SALT LAKE CITY – Despite a solid overall effort by the Utah Hockey Club and another goal from Nick Schmaltz, the team was yet again doomed by a poor second period performance. While their comeback effort in the third was strong, the Dallas Stars held their ground and handed Utah another loss on home ice.
Here are the key takeaways from Utah’s loss to Dallas.
After finally netting his first goal of the season against Vegas on Saturday night, Nick Schmaltz remained hot with his third of the season against the Stars.
Nice battle, great dump off pass by Maccelli and Schmaltz BURIES it. Good sign for him.
Utah needs him to stay hot.#UtahHC https://t.co/Dm5rFAJ41C
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) December 3, 2024
“It was a key moment…you’re down two to nothing in the third, you’re making a push, a tough time to score. So, that’s a big goal. That’s what you expect from a player like him,” Head coach Andre Tourigny said.
There was clearly a lot of frustration for Schmaltz through nearly a quarter of the season as he simply could not find the back of the net in 23 games. However, now that the floodgates have opened, and he’s got three goals in the last two contests, his production is a really positive sign for the Utah Hockey Club.
For a decent stretch of games, Utah was not getting goal production from several of their primary veteran skaters. So, for one of them to figure it out is a step in the right direction and will hopefully light a fire under the rest.
If Schmaltz can continue to light the lamp and guys like Lawson Crouse and Clayton Keller can follow his lead, this team should be able to find some more consistency and win games against teams like Dallas rather than lose.
While the team has been playing better as of late, second periods continue to be an issue and are costing the Utah Hockey Club precious points.
In each of their last four losses, Utah has been outscored 9-0 in the second period. That’s a consistent issue that needs to be addressed.
Despite hot starts and zero goals against during the first periods of those four losses, Utah’s game has really struggled during the middle period. They generally come out flat, make mistakes, turn the puck over, commit penalties and consistently forfeit costly goals.
“I don’t know what it is. You got to be more careful on your changes…when our D are tired, we’ve got to get the puck in deep so they can get a change…you’ve got to be careful in the second…” Schmaltz said.
Nick Schmaltz on 2nd period struggles: “I don’t know what it is. You gotta be more careful on your changes…when our D are tired we’ve got to get the puck in deep so they can get a change…you’ve got to be careful in the second…”#UtahHC pic.twitter.com/HzsVrZNwV1
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) December 3, 2024
Against Dallas, it was more of the same as Clayton Keller committed a poor holding penalty and the Stars cashed in on the power play.
Who’s your Daddy? pic.twitter.com/1uOnweERCF
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) December 3, 2024
Dallas then followed it up with another goal following a defensive breakdown by Utah that left Jamie Benn wide open close to net and he wasted no time.
NEAAAARRRR, FAAAARRR, WHEREVER YOU ARE (in the net, the puck is in the net) pic.twitter.com/qM9v9WgY33
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) December 3, 2024
This issue needs to be addressed and resolved quickly. It’s clearly a consistent problem and has been the primary reason Utah has come up short in each of their last four losses.
“I thought we played well. That’s a good team over there. And I thought we outplayed them for the most part tonight, a couple breakdowns, and that cost us, but we got to learn from that,” Michael Carcone said.
Michael Carcone on the result: “I thought we played well. That’s a good team over there and I thought we outplayed them for the most part tonight. Couple breakdowns and that cost us…I thought we deserved better but I feel like we’re seeing that quite a bit now…”#UtahHC pic.twitter.com/V1k1sHr47T
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) December 3, 2024
To their credit and aside from the second period, the Utah Hockey Club actually played well against a very good Dallas Stars team but came up just short yet again.
Despite losing 2-1, Utah outshot the Stars 35-21, outhit them 19-11, won 58.9 percent of the faceoffs and generated a lot of really dangerous offensive possessions. But unfortunately, another bad second period was the deciding factor, and they simply could not break through to find the tying goal late in the third.
“It feels like we take a step forward and then two steps back. We just have to review this game and find ways to beat teams that are in the top 10 and keep rolling from there. When we take that step forward, we come in, and I think we played a great game. We just can’t get the results. Once we learn from that and play a little bit stingier, I think we’re going to start going,” Carcone said.
Like Carcone mentioned, the team has really struggled to find consistency in winning back-to-back games this season. One game, they look absolutely unbeatable. The next, they have a poor stretch of dooming hockey, and they come up just short.
“Today, we had a lot of offense sustained, a lot of shots from the slot, a lot of passes through the slot, a lot of opportunities to break the game down. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish. In those kinds of games, you need it because normally you don’t have quantity. So, you need to bury your chances,” Tourigny said.
When you consider how close a lot of their losses have been to good teams lately, Utah is not lightyears behind the rest. However, they are a team that is struggling to get over the hump and piece together consecutive wins. That’s been the biggest difference for them thus far. They’re talented. They can play with anybody. But they just have not been able to figure out the last few details that can help them to find consistency.
If this team can figure that out, they have a good chance to make the playoffs. If not, it’s going to be an uphill battle and a rollercoaster of victories and losses all year.
The Utah Hockey Club will now travel to Buffalo for the first of a two-game Eastern road trip against the Sabres. The game can be viewed on SEG+. Fans can also tune in on air on the KSL Sports APP or on 97.5 and 1280 The Zone. Click here for the full schedule.
