Coming off of a disappointing loss to the Winnipeg Jets, the Utah Hockey Club was able to rebound and play a great game against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, resulting in a 4-2 win. This gives Utah their first win on their current road trip and helps put them back into the thick of things in the Central Division. Here are some takeaways from Thursday night’s win.
Clayton Keller Strikes Again in Missouri
There’s almost no better pairing than Clayton Keller and playing against the Blues, especially in his home state of Missouri. The forward seems to always score against his childhood team, including scoring five points in four games last season while playing for the Arizona Coyotes. Keller’s point streak against the Blues didn’t end after moving north to Salt Lake City.
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Only a couple of seconds into the game, Keller grabbed the puck in the neutral zone and made an unbelievable pass to Michael Kesselring to spring him on a breakaway. Kesselring scored and put Utah up 1-0 only 18 seconds into the game.
Keller continues to lead the team in points with 13 in 14 games. He’s been great so far this season. To no one’s surprise, he scored another point against the Blues, which now gives him five points in the past six games.
Second Line Magic
There was no better line on Thursday than the second line consisting of Dylan Guenther, Logan Cooley, and Matias Maccelli. The line scored two goals during the game including the game-winning goal.
The first goal from the line came off a nice Cooley no-look pass to Guenther. Guenther then managed to get the puck to Maccelli who scored his third goal of the season off a wrist shot. It was a big goal for Maccelli as he has been criticized for not shooting enough. Now, with the second line, he’s been producing decently.
The night wouldn’t stop there for the second line. The puck would get away from the Blues and onto the stick of Guenther. With Cooley on the other side, the two raced towards the Blues’ zone leaving Colton Parayko as the only defense. Guenther attempted to pass the puck to Cooley, but it instead bounced off Parayko and into the net for the game-winning goal with only minutes left in the game.
That was Guenther’s seventh goal of the season. While the forward has cooled down from his monstrous start, he’s looked very good on a line with Cooley and Maccelli. The same thing can be said about Cooley who now has 11 points in 14 games. The two have picked up where they left off last season. With the addition of Maccelli, it seems like the line has been one of the best on Utah’s team.
An Example Game From Utah
Thursday’s game against the Blues was a prime example of how Utah can and should play. Unlike their game on Tuesday against the Winnipeg Jets where they lost 3-0, they did everything right in their win against the Blues.
One of the main differences between the two games is the amount of shots that Utah took. In the game against the Jets, they were helplessly outshot. In the game against the Blues, Utah doubled the number of shots their opponent had which resulted in some good opportunities which eventually resulted in goals. The lack of shots has haunted the franchise even dating back to their time in Arizona. Thursday’s game is an example of how their offense should play every game.
The defense also stepped up against the Blues. After Maveric Lamoureux was ejected from the game due to a knee-on-knee hit with Alexey Toropchenko, everyone on the blue line was handed increased minutes due to there only being five defensemen playing for Utah. They successfully killed off any penalties that came their way. It was a strong part of Utah’s game for sure especially as the Blues put up a fight in the third period.
Overall, it was a much stronger game for Utah as a collective group. They succeeded in doing a lot of things correctly that get teams wins. The goal is to continue what they did right. Utah has been a streaky team so far this season but they could have found the recipe for success on Thursday night.
Utah improved to 6-5-3 this season with the win. They’ll conclude their current road trip on Saturday when they visit the Nashville Predators. The Predators have been a disappointing team so far this season with a 4-9-1 record after adding big names like Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault in the offseason. They are coming off a 6-2 loss to the Florida Panthers and have lost their past three games.
