game and sit in the special pooch section. A trophy will be awarded the winner of the Pooch Pageant, photos of dogs and owners with mascot Grizzbee will be available, and the Humane Society of Utah will be in attendance with a selection of adoptable dogs.

---

E-mail: lham@desnews.com

Recent comments

• Most Popular
• Most Commented

1. David Archuleta's dad loses 'Idol' backstage pass
2. Signs of the times? Civility may be at all-time low
3. Utah Jazz: Boozer receives helpful advice from TV analyst
4. Mormon writer proves she's . . . A novel writer
5. Utah Jazz: Okur's Achilles affects boards
6. Letter asks Bush to help FLDS kids
7. New opportunity — Utah Jazz try to even the series, something they missed against Spurs
8. Utah Republicans: Cannon hangs on for primary race
9. Osmonds have their own 'Favorite Mom'
10. MormonTimes.com: Placing intimacy in right perspective

1. Utah Jazz: Dead in the water? 183
2. Nude Utah hiker faces indecent-exposure charge 154
3. Legal experts say what FLDS can do now is cooperate 150
4. Texas says all YFZ kids at risk 130
5. David mania: Thousands turn out to salute Archuleta 114
6. Hero's welcome planned for Archuleta 107
7. ACLU weighs in on FLDS raid 92
8. MormonTimes.com: Placing intimacy in right perspective 85
9. LDS teens injured in Arizona attack 81
10. Utah Jazz: Boozer says the 's' word 77
11. (Stories published in the last five days with the most comments)

• BYU
• Jazz
• Real SL
• Utes