The Utah Hockey Club extended their losing streak on Thursday, dropping their third straight game to the Boston Bruins, 1-0. While goaltender Karel Vejmelka has continued his great season, the rest of the team has been disappointing. As they start their four-game road trip, here are some takeaways from their loss last night.
Karel Vejmelka Stays Hot
Vejmelka was arguably Utah’s best player against the Bruins, stopping 30 of 31 shots, and not all of them were easy. The Bruins had a couple of power plays in the first period that drove their shot total to 15 after 20 minutes. Yet, Vejmelka stopped them all and looked great doing it. Elias Lindholm scored the only goal of the game on the power play in front of the net, and it wasn’t the goaltender’s fault.
With Connor Ingram out with an upper-body injury, Vejmelka has taken over the starter’s job for Utah. It might be the best thing for the team. Before his injury, Ingram wasn’t so hot. Meanwhile, despite only winning one of his eight games, Vejmelka has a .922 save percentage, which is impressive. If Utah was competitive, he might be ranked among the league’s top goalies.
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Ingram’s injury has, hopefully, let the coaching staff know that it’s Vejmelka’s net right now. Not only has he put up excellent numbers, but he’s also kept every game close.
Jaxson Stauber was called up on Wednesday to replace Ingram, and head coach André Tourigny confirmed that he will be getting some games. Stauber won five of six starts with the Chicago Blackhawks last season while putting up a .911 save percentage. With Utah’s American Hockey League affiliate, Tucson Roadrunners, this season, he’s thrust himself into the starter role with a .930 save percentage.
If Stauber plays well during his time with Utah, it could force the team to keep him and Vejmelka as the goaltending duo. It might even be beneficial to send Ingram down for a conditioning stint with the Roadrunners. Either way, it has become clear over the past couple of weeks, including against the Bruins, that Vejmelka is the starting goaltender for Utah.
New Utah Team, Same Old Problems
Most of Utah’s losses have come via a blowout where Utah’s special teams and goaltending fail them or a close game where they get outshot and their offense dries up. The latter issue was the problem against Boston. Once again, the team failed to gain any offensive momentum and surrendered a bunch of shots, especially at the beginning of the game when the Bruins outshot them 15-5.
The power play was also useless as Utah failed to score on four opportunities. Yet, penalties were the real problem in this game. Utah took seven penalties, keeping them shorthanded for almost a full period. That is not a recipe for success, especially considering the Bruins outshot Utah 31-21 by the final buzzer. Although Utah killed off six of seven, so many penalties prevented them from generating any scoring opportunities, and that was reflected on the score sheet. Utah only outshot the Bruins in the third period, and it was only by 7-5.
Granted, Utah’s penalty kill was decent, allowing only one goal, but there’s no excuse for taking that many penalties. They can’t expect to win games from the box – even if they did it against the Carolina Hurricanes a couple of weeks ago.
Overall, it wasn’t a horrible game for Utah. Vejmelka played great, and the score was close. However, we’re seeing the same issues that have plagued the team over the last few seasons when they were in Arizona.
Utah will continue their four-game road trip on Saturday when they face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins have had a tough season, with a record of 7-10-4. Their last game was a 3-2 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, they will take on the Winnipeg Jets on Friday before hosting Utah.
