IHL History: Utah Grizzlies

by Andrew Bourgeois
on

The Utah Grizzlies begin their 5th season in the IHL this up coming season and though the
franchise has been around 6 years (1 year was spent in Denver), there is alot of history
surounding the team. The Grizzlies first year of existence was in Denver, Colorado which is no
stranger to professional hockey. The International Hockey League granted Denver their first IHL
franchise in 1959-60 as the Denver Mavericks, but due to unseen circumstances the Mavericks
ended up moving to Minneapolis to complete the season as the Minneapolis Millers. The NHL moved
into Denver with the Colorado Rockies until moving to New Jersey.
The IHL moved back into Denver as the Colorado Rangers in 1987-88 in which the Rangers lasted
two seasons. In 1987-88 the Rangers finished 5th with a 44-35-3 record for 91 points in 82
games. Todd Elik lead the Rangers in scoring with 44 goals, 56 assists for 100 points and had 81
PIM in 81 games. Also Simon Wheeldon finished the season with 99 points on 45 goals, 54 assists
with 80 PIM in 69 games. Mike Ritcher lead the Rangers goalies posting a 3.14 GAA, with 1
shutout, 68 goals against and 1298 minutes played in 22 games. In the playoffs the Rangers
defeated Kalamazoo 4 games to 3 games, but were outsted by Salt Lake in the quarterfinals 4
games to 2 games. In 1988-89 the Rangers became known as the Denver Rangers instead of the
Colorado Rangers and posted a 33-42-7 record for 73 points in 82 games. In the Playoffs the Read more»

Prospects Tournament Game 2 – The real prospects show up

by Paul Tanasi
on

Wow, what a difference 24 hours make. Either the Panther prospects are really bad, or this group of Montreal prospects really turned things around after Wednesday’s debacle versus Tampa. No significant roster changes except for the addition of Aaron Asham. The other changes were Konstantin Sidulov, Jason Lehoux, and Sebastien Thinel who did not play. Benoit Cotnoir, Jerome Marois were inserted in the lineup. Mathieu Garon also replaced Evan Lindsay in goal.

For those of you keeping track, Montreal lost the opener on Wednesday to Tampa Bay by a score of 4-3 but were totally outplayed and outshot. In the night cap game, Florida beat the Ottawa prospects by a score of 4-3 as well.

In yesterday’s early game, Ottawa beat Tampa 3-2 in a shootout. After a 5 min overtime period didn’t settle matters, Petr Schastlivy beat Robert Holsinger with the only shootout goal for the win. Mathieu Chouinard was outstanding as he stopped all five Tampa shooters. Simon Lajeunesse let in two Tampa goals by Chris Gignac and Sergei Kuznetsov earlier in the game. The other goal scorers for Ottawa were British import Jonathan Weaver and Chris Neil.

So with Montreal’s decisive 5-2 victory over Florida each team has won and lost a game which should make Friday’s matches very interesting.

Here’s a quick rundown of what I thought of each of the Montreal Prospect’s performance in this game:

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Hockey pool book review

by Jes Golbez
on

Well it’s hockey pool time — the favourite time of year for some of us — and with that we find at our local newsstands a
myriad of publications. So to help you with your picks in your hockey pool, here is a guide to some of the best, and worst, magazines to choose from. I’m not going to go into things such as who gives the best stats, generally they all give good stats, goals scored, assists, minutes played. Just the beef here, not soy allowed.

Now, there are different publications for different tastes and needs, but you can decide what you want, and where your money is best spent. But here is the order that I find the best.

For my money Slam’s Hockey Forecaster is far and away the best out there. While others give you glitz and sizzle, the Forecaster gives you most of everything. For the average office poolster they give a breakdown of the best to pick and the best to avoid. Their write-ups are concise and give you their opinion on why or why not a player will produce. But where this publication shines is in their coverage of secondary players and the prospects. While the average poolie wouldn’t touch a Tom Poti last year (and for good reason) the perpetual, or rotisserie, poolies love these little things and the Forecaster gives you plenty of this. If year in year out you Read more»

Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect: Vladimir Kulikov Who is He Anyway?

by pbadmin
on

With the 211th selection in the 1999 NHL entry draft, the Toronto Maple
Leafs choose, Vladimir Kulikov.
Those fans who were paying attention at that time said, who? Even some of
the web’s most popular internet sports services listed this choice as
Vladimir Kulkov, a forward playing for CKSA in Russia.

Those fans who read these reports felt that the Maple Leafs had passed on
taking a goaltending prospect for the future, which is a team need as one
looks beyond the Cujo years. Not so, as the amateur scouting department,
then headed by assistant GM, Anders Hedberg, pick up a potentially good one
in young Kulikov.

Kulikov has played for CKSA in Russia, which is the former Red Army
organization. Through the foreign exchange program, he came to North
America and played for the Meadville High School Bulldogs during the 97-98 Read more»

A look at the Montreal Prospects camp

by Paul Tanasi
on

The Prospects Tournament was held in Hull last night. It was also a good opportunity to check out the up and coming stars for Florida, Tampa and Ottawa. Ottawa seemed to have the best prospects, followed by Tampa, then Florida. Montreal gets 4th by default.

There’s no knight in shiny armor in the crew of Montreal prospects. Below is how each player did. Keep in mind this is only one game and they’ve probably never played together before so they did look out of place.

Gordie Dwyer-Excellent fore checker, solid body checks, 1 assist, 2 fights (one win, one draw) will play in Quebec (AHL) but zero chance of any NHL time in my opinion.

Konstantin Sidulov-Didn’t impress, didn’t disappoint, was pretty much invisible. He was a little on the small side.

Francois Beauchemin-Brisebois, Robidas…you get the picture. May make it to NHL just because the Habs always give these guys a shot. Kind of reminds me of Brian Campbell, smallish and non-physical but a strong skater and nice passer.

Matt Carkner-Raw, good size, no offensive skills, weak skater but could be the next Brad Brown which isn’t too bad really. He could play for another team down the road.

Jason Lehoux- 2 fighting majors, lost one badly to Kyle Freadrich of Tampa, drew on the second. Didn’t look terribly out of place on a terrible looking team.

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