Edmonton, Alberta • The goal horn would not stop blaring at Rogers Place.
It was, to put it plainly, a disastrous night for the Utah Hockey Club.
Not only did Utah spiral into a 7-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Tuesday night but all of the other teams chasing the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference — the St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks — won their respective games. The Club sits four points out of playoff contention now.
It was Utah’s largest goal deficit of the season, too. The most the Club had lost by before Tuesday was four goals. History was made, just not in a good way, as Utah ended the game with a six-goal gap between it and the opponent.
“Obviously that’s not us, that’s not who we are. Not the performance we wanted. We’re upset. This time of year you can’t have that,” said Sean Durzi who was the Club’s loan goal-scorer. “We’ll have to regroup, we’ll have to find that mentality of moving on and putting this one in the past.”
Jaxson Stauber skated out towards the net in the moments before the second period. The backup goaltender went in to relieve Karel Vejmelka following a three-goal first period.
It was not a Vejmelka-specific downfall to open the night, though. On the contrary, the netminder — who started in his 11th consecutive game — bailed Utah out early in the first. But, after three goals against (two of which came on 1-on-1 breaks), the Club opted to give Vejmelka a break.
“Too bad we let Veggie down. I think Veggie has been good for us for a long long time. I don’t think we had the right mindset, the right prep before the game,” head coach André Tourigny said. “I think it’s everybody — it’s not one guy more than the other. At the end of the day, it’s on me. It’s my job to make sure we are better than that.”
Stauber entered the matchup in his first NHL action since Dec. 31 which, coincidentally, was also in Edmonton. That game turned out to be a 4-1 loss. Stauber did what he could on Tuesday and finished with 24 saves on 28 shots through 40 minutes of play.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club goaltender Karel Vejmelka (70).
“Staubs is a pro every day. Brings his true self, takes care of his body, focuses on the ice, does everything he can to be ready for the moment,” Durzi said. “I thought he came into a really tough game to a team that wasn’t playing up to our standard and I thought he did a great job.”
The change in goaltending did little to spark the team, however.
Edmonton controlled the contest from the first puck drop to the final buzzer. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins started the domination with a short-handed goal which he flipped past Vejmelka on a breakaway for the 1-0 lead at 12:28. Then came a tip-in shot from Zach Hyman at 15:14, and Connor McDavid topped off the period with an in-close tally after blowing by four Utah players.
Things proceeded to get worse for Utah as the night wore on and seemingly would not end.
Hyman potted his second of the night at 7:41 with a deflected shot in front of Stauber to make it 4-0 before Vasily Podkolzin released a snapshot from the right circle to widen the gap to 5-0. Durzi’s ensuing goal from the point just as Utah’s power play expired did not hold much magnitude.
“Tough to have the right opinion right now. There’s a level of frustration,” Tourigny said. “The fight, the pushback, what we’re known for, the resilience and to be engaged and connected — it was none of that.”
The Oilers scored twice in the first three minutes of the third period to suck the — if there was even any remaining — final air out of the game. Mattias Ekholm ripped one from the high slot after Utah turned the puck over down low for the 6-1 advantage. Viktor Arvidsson followed it up with a knock-in goal around the crease; Utah mishandled the puck in front of its own net once again. That brought the matchup to its final 7-1 standing at 2:36.
“The performance is not up to our standard. Everybody in here knows that,” Durzi said. “I don’t think there’s a guy in here that’s happy with that or can find something that they want to take away from that.”
Utah closed its three-game road trip in Edmonton with the loss and collected two out of the six points available on the western swing. It will be back at Delta Center on Thursday to take on the Buffalo Sabres.
“There’s really no excuse at this time of the year,” Durzi said. “We’ve got to be upset about it.”
