Bulls Go For Fourth Straight As They Face Utah For Final Time: Game Preview

San Francisco Bulls v Utah Grizzlies, March 16, 2013 – Photo courtesy of Mike Tkacheff via the San Francisco Bulls web page – SFBulls.com

The Bulls look for their fourth straight win as they face the Grizzlies for the final time this season. The Bulls (24-34-7) improved their magic number to four points as the get closer to clinching their first playoff berth, while the Grizzlies (25-29-12) are now just seven points ahead of the Bulls for seventh place. Last night, the Bulls defeated the Grizzlies with a six to five shoot out victory. Peter Sivak had two goals for the Bulls in regulation, while Dean Ouellet had the decisive goal in the shoot out period. Both goalies struggled as they both allowed five goals in regulation. The Bulls are now 2-4 against the Grizzlies on the season.

Last night’s contest was an offensive battle as the two teams combined for 10 goals. Utah’s Adam Estoclet led all scorers with four points as he added two goals and two assists. The Bulls’ Peter Sivak added two more goals to give him a team leading 33 goals, which is good enough for third best in the entire league. The Bulls also added goals from Bryan Cameron, Jordan Morrison, and Christian Ouellet. Bryan Cameron and Dean Ouellet had both of the Bulls’ goals in the shoot out period. Taylor Nelson had a shaky night with 31 saves on 36 shots faced in the evening, but he was able to come up with clutch performance in the shoot out period as he stopped four of the five shots he faced in the skills competition. The Bulls special teams had an up and down night. They started off the game by allowing a short handed goal by Utah, but they added their own short handed goal midway through the third. They penalty kill allowed the only power play goal in the game as Utah tied the game up late.

The Bulls offense did exactly what they were suppose to do as they attacked the porous Grizzlies’ defense and put a lot of shots on net to try and rattle the rookie net minder. Look for them to do much of the same as they offense should be able to find some success in today’s game. Taylor Nelson needs to be much better as he looked awful last night. The offense should be able to score, so he just needs to be good enough to win the game in regulation to allow the Bulls to pick two points instead of one. The special teams needs to clean up their play as they looked shaky last night.