WHEN: 6:00 p.m. MT
WHERE: Delta Center - Salt Lake City, Utah
TV: SEG+, UtahHC+, Utah 16 | RADIO: KSL Sports Zone 97.5 FM, NHL App
The Utah Hockey Club (24-24-9) returns to Delta Center tonight to face the Vancouver Canucks (26-19-11) for its first home game since Feb. 4. Utah trails Vancouver by just six points in the race for the Western Conference’s second wild card spot, and the Mountain Blue could pull within two games of the Canucks with a regulation win tonight. Tonight is the second game of a back-to-back for Utah following a 5-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings last night.
ONE-TIMERS
- Barrett Hayton recorded the first hat trick in Utah Hockey Club history last night against Los Angeles.
- Sean Durzi returned to the lineup for Utah last night after missing 52 games due to injury and registered an assist.
- Clayton Keller leads the team with 61 points (20G, 41A).
- Utah’s power play has converted on four straight opportunities and has struck five times in the last three games.
- Tonight is the second of three meetings between Utah and Vancouver.
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
Hanging on to the final wild card spot in the Western Conference, the Canucks have undergone significant roster transformation since they last met Utah on Dec. 18. Vancouver traded away its second leading scorer JT Miller to the New York Rangers in exchange for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, and a first-round pick. The Canucks also picked up Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, Melvin Fernstrom and a conditional first-round pick. Since Jan. 31 when the Miller trade was made, Vancouver has gone 3-1-1 in its last five games.
Vancouver’s leading scorer and superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes has missed the last five games with an oblique injury and did not play in the Canucks’ 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights last night. If he cannot play tonight, Vancouver will be without one of the best players in the league. Behind Hughes, Brock Boeser is the second leading scorer on the team with 35 points (18G, 17A).
The Canucks have the most overtime or shootout losses in the NHL with 11, but they deserve credit for holding up through 60 minutes. Only six teams have fewer regulation losses than Vancouver’s 19.
WHO TO WATCH
UTAH: #53 MICHAEL CARCONE - Carcone now has points in three straight games (1G, 2A) after picking up a helper on one of Barrett Hayton’s three goals last night. The winger now has 13 points (5G, 8A) in 39 games this season.
VANCOUVER: #74 JAKE DEBRUSK - DeBrusk scored the only goal for Vancouver in their loss to Vegas last night. The forward now has three goals over his last six games and leads the team with 20 on the season.
LOOK BACK
Utah held leads twice against the Los Angeles Kings last night at Crypto.com Arena, but not for very long. Just 28 seconds after Barrett Hayton scored on the power play to put Utah up 1-0 in the first, Drew Doughty tied the game for LA with his first goal of the year. In the second, Hayton once again gave Utah the lead on the man-advantage, only for Kevin Fiala to tie the game 2-2 with a power-play goal of his own just 2:10 later. Alex Laferriere put the Kings ahead later in the second before Utah native Trevor Lewis made it 4-2 in the third, and Mikey Anderson scored the empty-netter. Hayton capped off the hat trick with another goal in the third period, but Utah’s one-man rally fell short.
LAST MEETING
A full house at Delta Center was treated to one of the most entertaining games of the season on Dec. 18 when Utah erased a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Canucks 3-2 in overtime. Mikhail Sergachev scored his second overtime goal of the season after Clayton Keller and Dylan Guenther scored in the third period to tie the game and force the extra period. Goaltender Karel Vejmelka made several critical stops throughout the third period and overtime, and the netminder picked up his seventh win of the season with 24 saves on 26 shots.
FIRST UTAH HOCKEY CLUB HAT TRICK
Barrett Hayton scored three goals last night against the Los Angeles Kings to record the first hat trick in Utah Hockey Club history. Two of his scores came on the power play, while his third-period tally came at full strength and brought Utah within one goal of LA. The night also marked the first NHL hat trick of Hayton’s career. The 24-year-old accomplished the feat with just three shots on goal last night, becoming just the eighth NHL player to do so this season.
Utah skaters have recorded multiple goals now 18 times, but none of the previous 17 occasions reached the three-goal mark. Hayton’s hat trick was the 49th in the NHL this season.
OVERTIME
Utah has played more overtime games than anyone in the NHL this season with 17 games reaching the extra frame. The Mountain Blue is 8-9 overall when a game extends past regulation; 7-7 in overtime and 1-2 in the shootout. The only team with more overtime or shootout losses than Utah is Vancouver. The Canucks have lost 11 times in extras, the most of any team, and are 5-11 beyond regulation, 4-10 in overtime, and 1-1 in shootouts.
Dylan Guenther leads Utah with three overtime-winners, Mikhail Sergachev has two (including one against Vancouver), while Clayton Keller and Michael Kesselring each have one overtime goal to their names.
Utah has gone to overtime five times in its last eight games, and each of Utah’s last three wins have come in either overtime or a shootout.
LOOK AHEAD
The Utah Hockey Club continues a four-game homestand on Tuesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks with puck drop at 7 p.m. at Delta Center. Utah will also host the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night before welcoming the New Jersey Devils on Mar. 1.
