On a gray, windy Sunday afternoon, you could hear the Maverik Center’s nearly capacity crowd from the parking lot.
If your only introduction to professional hockey is the crisp, big money atmosphere of the National Hockey League, don't be mistaken. This is the minors, the East Coast Hockey League. For 31 years, you could watch the “blue collar” brand of hockey of the Utah Grizzlies for around $20.
Longtime fan Dylan Hardman described it as “gritty, tough, emotional hockey” adding that it’s hard to describe the atmosphere of a minor league game.
“Everybody here is fighting basically, for their lives and their careers, you know, they want to move up,” he said.
He and his family have “been here since the start,” but this game against South Dakota’s Rapid City Rush will be the last.
“What are we 30? 31 years? It's hard.”
Since 1995, the Utah Grizzlies had been the state’s only professional hockey team — until Salt Lake City landed an NHL franchise last year, the Utah Mammoth. The Grizzlies were sold to Pro Hockey Partners, LLC, a 14-member consortium formed to bring professional hockey to Trenton, New Jersey — the team’s new home.
For Hardman, his family and local hockey are synonymous. He said he knew from the moment he took his daughter Lily to a Grizzlies game as a toddler that hockey would be her sport.
“It was great to see her actually, when the players fought, and she was, I think, three years old, and she started yelling and screaming,” he said smiling, “I was like, ‘yep, she's a hockey fan.’”
Standing at concessions before heading to his corner ice seats, Hardman and his wife Carin are wearing Lily’s team jersey, the Utah Lady Grizzlies. It’s a junior Tier 2 travel team, and she and the team have just returned from Nationals. The team is not affiliated with the Utah Grizzlies or the ECHL.
“Even though we didn't get far, it was like crazy that we even got there,” she said, adding that her passion for hockey began with her dad taking her to games.
“I started playing hockey because of the Grizzlies. Like, I went to the game when I was younger, and I was like, ‘Oh, I really want to do that’,” Lily said. She and her younger sister Elly were wearing Grizzlies jerseys speckled with signatures of players from over the years.
Hardman said watching her grow as a goalie, the same position he played, is “the ultimate feeling as a dad.” He said Lily is already “way better” than he was.
He said his daughter plays 14 tournaments a year.
“If she keeps going the trajectory she's going, she could possibly get a little college paid for out of it,” he said.
And he thinks she could go even further.
“Now the girls have a professional league, the PWHL, that's something for them, at least, to shoot for,” he said.
When the Utah Grizzlies took the ice for the last time, they provided a true spectacle. They were coming off the back of a six-game win streak — their longest since 2021.
The night before, they had beaten the Rapid City Rush six to three and the away team was out for blood. The Grizzlies were trailing four to one as they entered the third period.
But the crowd didn't let up. Donned in green, white and black, they chanted and sang songs like ‘Sweet Caroline’ together. And they weren’t shy about letting the referee know when they felt he had made an error in judgement.
As the clock ticked down, the Grizzlies scored two quick goals. They were now only behind by one point and the over seven thousand fans were on their feet. Holding each other, gasping at near misses and defensive saves until finally, as the game entered the final two minutes, Evan Friesen scored to tie the game.
After the game entered overtime, Rapid City scored, snuffing out the chance for the fairy tale ending to the Grizzlies 31 season career in Utah. Fans stood in disbelief. Tears flowed from faces, young and old.
But not because they lost. For the Grizzlies and their fans, it was the end of an era.
“It's sad, because you could always count on it until you can’t,” Hardman said with his arm around his daughter Lily.
