The Hat Trick: Utah Hockey Club Defeats St. Louis Blues 5-3 Following Impressive Comeback

Sep 22, 2024 , 8:15 PM | Updated: Sep 23, 2024, 4:19 pm
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COLE BAGLEY


Utah Hockey Club Insider

DES MOINES, Iowa – Despite an unfortunate and somewhat uncommon start to the Utah Hockey Club’s preseason matchup against the St. Louis Blues, Utah remained physical and rallied in the second and third periods to claim their first win of the preseason, 5-3.

Here are the key takeaways from Utah’s first game of the 2024-25 preseason.

Utah Hockey Club’s First Line Looked Solid

Against the St. Louis Blues, the Utah Hockey Club’s top line looked fantastic in their first minutes of action during the preseason. Since the beginning of camp, forwards Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, and Jack McBain have been busy working together on the same line. Against the St. Louis Blues, fans got to see what the coaching staff may be envisioning for this group.

While Cooley and Guenther fire pucks on net, McBain is a big, physical body that crashes the net hard. He did this multiple times throughout the game against St. Louis and nearly lit the lamp on a few occasions.

As for Cooley and Guenther, while both can certainly let the puck fly, it’s clear that the goal is to have Cooley set Guenther up in scoring opportunities. Every time those two hit the ice, Cooley’s shiftiness was on display as he battled in the corners and behind the net for possession. Meanwhile, Guenther was constantly looking for open space to fire pucks on net.

Eventually, this line finally produced a critical goal later in the third after working the puck around the St. Louis zone and finding a wide-open Guenther near the crease, who secured his first goal after signing a new eight-year contract.

If this line does end up staying together, it should be really productive for the club as Guenther and Cooley fire from a distance and McBain cleans up on the doorstep.

Kailer Yamamoto Belongs on an NHL Roster

After signing a PTO deal with Utah for training camp, Kailer Yamamoto has been working incredibly hard to prove he belongs on an NHL roster. So far, so good. Not only has he caught the attention of the coaching staff during camp, but in Utah’s first preseason game, all his skills were on full display.

Despite being a smaller player, Yamamoto plays with an incredible amount of effort. He was unafraid, battled hard against the boards, fought for loose pucks in the corners, used his speed to create opportunities and demonstrated a lot of awareness. He also connected on his penalty shootout goal following Utah’s regulation victory.

While he as bounced around the league the past few seasons, Yamamoto is a seven-year veteran with a lot of potential and has given Utah a lot of reasons to keep him. If he can continue to play this way through the next few weeks, Utah is going to have a really hard time letting him go.

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Utah Hockey Club’s Physicality and Offensive Possession Finally Paid Off

After a rough and somewhat wild start to the game that put Utah in a 2-0 hole early, the Club’s physicality and dominant offensive possessions finally produced results.

A quick note: An open net goal like this usually doesn’t happen. Following a delayed penalty on the Blues, Utah pulled their goaltender to get an extra attacker and extend the man advantage since St. Louis couldn’t touch the puck without an immediate stoppage due to the penalty. However, after some offensive zone possession by Utah, a pass was sent back to Guenther that missed him and wound up in the open net.

Again, a wild and unlikely result from a routine strategy.

But since the puck first dropped, Utah was the more physical team and generally controlled the puck more in the offensive zone than their opposition. It also wasn’t just a few players, but nearly everyone on Utah’s roster was getting involved physically to dictate the pace and intimidate St. Louis.

Whether it was the young guys like Cole Beaudoin and Owen Allard, some of the more talented players such as Guenther, Cooley and McBain, or Yamamoto who is on a PTO, Utah played really well as a unit for most the night and depended on their physicality to get them back into it.

Their first goal was the result of a strong neutral zone win which resulted in an odd-man 2-0 rush that Carcone finished five-hole. The second, a result of dominant offensive zone possession and hard work in front of the net that produced a rebound which Kevin Connauton buried.

Eventually, Logan Cooley even scored the game-winner after an extra effort crashing the net, which earned him a penalty shot that he finished bar-down over the goaltender’s shoulder.

Sunday’s victory was the perfect example of how this club wants to play this season. They want to play hard, fast, and dictate the pace in order to give themselves the best chance to win. Against the Blues, that worked beautifully.

Utah Hockey Club Schedule

The Utah Hockey Club will continue their preseason against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night at the Delta Center. The game can be viewed on SEG+.  Click here for the full schedule.

Cole Bagley is the Utah Hockey Club insider for KSL Sports. Keep up with him on X here. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.

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