Momentum in hockey can change in a single second. At one point in time, you can be dominating the game. You blink and the next second, your opponent is scoring goals like it’s nothing. That’s what happened to the Utah Hockey Club as the Ottawa Senators stole any energy they had after scoring four straight goals at the end of the first period, handing the team their first loss at the Delta Center. Utah is now 4-2-1 to begin the season. Here are some takeaways from Tuesday’s 4-0 game.
Collapse at Four-on-Four
Utah actually had a really good start to the game. In the first five minutes, they had around five shots and looked like they were going to dominate the game. However, that all changed when the two teams got matching penalties for roughing. Josh Norris found Drake Batherson in front of the net on a tic-tac-toe play and scored.
Not even two minutes later on the same matching penalties, Claude Giroux made a nice move with his skate to get the puck in front of him and rip it behind Connor Ingram making it 2-0, stunning Utah. Two more goals by the end of the first period, including a Ridly Greig power-play goal, made it 4-0 Senators.
The four-goal deficit was too big for Utah to make any form of comeback. They couldn’t even manage one as Anton Forsberg was lights out for the Senators. He made 31 saves against Utah and was named the first star of the game.
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It was clear that something wasn’t working right during four-on-four. Utah was giving the Senators too much room to work with. The two goals that came on the matching minors saw two or more Senators be defended by only one Utah player while the other three were behind their opponents. That leaves the goaltender to try and stop a two-on-one, which isn’t the easiest to do.
While Karel Vejmelka looked good in the last two periods not letting in a single goal, Ingram is not solely to blame for the loss. The defense was poor but even then, it’s hard to blame the depleted blue line who are missing Sean Durzi and John Marino.
Either way, defensive work at four-on-four is something the team will most likely work on during practice to try to stop teams from exploiting that weakness. It was the main reason that the Senators had a four-goal first period.
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