The Minnesota Wild and Utah Hockey Club met for the first time this season on Tuesday, Dec. 10, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Wild had Jakub Lauko back after missing the past six games with a lower-body injury. They were still without Mats Zuccarello, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jonas Brodin. Utah was missing Connor Ingram, Maveric Lamoureux, and Sean Durzi. They added Robert Bortuzzo to that list, as he was injured during their game against the Wild.
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The goaltender matchup was between Filip Gustavsson for the Wild and Karel Vejmelka for Utah. Both teams had a lot of penalty time, and it was a back-and-forth goal-scoring show that required a shootout to finish. Matt Boldy got the lone goal in the shootout to take the win 5-4. The Wild moved their record to 19-5-2, and Utah moved to 12-11-5.
Game Recap
The Utah Hockey Club controlled most of the first period, with the Wild getting chances here and there. Utah scored the game’s first goal on a shot from the perfect spot in the slot by Kevin Stenlend to take the 1-0 lead. The rest of the period went scoreless, so Utah held the lead going into the second. They could have taken a 2-0 lead but were called for offside, and the goal was overturned.
That was when the Wild found their game. Marat Khusnutdinov got a slight breakaway and made it count, as he snuck one past Vejmelka to tie the game 1-1. The Wild’s scoring mojo continued. 36 seconds later, their scoring leader, Kirill Kaprizov, tallied a goal to give his team their first lead of the game late in the second. The Wild would hold the lead despite Utah’s strong chances.
The third period held even more scoring as Utah answered back with a power play goal by Clayton Keller to tie the game at two. However, the Wild responded just under a minute later with a goal by Marcus Johansson, who batted in a loose puck in the crease to make it 3-2. The scoring wasn’t done there either, as Utah would once again score on the power play with Keller’s second goal of the game to tie it 3-3.
Utah would take over the scoring momentum as they scored a couple minutes later to take the 4-3 lead on a goal by Juuso Välimäki. It looked like the Utah Hockey Club would take the win, but the Wild’s Marco Rossi scored the tying goal as Marcus Foligno screened, and it would require overtime to find a winner. However, they couldn’t determine a winner there, so it would go to a shootout where Boldy scored the winner, and the Wild won 5-4.
The Wild will return home to face the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, Dec. 12, after being on the road for the past three games. Utah will head on the road for the next two games and face the Colorado Avalanche first, also on Thursday.
