SALT LAKE CITY- Clayton Keller and the Utah Hockey Club have the Anaheim Ducks in town for a mid-day match at Delta Center. The Hockey Club is playing the front end of a back-to-back with the Dallas Stars in town tomorrow night.
A packed Delta Center welcomed one of the hottest teams in the NHL onto the ice and the energy stayed high as the Utah Hockey Club took a very quick lead over the Ducks thanks to a rebounding effort from Clayton Keller.
Utah and Anaheim were only 1:20 into the game, but the Ducks shift was stuck on the ice and the Hockey Club wouldn’t allow them to switch.
Barrett Hayton possessed the puck near the right dot before dumping it back to Juuso Valimaki at the blue line. He flung the puck toward net, but Clayton Keller deflected it before it reached the Anaheim goaltender. The altered trajectory threw the goalie off balance as he shoved it away with his blocker. The rebound sat in front of the crease and Keller fought off four Ducks, including the goalie, to redirect it into the back of the net for the first goal of the afternoon.
Another greasy goal but they count all the same. Great work to fight hard at the net.
Keller gives #UtahHC an early 1-0 lead. https://t.co/YJDeINdZLb
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) December 22, 2024
Just a few minutes later, Utah turned the puck over, resulting in an Anaheim breakaway where Robby Fabbri scored the equalizing goal.
While the number of penalties taken by the Utah Hockey Club on Friday was not ideal, their response to all five was perfect as they refused to allow Minnesota to score.
In addition to superb netminding from Karel Vejmelka, Utah had textbook positioning, an impenetrable shape and continuously sacrificed their bodies to block shots.
“We made some adjustments on the PK, it works well…We get big blocked shot, we get urgency. So, that’s pretty good. Power play, I don’t think we were extremely good, but we scored,” head coach Andre Tourigny said.
Utah simply responded when they needed to and that’s been the story as of late for this team.
After Minnesota scored in the first period, Utah responded with a tying goal just moments later.
Whether it was penalties committed in the first, second or third periods, they responded with critical stops.
When Minnesota pulled their goaltender late in the third for an extra attacker, the team held their ground, cleared the puck and secured the victory.
Regardless of what has been thrown at them, Utah has discovered a way to respond and that’s made a massive difference in winning close games, even if they are a bit greasy.
