After a busy Saturday, we had a much more relaxing Sunday, with just one game on the schedule, namely hockey in Utah. No, not the Utah Hockey Club, that would be Monday. Instead, we paid a visit to the Utah Grizzlies, an ECHL franchise who has been here since 2005 and are celebrating their 21st season. They play out of Maverik Center in West Valley City, a suburb about 15 minutes by car from the airport and also reachable on the TRAX Green Line, though this takes about 45 minutes from the same place.
We were staying across the street and just walked over, beating the crowd as we arrived over an hour before puck drop. The arena opened in 1997 and hosted an AHL team that was suspended after the 2005 season (that franchise is now in Cleveland); the current ECHL team moved in for the next season, so there was no downtime in terms of hockey tenancy.
In front of the main entrance is a sculpture of two generic players fighting for an invisible puck. I'd like to see this showing Canada and USA logos as those two nations fought for the gold medal at this venue in 2002 (Canada won if memory serves).
In fact, there is still a cauldron at the entrance to the parking lot to remind fans of what happened here over two decades ago, when the rink was known as the E Center. Convenience store concern Maverik bought the naming rights in 2010 and have maintained them since then.
I was doing the Stadium Journey review and that got me in before pretty much anyone else. Capacity here is 10,100 for hockey but only 3,674 were announced for this one (and an usher said about 2,800 were actually there), so many of the concessions were closed. Last year, 6,003 were here on a typical evening but this season has seen that number drop to 4,868; no doubt attendance has been hurt by the arrival of the NHL team. Sharpy was with me and spent $29 to get in, though this includes the $6 parking charge apparently; no discount for those who walk or carpool I guess. Still, that is a lot of money for third-tier hockey when the top level is just 30 minutes away.
There are two seating bowls, though most of the upper bowl is closed off with tarps over the seats. There are a few sections of gold seats here (in honour of Canada's gold medal no doubt), but most fans stay down below, where the red seats dominate the scene.
There are no club seats on the lower level, and the suites are at the top of the bowl so the upper level is quite close to the ice.
I headed up to take a look around and was impressed with the carpeted concourse. There is a bar or party area at the southeast end but it was closed for this afternoon's tilt.
You can see the difference in the angle from the top and this is a preferable place to sit as the seats are slightly more comfortable. Note the 30 on the scoreboard, this is celebrating 30 seasons since 1994, though this particular franchise got started in 1981 in Nashville. Instead, it seems like they are adding the nine years the AHL franchise played here, but that started in 1995. Whatever the case, something doesn't quite add up.
There are only four rows of seats in the upper level, so a bit easier to navigate too.
The scoreboard is actually four separate video boards, with those facing the nets significantly smaller than the ones facing the sidelines. I've seen this arrangement more and more and guess it is less expensive than one large scoreboard.
During one intermission, there was a race featuring interns or some other hapless staff members dressed as Coca-Cola products. As with all ice-related races, this was pretty entertaining, though Sprite ran away with it in the end.
Overall, Maverik Center is pretty typical for an ECHL rink. I appreciated the ease of access but with such a sparse crowd, there wasn't a lot of atmosphere, which is too bad as the game was halfway decent.
The Game
The Tulsa Oilers were visiting to complete a weekend set, having won on Friday night 5-2. Derek Daschke opened the scoring with a soft shot from the point that surprised Tulsa tender Vyacheslav Buteyets, a sixth round pick to Anaheim in 2022. The Oilers dominated after that and were rewarded when a deflection ended up on Daneel Lategan's stick and he had a breakaway, beating Jake Barczewski to tie things up with three minutes to go. Shortly after that, Daschke (in black in the photo below) found Luke Manning with a cross-crease pass and Manning had no trouble putting in the empty net past a frustrated Buteyets (below). Before the crowd had a chance to finish celebrating, Tulsa tied it again on a controversial play as a Grizzly was slew-footed and the culprit passed the puck to Solag Bakich who slapped it home.
It looked like a high-scoring game was in store, but an even second period resulted in no goals. In the third, Utah began to pressure but could not beat Buteyets again, and against the run of play, Tulsa's Connor Roulette (4th round to Dallas in 2021 finished an unassuming rush with a snap shot that bested Barczewski and proved to be the winner.
The Oilers only had four shots in the period but one got in and that was all she wrote for the Grizzlies. There were only three penalties, all against Tulsa, which did lead to the most amusing part of the afternoon, as when the visiting player exits the penalty box, the announcer shouts "Tulsa is back at full strength" and the crowd replies "And they still suck!" Unfortunately, the Utah power play sucked worse. There's the final below and the highlights are here.
Notes
The arena will again host Olympic hockey when the Games return here in 2034.
Best,
Sean
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