Utah Grizzlies hope to build home-ice edge

WEST VALLEY CITY — A season ago, the Utah Grizzlies went just 15-12-5-4 inside the E Center during the regular season.

Those 15 wins were the third fewest of any team- in the ECHL.

There were a lot of reasons for Utah's home struggles, not least of all was the fact that the Grizzlies dealt with high, high turnover from the start of the season until the end of it.

Flash forward to the present, however, and Utah plans to be much tougher at home this year.

The quest to make that a reality begins tonight at 7 when the Grizzlies host Idaho in their home-opener at the E Center, with Utah and Idaho slated to meet again the following evening.

Forward James Sixsmith, echoing the sentiments of others, said his team needs to make the E Center a tough place to play, beginning this weekend.

"We just hope that we can maybe win a little more this year and attract more fans," said Sixsmith. "Some games last year we had a ton of fans and other games we didn't have that many, and it's because fans want to see a winning product.

"I think this team is going to be very exciting to watch with all the speed and skill. I've been around hockey a long time, and you put this many guys that can skate and move that puck and stick-handle the puck together, and it's gonna be exciting to watch and be a part of."

Sixsmith said he believes his team has the potential to be as good as anybody in the league if it can come together, and if that happens, the results should be very fun to watch.

"We're really looking forward to coming out for the home fans and giving them some payback for last year for some of those games that they saw that we just weren't very good (in),' said Sixsmith. "Hopefully we can turn things around."

Utah coach Kevin Colley hopes that will begin when his players collide with Idaho tonight.

"You gotta set the identity that it's gonna be really tough to get two points in this building, and that starts (tonight)," said Colley. "We got good support here, and we wanna show well."

THAT WOULD BE A RECORD: Captain Ryan Kinasewich will become the team's all-time leading goal scorer with his next goal.

Kinasewich tied Chris Taylor atop the all-time team lead Friday with a hat trick. With 111 goals and 146 assists for 257 points in 181 all-time regular season games with the Grizzlies, the 26-year-old is 21 points away from tying Taylor to become the team's all-time leader in that category.

Grizzlies on the air

Idaho (3-0) at Utah (1-0)

Tonight, 7 p.m.

TV: None

Radio: 1230 AM

e-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com