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After scoring a combined 11 goals in its past two home games, with the recent Tampa game being one of its most electric performances this season, Utah ran out of steam against the Detroit Red Wings.
While the 5-1 score for the Red Wings highlights a dominant offense performance, Detroit would only end the night with 14 shots on the goal. Considering one of those shots was on an empty net too, this game was far from featuring the high flying shots a typical five goal game brings.
Even worse, Utah had only allowed five goal shots to the Red Wings through two periods of play. They were even facing Alex Lyon, Detroit's backup goalie, who was forced into action after newly acquired goalie Petr Mrázek was injured after a collision from Dylan Guenther.
But it didn’t matter that the Red Wings had only a five shots on goal, they still managed to score twice, with the first goal coming from an Elmer Söderblom power-play goal.
Utah’s 1-0 lead quickly disappeared after a mishandled pass between Dylan Guenther and Sean Durzi led to an odd-man rush for Detroit. With only Utah’s Olli Määttä back to defend, Elmer Söderblom found himself alone and wide open, ultimately scoring just over a minute after Utah took the lead.
While the Red Wings goal would act as a response to Guenther's power play goal, which happened to be his 100th career point, it would also serve as the start of a five goal run that Utah wouldn't be able to answer.
Utah had four more power-play opportunities throughout the game but struggled to create space for shooting lanes, never looking comfortable.
"I don't know. We had a good start," said Clayton Keller. "We had a lot of possessions, some shots early, but I don't think we did a good enough job of getting to the inside, hitting those rebounds … power plays got to be better. We had a good start there, but we have to find a way to get another one there. So that's definitely frustrating as well."
While Utah was looking for "good force," it was Detroit who kept getting plays to go its way, starting with Detroit's Marco Kasper getting a goal after deflecting the puck off of Utah's Lawson Crouse.
Though it was a rather unfortunate goal to give up, Utah was only down 2-1 off and was playing stout defense throughout two periods. The game was very much in reach.
However, it would be Detroit once again that got an unlikely break, this time in the form of an Austin Watson tip on the puck that floated over Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka and dropped perfectly behind his back.
"Nothing's easy, right? You need a lot of good force on your side," said Utah's Ian Cole. "You need calls on your side, you need to take advantage of opportunities, and you need to play really, really good hockey... Tonight some of those things did not go for us, but we're right back at it against a great team in Tampa in a couple days."
After that, Detroit’s defense locked down Utah for the rest of the third period, allowing only four shots on goal and disrupting any remaining rhythm Utah had
Ultimately, the loss was a big blow to Utah, as it fell six points behind the St. Louis Blues, who are currently on a six-game winning streak and owners of the final wild card spot in the West.
While the widening gap makes Utah’s playoff hopes slimmer, the team will need to prepare for its upcoming three-game road trip and hope that its competitors experience some slumps over Utah’s final 11 games.
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