All Dylan Guenther does is score big goals. With all of Utah Hockey Club's main wild-card competitors earning points on Thursday, none was bigger than Guenther's 25th of the season.
That goal at the 14:13 mark of the third period came off a hustle play by Michael Carcone and a set-up by Barrett Hayton. It lifted Utah to a 5-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Delta Center.
Six of Guenther's past eight goals have given Utah a lead, and 14 of his 25 this season have done the same. In each game he has scored, Utah has earned at least a point, and his nine game-winning goals are one off the league lead.
"He's unbelievable," center Logan Cooley said. "He can probably score from anywhere on the ice."
Defenseman Mikhail Serghachev had a pair of goals including the second empty-net goal of the game, and Utah stayed within four points of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. Sergachev's 13 goals are a career high and he is tied for seventh among NHL defensemen in goals.
Goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 25 saves in a great bounce-back game after the team's lopsided loss in Edmonton on Tuesday. Utah is 8-2-3 in the past 13 games at Delta Center.
"All season long, we're really demanding of ourselves and we believe in ourselves and we know we can achieve great things," coach André Tourigny said. "We talked about the process of a young team to live with that expectation and that pressure. What's going on here, it's a lot of learning. It's learning on steroids and we need to keep going."
Playoff picture: It was all bad news for Utah Hockey Club on the out-of-town scoreboard. Calgary (75 points) won at New Jersey and the red-hot St. Louis Blues (77 points) beat Vancouver (76 points) in OT in the dreaded 3-point game. Utah (73 points) got a badly needed win at home to keep pace with those three teams that it is chasing for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Maccelli returns: Utah forward Matias Maccelli returned to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 8 at Carolina. He has been a healthy scratch as Tourigny looks for the spark that made Maccelli such a dangerous playmaker the past two seasons.
"There's two ways you can look at it," Tourigny said. "You can feel sorry for yourself, or you can jump in this game and prove what you can do.
"We want Celli to be himself and what he's been for us for a long time. I believe he's in a good frame of mind. I think at the beginning when he was scratched a little, he was maybe not at the right place mentally. I like his mindset [now]. I like his desire to prove [himself.]"
Maccelli was sharp in the first period against the Sabres, creating two scoring chances on his trademark, pinpoint passing. He also had a great scoring opportunity by cutting to the front of the net early in the second period. He logged 10:46 of ice time and had two shots on goal. The Alex Kerfoot-Kevin Stenlund-Maccelli line had an eye-popping Corsi For Percentage (shots for vs. shots against) of 82.2.
Quotable: Sergachev was asked about Vejmelka's strong play after the second period. "He's a goalie, he has to play," the Utah defenseman quipped. Sergachev got the chance to clarify that comment after the game. "I didn't want to jinx him. That's why I had a stupid answer."
Up next: Utah hosts the Tampa Bay Lightning. The teams have not played this season. After winning back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021, and making it to a third straight Final in 2022, Tampa has renewed Cup hopes that most analysts thought were dead. Entering play Friday, the Lightning were two points off the Atlantic Division lead.
