WHEN: 8:00 p.m. MT
WHERE: Delta Center - Salt Lake City, Utah
TV: TNT, truTV, Max (HBO) | RADIO: KSL Sports Zone 1280 AM, NHL App
The Utah Hockey Club (28-25-11) squares off with the Anaheim Ducks (28-29-7) tonight at Delta Center. This marks the third meeting of the season between the two teams, with Anaheim winning both previous matchups—first in overtime and then in a shootout. Utah is currently three points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and Anaheim is just four points back of Utah.
ONE-TIMERS
- Utah’s 25 fighting majors are the second most in the NHL.
- Clayton Keller has points in nine of his last 10 games.
- Utah has gone to overtime 19 times this season- the most in the NHL.
- Dylan Guenther is tied for the seventh most game-winning goals in the league with seven.
- Utah is 4-1-2 in its last seven games and 4-1-1 in its last six games at home.
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
Wednesday evening marks the third and final meeting of the season between Utah and Anaheim. The Ducks toppled Utah 5-4 in overtime on Oct. 16 and 5-4 in a shootout on Dec. 22 despite the fact that Utah led in the third period of both games.
Anaheim has fought back into playoff relevancy and are currently seven points out of the eighth wild card spot in the Western Conference. The Ducks’ turnaround started on Jan. 23 with a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Before that win, Anaheim had lost four in a row and was just 18-23-6. Since the Pittsburgh win, Anaheim has gone 10-6-1, including a stretch of seven wins in eight games.
Although the Ducks rank fourth lowest in goals scored in the league, averaging just 2.66 per game, they’ve managed to score five goals in each of their previous two meetings with Utah, and they posted four goals in a 7-4 loss to the Washington Capitals last night. Troy Terry paces the club with 48 points (17G, 31A) while Frank Vatrano leads the team with 20 goals.
24-year-old defenseman Jackson LaCombe looks to be an emerging star, and he leads the Anaheim blue line with 34 points (11G, 23A). 21-year-old Cutter Gauthier is piecing together a fine rookie season with 31 points (12G, 19A) and a +3 rating in 64 games.
STANDINGS UPDATE
WC1: Minnesota Wild - 78 points
WC2: Calgary Flames - 70 points
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- Vancouver Canucks - 69 points
- St. Louis Blues - 69 points
- Utah Hockey Club - 67 points
- Anaheim Ducks - 63 points
WHO TO WATCH
UTAH: #27 BARRETT HAYTON - Hayton scored his 17th goal of the season on Monday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, giving the center points in three straight games (1G, 2A) and points in four of his last five (2G, 3A). The 24-year-old is on pace to surpass his previous career high of 19 goals that he set back in the 2022-23 season with the Arizona Coyotes.
ANAHEIM: #77 FRANK VATRANO - Vatrano scored his 20th goal of the season last night for the Ducks in their 7-4 defeat to Washington. Vatrano has now hit the 20-goal plateau in each of his last three seasons and four times in his career.
LOOK BACK
For the second game in a row, Utah roared back from a multi-goal deficit and forced overtime. Down 3-0 in the second period against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday, a fight from Michael Kesselring changed the momentum in Utah’s favor. Utah went on to tie the game 3-3 with three goals in a 3:57 span during the second frame from Michael Carcone, Nick Schmaltz, and Barrett Hayton.
After he was shaken by a collision in the second period, Karel Vejmelka stayed in the game to record 23 saves on 26 Toronto shots, including a miraculous stick save in the third period on Toronto’s Morgan Reilly.
Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner converted for the Leafs in the shootout while Clayton Keller was the only Utah skater to score.
LAST MEETING
Anaheim stormed back to take down Utah 5-4 in a shootout at Delta Center on Dec. 22. Utah led 4-1 in the second period, but a second-period tally from the Ducks along with two strikes in the third forced overtime.
Clayton Keller scored two goals for Utah while Logan Cooley and Barrett Hayton also found the back of the net. Keller picked up assists on the two goals he did not score, and he recorded the first four-point game in Utah Hockey Club history. Utah’s penalty kill was 5-for-5 and allowed zero shots until Anaheim’s Brett Leason scored a power-play goal with 4:45 left in regulation to tie the game at 4-4.
Jaxson Stauber started in net for Utah and stopped 26 of 30 shots. The Ducks’ Mason McTavish was the only player to score in the shootout.
POWER PLAY
Utah’s power play has now scored in three straight games after a 1-for-5 showing against Toronto on Monday. The Mountain Blue has scored 11 power-play goals in the last 10 games, going 11-for-33 (33.3%) in that span. This more recent trend continues a longer trajectory of success from the specialty unit, which ranks fourth in the NHL since Nov. 23 with a 28.1% conversion rate on the man-advantage.
Dylan Guenther leads the team with 10 power-play goals while Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller are both tied for second with seven each. Keller is the trigger man for Utah’s power play, and his 30 power-play points (7G, 23A) are tied for the third most across all NHL skaters.
NICK SCHMALTZ
With a goal in the second period on Monday against the Maple Leafs, Nick Schmaltz now has goals in three straight games and is up to 15 for the season. He has lit the lamp in four of his last five games and now owns 50 points (15G, 35A) to rank second amongst all Utah scorers.
After a 23-game goalless streak to start the season, the second longest goalless drought of his career, Schmaltz now has scored all 15 of his markers in a 41-game span. This is his second three-game goal streak of the season, with the first spanning from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7. The winger scored 22 goals in each of the last two seasons with the Arizona Coyotes.
LOOK AHEAD
Utah opens a three-game northern road trip on Friday against the Seattle Kraken. After Seattle, Utah will face the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers before returning home to meet the Buffalo Sabres at Delta Center on Wednesday, Mar. 20.
