Jaxson Stauber made 29 saves to earn his first career NHL shutout, and Nick Schmaltz scored two goals as the Utah Hockey Club defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 6-0 on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley, and Alexander Kerfoot each contributed a goal and an assist, Barrett Hayton had two assists, and Michael Carcone also scored for Utah. This win tied their season high for goals in a game.
Stauber, who was making his seventh career start and first for Utah, had previously played with the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2022-23 season, finishing with a 5-1-0 record. He also spent last season with the Rockford IceDogs in the AHL.
Vegas goalie Ilya Samsonov made 22 saves in the loss. This was the Golden Knights’ third home loss out of 12 games (9-3-0).
Utah, coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Friday in Salt Lake City, capitalized on Vegas mistakes to take a commanding 4-0 lead in the first period.
Keller opened the scoring at 5:33 with his first goal in 13 games, a wrist shot from the left circle after a turnover by Vegas in the neutral zone. Kerfoot added a short-handed goal when Samsonov’s clearing pass was intercepted by Kerfoot, who then fired the puck into the net for a 2-0 lead.
Schmaltz ended a 28-game goal drought with a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle just 69 seconds later, and Cooley made it 4-0 at 18:44, when a shot from Olli Maatta deflected off his hip and into the net for his sixth goal.
Utah extended its lead in the second period, scoring two more goals within the first 5:28. Carcone netted his first goal of the season by finishing a two-on-one rush with a wrist shot into the far corner. Schmaltz scored his second goal of the night, firing a shot into an open net after a pass from Cooley.
