The Utah Hockey Club will go into Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers feeling like a million bucks. Utah HC pulled off a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon and they want to keep it going.
Winning back-to-back games has been a struggle for Utah HC this year. Outside of their first three games, which they won, they haven’t been able to string consecutive wins together.
Things are trending in the right direction for them now, however, so if there’s a good time to change that, it’s Sunday.
Get to know the opponent: Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers also played a road game on Saturday afternoon, but they had the opposite fate of Utah — an overtime loss to the Boston Bruins.
That being said, the Flyers are surprising a lot of people for the second year in a row. They narrowly missed the playoffs last year, even though most people predicted them to be in the conversation for the first overall pick.
Most people picked them to crash again this year, but yet again, they’re showing that they aren’t to be pushed over.
A lot of their success can be credited to head coach John Tortorella. Players don’t exactly like Tortorella — he’s an old-school coach who will do or say anything it takes to get the most out of his players — but he gets the job done.
This will be Utah’s first look at Russian phenom rookie Matvei Michkov. The Arizona Coyotes shocked the world in Michkov’s draft year, selecting Dmitry Simashev with the sixth pick, leaving Michkov to go to the Flyers at No. 7.
Of course, it’s now clear that Michkov told a lot of teams he wouldn’t come to North America if they drafted him, so it’s understandable why the Coyotes didn’t pick him, but it was surprising at the time nonetheless.
Michkov, at age 19, is tearing it up so far. He scored twice against the Bruins on Saturday, raising his totals to 11 goals and 24 points in 25 games this season.
The Calder Trophy, awarded to the rookie of the year, is a two-horse race right now between him and Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini.
And, of course, we have to mention Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim, both of whom defied a lot of odds by being selected to represent Canada in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off tournament and are having incredible seasons.
Vejmelka or Stauber?
After Utah HC’s 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday, head coach André Tourigny spoke of this weekend’s back-to-back contests as a potential opportunity to test backup goaltender Jaxson Stauber again.
In Stauber’s only game this season, he backstopped Utah HC to a 6-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. If he gets the net on Sunday, he’ll try to keep his record unblemished.
As nice as it would be to have another big game, though, Stauber isn’t too worried about that.
“I just want to make the most out of my opportunity,” he said. “If I come to the rink and do my best every day, continue to get better, all the things will work themselves out.”
Where to watch
The game will be televised on both Utah 16 and Utah HC+. It was originally scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. MDT, but it will now start at 5:30.