Now that the Utah Hockey Club has figured out how to win games at home, it’s hitting the road again. Up first are the Minnesota Wild. The Wild are 1-3-0 in their last four games, but they’re still the second-placed team in the Central Division and the fourth-best team in the Western Conference overall.
Keller had a hand in every Utah scoring play, helping it snap a three-game losing streak and claim two important divisional points in the tight Western Conference playoff race. He
After receiving an inadvertent puck to the face from teammate Michael Kesselring, Clayton Keller immediately went to the locker room. When he checked back in at 4:40 in the second period, Utah's offense would come to life and score four goals in a row on route to its 5-2 victory.
Marino wasn't the only defenseman to step up with Sergachev out. Michael Kesselring was elevated to the top power-play unit and didn't take long to find success. Kesselring scored Utah's opening goal on the man advantage in the first period.
After coming away with a 3-4 home record, Utah will go on the road and face three teams with winning records in the Wild, Jets and Senators.
Devan McConnell, the team’s director of high performance, is at the forefront of the effort. He uses sports science to maximize the performance of Utah’s skaters. It is an area of the game that has been further embraced by the NHL in recent years.
Facing Connor Hellebuyck — the league's most dominant goaltender this season — Utah poked holes in what had been a brick wall all year, cracking Winnipeg's net wide open.
Utah Hockey Club’s Clayton Keller (9) and Winnipeg Jets’ Josh Morrissey (44) battle for the puck during their last match-up in Winnipeg Nov. 5. The Jets won that game 3-0. (Fred Greenslade / Canadian Press files)
The Winnipeg Jets will play the first of two road games tonight as they play in Utah for the first time. The Jets and Utah HC have met just one time this season, with the Jets coming out on top 3-0. Nino Niederreiter scored twice that night, improving the Jets' record to 11-1-0.
The Winnipeg Jets, the top team in the NHL at the time, took down the Utah Hockey Club 3-0 on Nov. 5 at Canada Life Centre. Reigning Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck recorded his 39th career shutout with 21 saves against Utah, and Nino Niederreiter scored two goals for Winnipeg in his 900th NHL game.
As mentioned, Kesselring took advantage of the chance to prove himself as a legitimate top-four defenseman; Jaxson Stauber showed that he can play in the NHL; Olli Määttä earned a spot on Finland’s 4 Nations Face-Off team — a chance he may not have gotten if he’d stayed in Detroit.
The Jets are hitting the road for the first time this calendar year, as the team just completed an eight-game homestand that began on Jan.2. Winnipeg's 4-2-2 record included a five-game points streak (4-0-1) and three-game winning streak that were both snapped by Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames.