The Hat Trick: Utah Hockey Club Dominates Vegas As Nick Schmaltz Finally Nets His First Utah Goal

Nov 30, 2024 , 11:46 PM | Updated: Dec 2, 2024, 2:18 pm

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COLE BAGLEY


Utah Hockey Club Insider

SALT LAKE CITY – After a disappointing overtime loss against the Oilers on Friday night, The Utah Hockey Club absolutely unleashed their offense on the Vegas Golden Knights. In addition to Nick Schmaltz scoring his first two goals of the season and Carcone getting his first as well, goaltender Jaxson Stauber posted the first-ever franchise shutout as Utah dominated Vegas, 6-0.

Here are the key takeaways from Utah’s commanding victory.

An explosive first period set the tone for Utah Hockey Club

Some nights, everything just seems to go your way and against the Golden Knights, Utah was a possessed offensive juggernaut as they scored four goals in the first period alone.

Right from the start, Utah was buzzing, and everyone was getting in on the fun as each of the four first period goals came from a different skater.

The energy was high, sticks were active, guys were getting to their spots, the veterans stepped up and Utah was heavily rewarded for their efforts.

Now, four goals in a single period is not a common occurrence in the NHL, but the first 20 minutes was an illustration of how talented and dangerous Utah can be when they’re at their best.

Clayton Keller is a four-time All-Star; Mikhail Sergachev is currently one of the best defensemen in the NHL, Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther are two of the brightest young stars in the league and Nick Schmaltz has consistently been a productive top line forward for this organization for several years.

But over the last few weeks, there’s been a somewhat of a disconnect for a few of Utah’s best and most impactful players. The talent and chances have been there, but the results haven’t.

However, against Vegas, it was almost as if all that frustration burst, and the results finally matched the talent.

“We’ve got tons of skill,” Mikhail Sergachev said this past week. “But we have to work first. After that work is done, skill will take over at some point, and it will. So that’s how we should be playing.”

Simply put and like Sergachev predicted, Utah’s skill took over against Vegas in commanding fashion and they never looked back.

Stauber was a brick wall in Vegas for Utah Hockey Club in his first start

It was one-way-traffic in Sin City as Jaxson Stauber posted the first shutout in franchise history for the Utah Hockey Club.

“It feels unreal. It’s something you dream about as a kid so I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates tonight,” Jaxson Stauber said.

With 29 saves against a talented Golden Knights team, Stauber wasn’t just good but simply superb as he stopped every single puck that came his way.

Throughout the game, Stauber was composed, confident, moved quickly, smothered rebounds and even responded in moments where the Knights offense was suffocating. But regardless, he stood tall and was a relentless brick wall on every shot.

Coming into tonight, Vegas was third in the NHL with 91 goals for (3.75 Goals Per Game). Stauber refused to let them to add to that total with one of the best performances of his career.

Schmaltz & Carcone finally lit the lamp as Utah’s vets stepped up big

It’s no secret that one of the biggest headlines surrounding the Utah Hockey Club over the past few weeks was the fact that Schmaltz had yet to net his first goal. Despite a plethora of chances and a goal in Pittsburgh that was called back due to interference, there was a constant goose egg on the scoring sheet for No. 8.

However, against Vegas, Schmaltz finally found the back of the net not only once, but twice as he ended the cold streak with an exclamation point.

“It feels great…kind of a little sigh of relief. Feel a little lighter after you see one go in. Hopefully that can bring more confidence to my game and more goals,” Nick Schmaltz said.

In addition to two goals from Schmaltz, Michael Carcone also scored his first of the season and Keller netted his first since October 30 to open the scoring in Las Vegas.

“That was a good game with great goaltending…it was good to have Schmaltzy get the monkey off his back, Carcs get the monkey off his back. I think those two guys are important point producers for us. So, it was good for them,” Tourigny said.

Saturday nights dominant performance seemed like the result of Utah’s veterans’ collective frustration bursting as they were finally rewarded for their efforts. The fact that it took Schmaltz 24 games to score was so unusual. Carcone scoreless in 14 appearances was also strange, and Keller experiencing nearly a month scoring drought was well out of the norm.

Luckily, each of them stepped up against the Golden Knights which is something that this team has been in desperate need of. While the young guys like Jack McBain, Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley have been excellent as of late, Utah wasn’t getting quite enough from their veterans at times.

But now that so many cold streaks are over and the pressure is off, Utah needs to build on this victory. If they can get that kind of effort and urgency from their veterans on top of the juice the young guys are bringing, the club could get right back into the playoff mix and catch fire.

Hopefully, what happened in Vegas, doesn’t necessarily stay in Vegas for the Utah Hockey Club.

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The Utah Hockey Club will now return home to face the Dallas Stars on Monday night. 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. 

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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