WHEN: 7:00 p.m. MT
WHERE: Delta Center - Salt Lake City Utah
TV: SEG+, UtahHC+, Utah 16 | RADIO: KSL Sports Zone 1280 AM, NHL App
The Utah Hockey Club (16-11-6) plays once more before the Christmas break tonight against the Dallas Stars (19-3-0) at Delta Center. Utah has earned points in eight straight games and has the same amount of standings points as Dallas (38). Utah can leapfrog the Stars in the division standings with a win tonight.
ONE-TIMERS
- Utah has won six of its last eight games and has earned points in all eight of those contests.
- Logan Cooley has points in each of his last five games (1G, 7A) and in seven of his last nine.
- Mikhail Sergachev has a four-game point streak (1G, 5A) entering tonight.
- Dylan Guenther leads the team with 16 goals and has six goals over his last five games.
- Each of Utah’s last six losses have been by just one goal.
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
The Stars enter tonight coming off a pair of losses last week to the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers. Dallas and Utah occupy the fourth and fifth spots in the Central Division respectively, and both clubs are capable of moving up into a wild card position with a win tonight. The Stars are solid on both ends of the ice with the 11th best offense in the NHL at 3.16 goals per game and the fifth best defensive group at only 2.59 goals against per game. Dallas has reached the Western Conference Finals in three of the last five seasons and lost to Mikahil Sergachev’s Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals.
WHO TO WATCH
UTAH: #9 CLAYTON KELLER - Utah’s captain had a hand in all four goals in Utah’s shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks yesterday, and he registered Utah’s first-ever four-point game with two goals and two assists. Keller leads the team with 35 points (13G, 22A) in 33 games this season.
DALLAS: #24 ROOPE HINTZ - Hintz, 28, leads Dallas with 14 goals this season. The Nokia, Finland native has three goals in his last three games, including Dallas’ only goal on Friday night in a 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers.
LAST MEETING
Utah and Dallas last met on Dec. 2 at Delta Center, and the Stars claimed victory in a tight 2-1 affair. Utah outshot Dallas 37-21, but Nick Schmaltz was the only Utah skater to beat Dallas goaltender Casey DeSmith. Jamie Benn and Evgenii Dadonov scored the Stars’ only two goals.
LOOK BACK
Anaheim stormed back to take down Utah 5-4 in a shootout at Delta Center yesterday afternoon. Utah led 4-1 in the second period, but a second period tally from the Ducks along with two strikes in the third forced overtime. Clayton Keller scored two goals for Utah while Logan Cooley and Barrett Hayton also found the back of the net. Keller picked up assists on the two goals he did not score, and he recorded the first four-point game in Utah Hockey Club history. Utah’s penalty kill was 5-for-5 and allowed zero shots until Anaheim’s Brett Leason scored a power-play goal with 4:45 left in regulation to tie the game at 4-4. Jaxson Stauber started in net for Utah and stopped 26 of 30 shots. The Ducks’ Mason McTavish was the only player to score in the shootout.
POWER PLAY
Utah’s power play has provided timely goals over the last several weeks, and the specialty unit has now connected in seven straight games, going 9-for-25 (36.0%) in that span. The power play for Utah sits at 21.9% for the season and ranks 15th in the NHL. The man-advantage has also come through in big moments, and during the current run of seven straight games with a power-play goal, five of the nine strikes in that span have come in the third period. Dylan Guenther leads the team with seven power-play goals and 15 power-play points (7G, 8A). The former first-round pick has factored into 15 of Utah’s 21 total power-play goals this season with either a goal or an assist.
LOOK AHEAD
After Christmas, Utah welcomes the Colorado Avalanche to Delta Center on Dec. 27 as the final match of a three-game homestand before a four-game road swing with games against the Seattle Kraken, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, and Dallas Stars.
