Barrett Hayton Pulls Utah To Within One Of Dallas

SALT LAKE CITY- After an eventful first period in which the Utah Hockey Club and Dallas Stars traded goals, Utah fell flat in the second period, being severely outshot, and allowing Dallas to build a 3-1 lead.

The first ten minutes of the third period were a battle in which the Hockey Club couldn’t get much going in their effort to cut the deficit.

With 8:23 remaining in the game and desperate for a goal, the Utah Hockey Club were pushing the envelope in their offensive zone. Nick Schmaltz took the puck back up the left side of the zone toward the blue line. He turned and fired the puck on goal, and the quick thinking of Barrett Hayton allowed him to get his stick in the air, getting a piece as it flew past him.

The touch made the shot impossible to save for Casey DeSmith and Utah had pulled to within one down the stretch.

Hayton gets us within one! pic.twitter.com/FxHzYS2gvn

— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) December 24, 2024

It’s time for some accountability on Utah’s third line

While Utah’s third line struggles have been addressed many times before, it’s now reaching unacceptable levels and there hasn’t been a solution.

Despite an effort to mix things up in the third period by dropping Lawson Crouse to the fourth line, there simply needs to be more significant changes made in order to correct that trio’s poor performances.

Lawson Crouse has been moved down to the fourth line.

Carcone up to the third.#UtahHC

— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) December 23, 2024

“We have four lines. We move around and we did it last week as well. Switch it a little bit. We’re trying to get everybody going,” Tourigny said.

During the month of December, Lawson Crouse, Matias Maccelli and Nick Bjugstad have combined for just four points.

Against the Ducks, Keller had that many on his own in just 40 minutes of hockey. So, something is clearly off with that line and it needs more significant correction.

However, mixing up the lines is not the right way to go about it as the first, second and fourth are all rolling. It’s simply not worth switching Michael Carcone for Crouse, nor is that going to yield results.

A scratch is absolutely necessary at this point. If nobody on that line wants to produce, why not give Liam O’Brien a shot to see if he can bring something different?

They could also bring back Josh Doan who was sent down to the AHL after just nine games because he only scored twice. That’s half as many as Crouse has scored in 32 appearances.

Look, Utah is playing great hockey right now. They’re winning most of their games, climbing in the standings and even managed a point in two of their losses this month.

But that success is overshadowing poor play from the third line and if they want to take a real shot at the playoffs, they will eventually need more from that group.