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Lukstins88 · 10-17-2021, 03:48 PM

Historical SMJHL season 61 has ended with dominant Vancouver Whalers win. Of course at the start of the season rarely anyone doubted that Whalers will win championship. They had the best team going into this season. But we will not talk about Whalers. We will talk about our own Great Falls Grizzlies, the team, that made debut in this SMJHL season. Lets look back at how the Grizzlies legacy started in SMJHL.

OFF-SEASON:

I think for Grizzlies and for Regina Elk GM's this off-season was very very busy. First was expansion draft. There Grizzlies picked up some experienced guys, who have some SMJHL experience under their belts like swedish winger Gerry Atrick from Kelowna, latvian winger Janis Lux from Anchorage, latvian defender Arturs Tumovs from Anaheim. After expansion draft teams GMs did not waist any time to do some loud noise in transfer department. They did some shocking trade by trading back to Colorado expansion drafts first pick Rinky McDangle and got russian winger Feder Sotakov. They traded away many draft picks for experienced players like Sekai Wollker, Jonathon Hagan. They picked up via trade or in free agency some hungry guys like goaltender Alexander Rask, center Grogu Mandosson, wingers Igor Isyanov, Bjorn Viggosson and Aleksej Komarek. They did some great scouting before draft and they picked up guys like Brick Wall who for sure will be teams legend, Frederico von Schicktenburg and Lewis HamiltonIsBlessed. In free agency Grizzlies picked up some less known players and team was set to hit ice. Of course there were some holes, but it would be surprise if there would not be holes in the roster, since Grizzlies were new team to this league.

PRE-SEASON:
Pre-season started with home win against Nevada Battleborn, result 4-1 Teams first goal was scored by Janis Lux. Then again Grizzlies won against Nevada but this time it was away match. 7-2 was pretty shocking score even for pre-season. Then Grizzlies returned to earth by losing 2-3 to season 59 champions Kelowna Knights. Two days later Grizzlies got their win back against Kelowna, but that was the last bright game from Grizzlies, after this it was only going down. Grizzlies pre-season ended in ninth place overall, with record 3-4-0, goal difference 20-20. Pre-season showed that Lux and Atrick will be teams leaders going into Grizzlies debut season.

REGULAR SEASON:
Great Falls Grizzlies was put in Ciarelli division with Anaheim and Carolina teams. Interesting that before their debut they picked up some players from Anaheim, so both teams in one division already made it like a new SMJHL rivalry.
Great Falls Grizzlies made their SMJHL debut against Colorado. In very close game Grizzlies lost 2-3. Then it was Grizzlies first division match-up against Carolina Kraken and Grizzlies suffered shameful 1-7 lose in front of their own fans. After this lose Grizzlies visited their other division team Anaheim Outlaws and got their first ever SMJHL win, 5-0. After this win Grizzlies went to other expansion team Regina Elk and were trashed by 5-1. But two days later Grizzlies revenged by 4-1. Overall first few games showed what all were expecting and that is that Grizzlies were inconsistent in their game. They could win one game and lose next few games or lose some and win few, they can lose by a lot and next game they can win in overtime.

Overall regular season Great Falls Grizzlies with record 30-34-2 finished second in division, sixth in conference and ninth overall. With 202 scored goals Grizzlies had ninth best offence in regular season, tenth best (or fifth worst) defence with allowed 229 goals. That gave them ninth best goal difference with -27. Overall I can say that pre-season pretty good showed what Grizzlies are capable.

Most productive players for Grizzlies in their SMJHL debut season were Janis Lux with 20+29 and Gerry Atrick with 25+29. Interesting that best +/- was for defender Arturs Tumovs. Of course big help was teams last man Brick Wall. Wall put some average numbers for SMJHL, 28 wins put him in fifth place between all goalies, 28 loses was third worst, but lets not forget it was Walls debut season too, so he will only get better and better and Grizzlies GMs and fans hope that he will.

PLAY-OFFS:
Play-offs saw that for the first time in SMJHL not all teams made to the post-season. Maine and Nevada were first two teams in history not to make in play-offs. So congratulations to them. If we talk about Grizzlies, so Grizzlies saw themselves against St. Louis Scarecrow. Grizzlies against Scarecrow in regular season was intense battle. Season series saw the teams split wins, three to each team and play-offs were no different. This was the only series in first round that went to seven games. Not only series was intense but pretty much all games in this series were very intense too. Only game three where St. Louis won 3-0 and game seven where Grizzlies won 5-0 was not that close.
After their historical win against Scarecrow it was time to take on season favourites Vancouver Whalers. Overall this series was on one side. Yes, Grizzlies shockingly won game three by 7-3, but it was the only game where Grizzlies could put anything against Vancouver. They showed, not only in this series against Grizzlies, but later on against Colorado and Newfoundland why they are the best team in this season.

And again most productive player for Grizzlies in their first ever play-offs were Janis Lux with 6+3 in 12 games.

SUMMARY:
Overall Grizzlies deserve only the best words. They showed that they deserve to be in this league. Like I said the inconsistency was fine for the new team, they had to adapt and the league had to adapt to them. They established their name here.

DEATH OF ATRICK:
After great debut season ended team was hit with tragic news. One of the teams leaders Gerry Atrick was found dead in his closet. Cause of death was
auto-erotic asphyxiation. There is theory that in his closet was grizzly bear and that caused Atricks death. We do not wanna make any misleading theories. We just wanna say rest in peace.

WHAT IS NEXT FOR GRIZZLIES?
Now it is time to rest and re-charge batteries for the next season. There will be some changes for sure. It will be hard to replace Atrick. Grizzlies will lose center Hex Rose. There is still no news about future of Wollker, Tumovs, Sotakov and teams leader Lux. All Grizzlies fans hope that they will stay in Great Falls for one more runespecially Lux. Grizzlies will get better in the net too, because Brick Wall will grow and be much better next season. Of course all teams will lose players, but for Grizzlies situation does not look that bad. They just need to do some good scouting and draft some good new players. So the future looks bright for the Grizzlies, they just need to capitalize when the big chance arrives.

This was summary for Grizzlies debut season.

Jean-Pierre Bear, "Sports Life in Montana"