One goal was all that the Utah Hockey Club needed to tie their game against the Dallas Stars on Monday night. However, a bad second period sent Utah trying to dig themselves out of a hole they put themselves in and they eventually lost 2-1. Here are some takeaways from Monday night’s game.
Nick Schmaltz Scores Again
Up until Utah’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights, Nick Schmaltz hadn’t scored a single goal. It was only a matter of time until the forward would find his scoring touch. After all, he has scored 20-plus goals in his past three seasons.
Against the Golden Knights, Schmaltz potted his first two goals of the season, ending his long-scoring drought. Utah fans were hoping with the monkey off his back, the Wisconsin native would resume playing up to his potential. It seems like they just might have their wish granted.
In the third period, Schmaltz shot the puck at one of the net’s pipes. The puck bounced off the pipe and went in. It would be his third goal in the past two games. It seems like the dam just needed to be broken for the forward to start scoring. He now has five points in his past four games.
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“I feel like I’m getting, kind of, the same looks that I was getting prior,” Schmaltz said. “Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t.”
Fortunately for Schmaltz, the pucks have definitely been going in recently. It helps that his linemate, Clayton Keller, has also been playing decently. He has three points in his past four games. Keller and Schmaltz, along with their other linemate Barrett Hayton have slowly started scoring again. In the previous couple of games, it has been the second line doing most of the scoring for Utah. However, with the first line starting to get going, that could change as Utah heads into the month of December.
Second Period Struggles
In their past four losses, there’s been an outlying factor for Utah. They usually begin and end strong but their second period has been abysmal. Utah has been outscored 9-0 in the second period as of late including letting the Stars score twice in Monday’s game.
It didn’t help that Utah took two penalties almost back to back. Those penalties led to Evgenii Dadonov scoring the Stars’ first goal from the side of the net. Then, late in the period, Jamie Benn continued the offense for the Stars by getting a shot past Karel Vejmelka through traffic.
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