One goal was all that the Utah Hockey Club needed to tie their game against the Dallas Stars on Monday night. However, a bad second period sent Utah trying to dig themselves out of a hole they put themselves in and they eventually lost 2-1. Here are some takeaways from Monday night’s game.
Nick Schmaltz Scores Again
Up until Utah’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights, Nick Schmaltz hadn’t scored a single goal. It was only a matter of time until the forward would find his scoring touch. After all, he has scored 20-plus goals in his past three seasons.
Against the Golden Knights, Schmaltz potted his first two goals of the season, ending his long-scoring drought. Utah fans were hoping with the monkey off his back, the Wisconsin native would resume playing up to his potential. It seems like they just might have their wish granted.
In the third period, Schmaltz shot the puck at one of the net’s pipes. The puck bounced off the pipe and went in. It would be his third goal in the past two games. It seems like the dam just needed to be broken for the forward to start scoring. He now has five points in his past four games.
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“I feel like I’m getting, kind of, the same looks that I was getting prior,” Schmaltz said. “Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t.”
Fortunately for Schmaltz, the pucks have definitely been going in recently. It helps that his linemate, Clayton Keller, has also been playing decently. He has three points in his past four games. Keller and Schmaltz, along with their other linemate Barrett Hayton have slowly started scoring again. In the previous couple of games, it has been the second line doing most of the scoring for Utah. However, with the first line starting to get going, that could change as Utah heads into the month of December.
Second Period Struggles
In their past four losses, there’s been an outlying factor for Utah. They usually begin and end strong but their second period has been abysmal. Utah has been outscored 9-0 in the second period as of late including letting the Stars score twice in Monday’s game.
It didn’t help that Utah took two penalties almost back to back. Those penalties led to Evgenii Dadonov scoring the Stars’ first goal from the side of the net. Then, late in the period, Jamie Benn continued the offense for the Stars by getting a shot past Karel Vejmelka through traffic.
If this was a one-time thing, it wouldn’t be a huge issue. However, in most of their recent losses, Utah has collapsed in the second period, leaving a hole to dig themselves out of in the third period. By then, it’s often too late for Utah to come back.
“I don’t know what it is,” Schmaltz said. “You gotta be more careful on your changes. When our D are tired, we’ve got to get the puck in deep so they can get a change. You’ve got to be careful in the second.”
In order to win hockey games, you have to play a complete 60 minutes of hockey. In Vegas on Saturday, Utah did exactly that, leading to a big 6-0 win. However, despite outshooting the Stars 11-6 in the second period, Utah got careless and took penalties that they shouldn’t have taken which led to the Stars capitalizing and getting the win.
A Strong Effort
There’s no doubt that Utah put up a really good fight against the Stars who are one of the best teams in the league. Utah outshot them 35-21 and had a lot of good chances. However, it was Casey DeSmith who stole the show and played a fantastic game in net, recording his first win since Oct. 24.
The Stars’ defense was also playing at their top level on Monday as well, blocking shots and shutting down any momentum Utah had. It was a good game for Utah and it’s one of those games where they shouldn’t be kicking themselves in disappointment.
“I’m really proud about the way we played,” head coach André Tourigny said. “I’m really frustrated about the result, there’s no doubt about it. There’s a balance we must have of putting things in perspective and being hungry to win.”
It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks for Utah. In most of their losses, they only lost by one goal, keeping it competitive until the very end. While one can keep saying it was a close loss, a loss is still a loss. Utah is quickly piling up a bunch of them.
“I thought we played well,” Michael Carcone said. “That’s a good team over there and I thought we outplayed them for the most part tonight. Couple breakdowns and that cost us. I thought we deserved better but I feel like we’re saying that quite a bit now.”
The loss against the Stars definitely beat up Utah, at least emotionally. The team hasn’t won back-to-back games since their three-game winning streak at the beginning of the season. It’s obvious that it’s weighing on the team. Luckily for them, they’ll have four days off before their next game on Saturday.
However, Utah will be busy after that. They’ll play two games on the East Coast this upcoming weekend. Then they’ll fly back home and play the Minnesota Wild. After that, it’s straight to Denver to play the Colorado Avalanche and then to San Jose to play the Sharks. In total, Utah will play five games in eight days. To prepare for the long week, Tourigny will not make his team practice until Wednesday.
“We need to make sure as a coach you’re not putting yourself ahead of the team,” Tourigny said. “Give the opportunity to your players to have all the energy possible. Energy is really important.”
It won’t be easy for Utah. They have a recipe for success. It showed in Monday night’s game. They just need to perfect it in order to get winning again.
Utah will travel to Buffalo to play the Sabres on Saturday. The Sabres are 11-11-2 so far this season after losing 3-0 to the New York Islanders and are amidst the longest playoff drought in the NHL. They are also tied with the NFL’s New York Jets for the longest playoff drought in sports as of right now. They’ll play the Avalanche and the Winnipeg Jets before taking on Utah at KeyBank Center.
