The Utah Hockey Club played their hearts out on Sunday evening (Nov. 24) against the Toronto Maple Leafs but unfortunately couldn’t come out with the win in a close 3-2 loss. While there were some mistakes made especially in the second period, there were a lot of good things that Utah did to keep things close with one of the best teams in the league. Here are some takeaways from Sunday night’s loss.
The Power Play Stays Hot
The biggest improvement in the past two games has been the power play. Before Utah’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday (Nov. 23), they hadn’t scored on the man advantage for a couple of weeks. Now in the past two games, Utah has scored four power play goals, reigniting their special teams.
Once again, it was the Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther unit who put Utah on the board. Guenther took a shot that bounced right onto Cooley’s stick, who potted it in for the first goal of the game. It was the Pittsburgh native’s third point in the past two games, putting him at 16 points in the whole season.
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The power play has been a strong suit for Utah as of late. Currently, they sit 22nd in the league in terms of power play percentage with a 16.9% success rate. However, that number has started to slowly go up in the past two games. The good news for Utah is that it has been the first unit carrying the power play with Cooley and Guenther both registering goals on the man advantage. While it would be nice to see someone like Nick Schmaltz chip in some offense as well, Cooley and Guenther have been carrying the special teams which could hopefully get the other players going on the man advantage as well.
In the past two games, Utah has completely controlled the game for most of their time on the man advantage which has led to an increased number of shots. Something that the team struggled with for a couple of weeks. Hopefully, the success spreads some confidence going into their final game on the road trip.
Jack McBain Continues Great Season
Jack McBain might be having a very underrated season for Utah, and it shows in his stats. The forward was able to score on Sunday in his hometown after tipping in a Cooley shot in front of the net.
That goal would be McBain’s seventh of the season which puts him second on the team in goal-scoring only behind Guenther who has nine. It’s been an impressive start for the 2018 third-round pick who isn’t usually known for his offense. In fact, his current highest scoring season has been his past two seasons with the Arizona Coyotes, where he scored 26 points in both years. In 2022-23, he set a career high in goals with 12. This season, he’s already more than halfway to reaching that number with seven in 21 games.
McBain has become one of Utah’s most overlooked players. He can do it all. His physicality and two-way play are among the best on Utah. Now, he has suddenly found his goal-scoring touch. Possibly, it could be because of his willingness to sit in front of the net to create traffic and eventually tip any pucks that fly his way. This has made McBain a huge contributor to Utah’s offense, which has resulted in some big moments for him and his team.
A Poor Second Period
Unlike prior games, this was a game where Utah didn’t feel out of it. It felt like even in the dying minutes of the third period, they could still tie the game. The confidence and determination have definitely returned to the locker room and it showed on the ice.
Unfortunately, everything Utah brought couldn’t stop the Maple Leafs from scoring two goals in under two minutes in the second period to eventually win them the game. Mitch Marner scored first after the Leafs unloaded their full offense on Karel Vejmelka. That would be his second of the game. A minute later, William Nylander stripped the puck from a Utah player, charged to the net at full speed, and scored the eventual game-winning goal.
Nylander’s goal and Marner’s first goal were very similar. In both goals, they were able to easily strip the puck away from a Utah player and bolt toward Vejmelka on a breakaway. It wasn’t the best look by Utah’s defense and when Marner and Nylander are moving on the ice, there’s a good chance that no one will be able to catch them.
The two goals in two minutes was a bad look but the amount of penalties that Utah took was ridiculous. They were shorthanded a total of six times. This puts them at exactly 100 penalties so far this season making them the second most penalized team in the league. It got so bad on Sunday night that head coach André Tourigny called a timeout to try to calm his team down.
“We just needed a reset. A lot of things were happening pretty quick. We just needed to talk as a group, be a lot more disciplined, can’t take that many penalties,” McBain said.
Someone who has been a frequent visitor of the penalty box is Maveric Lamoureux. The rookie defenseman has played 14 games in the NHL so far and has racked up 40 penalty minutes already. He is a player who really needs to watch his stick and be more careful about not taking penalties, but it’s a whole group problem that needs to stop.
“It’s a big issue. You get on the road and repeat the same mistake, the same guys, a stick penalty…that’s tough. Our game management, our game in the game, cost us today. From bad change to getting in penalty trouble,” Tourigny said.
Shots on net for the second period were a whopping 16-6 in favor of the Leafs. Outside of that, Utah either outshot or kept it close in the number of shots.
Other than the second period, Utah played a pretty good game. They battled hard until the end, played some good hockey, and kept continuing to fix a lot of the mistakes they’ve made in the past couple of games. Rather than looking at the flaws from this game, Utah should use the momentum from a strong effort and build off that energy in their next match on Tuesday. Ultimately, Sunday’s loss is one that they shouldn’t frown upon, it’s something they should use as motivation.
Utah is now 8-10-3 and 1-2-0 on their current road trip. They’ll finish out their eastern road trip on Tuesday when they travel to Montreal to take on the Canadiens. The Canadiens are 7-11-2 this season and are coming off a 6-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
