The Minnesota Wild and the Utah Hockey Club are both in unusual situations ahead of their game on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.
The Wild, one of the three teams tied for the most points in the league with 40 as of Monday, come into Utah after suffering a rare loss.
Meanwhile, the Utah Hockey Club will be playing on home ice with a winning streak, something they haven’t done since the start of the season.
Minnesota had won five games in a row before losing 4-1 to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
The Wild were behind 2-0 late in the third period, and despite Yakov Trenin scoring a goal in the final minutes, the Kings added two more goals to seal the win.
“We competed hard and definitely had our chances,” said Minnesota defenseman Zach Bogosian. “We competed right to the very end, and that will pay off for us in the long run, knowing we will compete no matter what until the end of the game.”
Minnesota managed only 10 shots in the first two periods but increased their efforts in the third, taking 13 shots. They didn’t score until Trenin’s goal made it 3-1 with 1:13 remaining.
“We pushed in the third period, but we didn’t capitalize,” said Minnesota coach John Hynes. “We had chances, but we just didn’t get rewarded for the effort we put in during the third.”
On the other hand, Utah followed up its 5-2 win at Buffalo on Saturday with a 4-2 victory in Philadelphia on Sunday. These two wins mark the first time since the beginning of the season that they’ve won back-to-back games.
“I think we’ve had a lot of games where we felt good and confident, but we just didn’t get the results,” said Utah defenseman Juuso Valimaki after Sunday’s win. “It’s nice to finally get some results. We’ve got to keep going and stay with it.”
Logan Cooley scored his seventh goal of the season on Sunday, while Valimaki, Michael Carcone, and Kevin Stenlund also found the net. Goalie Jaxson Stauber made 22 saves.
Cooley’s power-play goal broke a 2-2 tie with 4:30 remaining in the second period. Utah had been struggling on the power play, going 1-for-10 in their previous five games.
“I didn’t like the first two power plays we had,” said Clayton Keller, who assisted on Cooley’s goal. “We watched some clips and had better looks after that. We have a lot of skill and speed with the five guys out there.”
In Saturday’s win, Utah scored five unanswered goals in the second and third periods after the Sabres took a 1-0 lead in the first.
Michael Kesselring, Mikhail Sergachev, Nick Schmaltz, Jack McBain, and Stenlund all scored for Utah, who led 3-1 after the second period.
“We just stayed on them, and we managed the puck pretty well,” Kesselring said of the second period. “We took advantage of our chances, got the momentum, and kept it.”
