Utah Hockey Club closes road trip with a loss: ‘It’s tough when you don’t play a full 60 minutes'

Utah Hockey Club did not have much left come the third period.

The team was tied 1-1 with the Ottawa Senators at the beginning of the final 20 minutes, but allowed two goals against and dropped its second consecutive game Sunday at Canadian Tire Centre.

By the end of the evening, the Senators — who were playing in the second game of a back-to-back — had more juice than Utah who was skating in its third game in four days. It made the difference and turned a winnable contest into one in which the Club collected zero points.

“It’s tough when you don’t play a full 60 minutes — it’s tough to win in this league,” defenseman Olli Määttä said. “I don’t think we stuck to it enough.”

The loss against Ottawa closed out a three-game road trip in which Utah won once — Thursday against the Minnesota Wild.

“We could have pulled away, but we didn’t,” head coach André Tourigny said. “We’re on the road, it’s 1-1 after two. We need to find a way to get a point. … We played in front of them instead of putting pucks behind and getting to work.”

A Utah turnover while on the power play led to the Senators’ first goal of the game in the second period. Shane Pinto and Ridly Greig exploded on a two-on-1 as Utah’s Nick Schmaltz trailed while trying to get back. Greig one-timed Pinto’s pass past goalie Karel Vejmelka at 12:16 for the 1-0 advantage.

Vejmelka finished the night with 24 saves in his second start of the road trip after posting a shutout earlier this week. He and Connor Ingram have been sharing the net since Utah’s original starter returned to the team earlier in January.

Utah’s Clayton Keller responded just over a minute later — but he wasn’t exactly trying to score. The captain carried the puck down low and intended to throw it over to Logan Cooley in the slot. Instead, it bounced off of two Ottawa players in front and into the net. Keller’s 18th goal of the season made it 1-1 at 13:52 and extended his point streak to seven games.

Määttä had the primary assist on the play, marking his third point in the last four games which has been a burst for the defenseman who is skating on the first pair with John Marino.

“I think we played well in the first two [periods] and then didn’t really have anything,” Määttä said.

Despite entering the final frame knotted at one apiece, Utah allowed two goals against and did not have a real pushback. In the past two games, the Club has given up a cumulative five goals in the third after being tied at the beginning of the period.

Closing out and finding another level to its game late was a struggle for Utah this weekend.

“They defended well. At the same time, when you have tight games like that, I think we gave them two easy ones and you just can’t win games when you do that,” Määttä said.

Claude Giroux regained the Senators’ lead at 7:33 with a backhanded move at the net front. Tim Stützle pulled both of Utah’s defensemen — Määttä and John Marino — to the right side before hitting Giroux who was streaking to the crease on the left and slickly beat Vejmelka.

“Unfortunately we made a mistake, they scored a second goal and I didn’t like how we responded to that,” Tourigny said. “We knew what we had to do, but it’s human nature when you push, you try to do a little bit too much.”

Ottawa padded its gap at 13:22 and brought the game to its final 3-1 scoreline. Giroux dished the puck over to Tim Stützle near the left post. Vejmelka made the initial save on Stützle’s shot but Brady Tkachuck was there to knock in the rebound and ice the matchup as Utah could not score 6-on-5 with Vejmelka pulled.

The Club now heads back to Salt Lake City for four games at Delta Center ahead of its final road trip before the 4 Nations Face-Off break in February.

The key moving forward?

“We’ve just got to have the confidence and swagger,” Määttä said. “Just trusting our game.”