While Thanksgiving break seemed to help some players on the Utah Hockey Club, the same cannot be said about the overall team as they lost their first game back in action on Friday against the Edmonton Oilers. While Utah had some good moments, there were also a lot of flaws in their game that led to the 4-3 overtime loss. Here are some takeaways from Friday night’s game.
Too Many Penalties
If there’s one thing you should never do against the Oilers, it’s take penalties. However, an issue that Utah has struggled with is staying out of the box. Despite playing a good first period, it all fell apart in the second period when Olli Määttä took an interference penalty to send the Oilers to the power play. The two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl went to work eventually leading to Draisaitl scoring in front of the net to tie the game.
Robert Bortuzzo continued Utah’s night in the box with a tripping penalty. Despite the Oilers not having a great power play this season, no one should ever count them out on the man advantage. Of course, it was McDavid who scored on this Oilers’ power play, giving his team a 3-2 lead.
“We feel pretty good about our game five on five,” Lawson Crouse said. “I think early on we dominated. It felt like they had an elite power play with the personnel that they have but we did a good job. We battled back. We stuck with it to get it to overtime. An unlucky bounce and they capitalized. I see a quick turnaround. Get ready for another good hockey game tomorrow night.”
Utah only allowed one five-on-five goal the whole game. It was shorthanded and at three-on-three where they failed to keep the Oilers at bay.
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While Utah managed to send the game into overtime, it was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who scored the OT winner off a shot on the breakaway. It was clear by the amount of chances that the Oilers had in the extra period that something was going to give. Utah couldn’t keep up with them, and in the end, it cost them despite playing good five-on-five hockey.
“I liked our game on five on five,” head coach André Tourigny said. “We generated a lot of shots from the slum. We generated a lot of good stuff. So I liked our game at five and five. Their power play is really tough to contain and they wore us down. Basically, when we got tired, they scored their goals. It’s disappointing because I thought we were disciplined.”
Utah was debatably disciplined during the game. They only took three penalties, one of which wasn’t the best call by the officials. However, all the Oilers need is one power play to get going. It showed Friday night.
Logan Cooley Continues His Streak
In the past four games, Utah’s second line of Jack McBain, Dylan Guenther, and Logan Cooley has taken off, becoming the main source of the team’s offense. While it had been McBain scoring at a torrid pace the past couple of games, it’s been Cooley recently who has been tearing it up.
Cooley has six points in his past four games. He’s been one of the best players if not the best player on Utah. His chemistry with McBain and Guenther has been special leading to his point streak.
Cooley is now up to 18 points in 23 games. His stats are getting better every game, and he could challenge his 44-point total from last season. One thing he could do better is start to shoot the puck more. He has the speed to get in front of most defensemen in the league, yet instead, he stops and usually passes the puck. If he starts adapting a shoot-first mentality, his point total could shoot up. For now, though, he’ll seek to continue his point streak for the foreseeable future.
Lawson Crouse and Co. Break Scoring Drought
Since Oct. 24, Crouse hasn’t scored a goal. In fact, he hadn’t scored a single point in over a month. However, when Utah really needed him, he showed up. Near the midway point of the third period, he shot the puck into the top right corner to end his drought.
It was obvious that his teammates were super happy for him. A 14-game pointless stretch is hard for anyone, but it has to be harder for the alternate captain of a team.
“I think overall, he had a really good game today,” Kevin Stenlund said. “We’re happy for him.”
For Crouse, he felt like he had been playing the right way for a couple of weeks but nothing was going his way. It was a hard thing to go through for him, but he kept playing his game. On Friday night, the puck finally went in for him. Of course, he was very relieved after the game.
“Finally,” Crouse said. “I’ve had some good luck throughout the last couple weeks, and they weren’t going in. It’s easy to get down on yourself, but you just got to keep doing the things that you do. Tonight, it went in.”
It wasn’t just Crouse who ended a scoring drought. Määttä was another player who hadn’t scored for Utah. After being dealt to Utah from the Detroit Red Wings, he has played great hockey. Although his stats don’t show it, he’s been one of the most hardworking players for Utah. On Friday, the points started coming.
“His play is great, but him as a person and as a pro, his preparation, his attention to detail is what he brings to our team” Tourigny said. “He has two Stanley Cups and a championship pedigree. The way he plays, the way he fights, the way he plays with passion. We’re really happy to have him.”
Bortuzzo is another player who ended a point drought. The defenseman hadn’t scored in the nine games he played for Utah this season. However, his assist on Cooley’s goal gave him his first point.
While there are a lot of things to fix moving forward, there were some highlights from Friday’s game. Five-on-five play was pretty good, some players ended their scoring droughts, and the second line continued its dominant play. It’s not all bad, but the improvements they made need to continue into Utah’s next game on Saturday.
“I think it was a big step forward,” Stenlund said. “We just got to take what we can here and go again tomorrow.”
It’s a quick turnaround for Utah. They’ll travel to Nevada to play the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday. The two teams have met twice in the past couple of weeks with the Golden Knights winning both games. Since they last faced Utah, they’ve improved to a 15-6-2 record and are coming off a 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets.
