WHEN: 7:00 p.m. MT
WHERE: Rogers Place - Edmonton, Alberta
TV: SEG+, UtahHC+, Utah 16 | RADIO: KSL Sports Zone 97.5 FM, NHL App
The Utah Hockey Club (16-14-6) welcomes in the New Year with a matchup at Rogers Place against the Edmonton Oilers (21-12-3). Tonight's game is the second of a back-to-back for Utah after a 5-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken last night at Climate Pledge Arena. Despite falling in four straight, Utah is just two games out of the second wild card position in the Western Conference and currently is fifth in the Central Division. This evening marks the second game of a four-game road trip for Utah that features stops in Seattle, Edmonton, Calgary, and Dallas.
ONE-TIMERS
- Utah’s Dylan Guenther is an Edmonton native.
- Logan Cooley has points in 14 of his last 17 games.
- Utah is 2-2-0 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.
- Utah is 11-7-2 on the road this season.
- Edmonton edged out Utah 4-3 in overtime in the previous meeting between the teams on Nov. 29 at Delta Center.
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
The Oilers feature two of the NHL’s top five leading scorers in Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Draisaitl (26G, 29A) ranks second in the NHL with 55 points and leads the league with 26 goals, while McDavid (15G, 37A) sits at fifth with 52 points and is tied for third in assists. The pair have accounted for 39.3% of Edmonton’s total goals this season. The Oilers have lost their last two games but have won seven of their last 10 and 11 of their last 15. Scoring has not been an issue for Edmonton as of late, and the Oilers have scored at least three goals in each of their last eight games. Similar to Utah, Edmonton began to see improved play in mid-November, and the Oilers have the second best points percentage in the NHL since Nov. 23 at .767.
WHO TO WATCH
UTAH: #15 ALEXANDER KERFOOT - Kerfoot found the back of the net in Utah’s last game against Seattle and now has six markers on the season. The eighth-year pro also scored against Edmonton on Nov. 29 in the last meeting between the two clubs.
EDMONTON: #18 ZACH HYMAN - Hyman has points in eight straight games (7G, 3A) for Edmonton and now has 21 points on the season (13G, 8A). The fourth-year Oiler had points in six straight contests before Edmonton’s last two games, and he’s coming off a career season in which he lit the lamp 54 times.
LOOK BACK
Utah dropped its fourth straight game last night in a 5-2 decision against the Seattle Kraken in a meeting between the NHL’s two newest franchises. Alexander Kerfoot scored to tie the game at 2-2 with less than a minute remaining in the second period, but three goals in the third by the Kraken, including an empty-netter, sealed Utah’s fate. Logan Cooley started the scoring in the first period on the power play with his ninth goal of the season as Utah converted on their only man-advantage of the night.
LOGAN COOLEY
Logan Cooley now has points in seven of his last eight games (2G, 7A) including a power-play goal last night against Seattle. The 20-year-old from Pittsburgh extended his road point streak to 10 games with last night’s goal, marking the longest active road point streak in the NHL. The run is tied for the second-longest overall in 2024-25 with Sam Reinhart (Florida) and Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay). Taken third overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Cooley is now tied for second in scoring for Utah with 32 points (9G, 23A). Last year with Arizona, Cooley finished fifth in Calder Trophy voting with 44 points (20G, 24A). Now in year two as a pro, the University of Minnesota product is on pace for 20 goals and 52 assists, nearly doubling his point total from last year.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Utah was perfect on special teams for the first time this season when the team went 1-for-1 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill against Seattle last night. The club has now scored power-play goals in nine of its last 10 games, going 11-for-31 (35.5%) in that span. It's the hottest that Utah’s man-advantage has been this season, and the team’s power play now ranks 13th in the NHL at 22.6%. Utah’s kill has also been stellar recently and is perfect across the club’s last three games, going 7-for-7 in those contests. Utah is 37-for-41 (90.2%) on the penalty kill over the last 13 games and has the fourth best PK in the league since Nov. 30.
LOOK AHEAD
Utah opens the 2025 calendar with matchups against the Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars on Jan. 2 and Jan. 4 to finish out the four-game road trip.
