Hockey games are typically 60 minutes long, but all it took was 20 seconds for the Utah Hockey Club to yield to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins broke a 1-1 stalemate at 4:53 of the second period, followed by a tally from Troy Stecher at 5:13.
The Oilers came away with a 4-1 victory after Leon Draisaitl sealed the deal with an empty-net goal.
“I liked our mindset in the game,” said head coach André Tourigny. “We went to play the right way: We defended with a lot of pride, we were resilient all night long. I don’t think we had the energy and the wheels to generate a lot of offense, but I loved the fight in our guys a lot.”
It was the second meeting between the two teams, and in both instances, Nugent-Hopkins scored the game-winning goal. The first, a game in Salt Lake City on Nov. 29, was decided in overtime. They play once more this season: March 18 in Edmonton.
Utah Hockey for dummies
For the first time since Oct. 28, Liam “Spicy Tuna” O’Brien got into the lineup — and he made a splash. On his very first shift, he crashed the net looking for a rebound, and he came close to scoring. He did that time after time, while also mixing it up physically.
“My job’s to always be ready,” he said after the game. “These are the types of situations that you stay ready for.”
At one point, he tried to fight Oilers defenseman Matias Ekholm, though Ekholm didn’t engage. Later that period, he delivered a big hit to Ty Emberson, after which Jeff Skinner came after him. That’s a breath of fresh air for a Utah team that has lacked the physical component of its game lately.
O’Brien’s presence in the lineup was a game-time decision, as team captain Clayton Keller sat out due to illness. Matias Maccelli slotted into Keller’s spot on the top line and O’Brien moved into Maccelli’s usual place on the third line.
“You definitely don’t want Clayton Keller not in your lineup, but I was happy to fill in,” O’Brien said.
Whether Keller is ready for the next game or not, it might be worth it to keep O’Brien in the lineup. It’s been eight games since the third line registered a point, yet it’s allowed plenty of goals against. O’Brien may not be known for his scoring touch, but the energy he brings is much needed. And when you’re on a five-game losing streak, it can’t exactly get worse, right?
Utah Hockey for casual fans
Set plays are becoming more common in hockey, and the Utah Hockey Club has one that it deployed over and over on Tuesday.
After entering the zone, Logan Cooley slows down and allows his two wingers to pass by him, establishing themselves in front of the net and drawing backcheckers deep into the zone with them. Then, when Mikhail Sergachev gets to the blue line, Cooley feeds him a pass. Because the backcheckers are committed to the wingers, Sergachev has all the time in the world to walk in and take a shot.
Regardless of how he gets the puck, Sergachev scores a lot of his goals by walking the puck in from the blue line and shooting with traffic in front. This set play creates more opportunities for him to do that.
He hit two posts on Tuesday from that spot. With a little more puck luck, he could have sent the game to overtime.
Utah Hockey for nerds
As I mentioned in my preview article, Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner has struggled in a lot of statistical categories this year. The Utah HC coaching staff must have seen similar things in their pre-scouting routines because the team took a ton of low-percentage shots, then crashed the net to look for rebounds.
According to an article from The Athletic in 2023, approximately 69% of NHL goals come from the slot or the crease. Per Money Puck, 18 of Utah’s 27 shots on net were taken from outside the slot. Where did their singular goal come from? The slot.
The knee-jerk reaction when a team takes low-percentage shots is to assume that it has low confidence, but didn’t seem to be the case at all on Tuesday. Utah’s objective seemed to be to test Skinner from anywhere they could in hopes that he’d allow some easy goals.
The problem with that strategy is that it comes at the price of high-quality scoring chances. According to Natural Stat Trick, Utah managed just nine high-danger scoring chances, compared to the 16 that they allowed.
What’s next?
Utah HC will ring in the new year with a game on Thursday against the Calgary Flames, who retook the second wild card spot with their win over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. If either team makes the playoffs, it will likely be at the expense of the other. That means it’s a must-win game for both.
The last time these two teams met, Utah solved its four-game losing streak with a 5-1 win. They’ll hope to break their five-game skid this time.
Utah-based fans can catch the game on Utah HC+ and Utah 16, starting at 7 p.m. MST.