The home wins have suddenly started piling up for Utah HC—and so have the goals. At least, that was the case in Utah's (27-24-9) latest 6-1 home win against the Minnesota Wild (34-21-4).
In the last game, Utah won a scrappy, defensive 2-1 battle against the Chicago Blackhawks. But against Minnesota, Utah played the exact opposite, as it had each member of the first line scoring in the third period to stomp away any hope Minnesota had of winning.
"It’s weird," said head coach André Tourigny. "I think we were consistent in the way we played. When we went up 3-1, 4-1, we did not change. We did not start to play differently or start to peel back. We stayed engaged and we stayed in the moment. We just kept going."
It was Nick Schmaltz who started off Utah's third period with a goal, assisted by Logan Cooley.
The play wouldn't have happened without Cooley's puck control in the neutral zone, as he dodged players on his left and right before passing it to Clayton Keller.
With Keller suddenly drawing all the attention, Cooley was able to regain his balance and skate past Minnesota to create a 2-on-1 advantage with Schmaltz.
Even with Minnesota's Frederick Gaudreau on his back, Schmaltz took Cooley's pass with ease and extended Utah's lead to 4-1.
But that was only the beginning of Utah's dominant third period.
Shortly after, Keller—who would end the game with a career-high five points—scored Utah's fifth goal of the night.
"Our line has done a good job lately, I think getting (Logan Cooley) back, too. Takes a little bit to get the chemistry each game," said Keller. "Since he's been back, we've been just getting a little bit better. My linemates, everyone that was out there, contributed to all the goals that we scored. Enjoy for a little bit, turn the page, and be ready for the next one. Every point here moving forward is huge."
Originally, Keller elected to pass the puck back to teammate Mikhail Sergachev due to the defense being shown by Minnesota's Jonas Brodin. However, it was Keller's movement off the puck that ultimately led to Utah's fifth goal of the night.
In a flash, while Sergachev had possession of the puck, Keller made a cut to the net as Brodin turned his back to him. With that, the Wild's defense broke down, and there was nothing Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury could do but watch as Keller scored his first goal of the night off a pass from Schmaltz.
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Cooley finished off the period by scoring Utah's last goal of the night, capping the game with a 6-1 win.
The period was so dominant for Utah that Cooley nearly scored Utah's third goal of the period before the Wild could even get its first third period goal shot. The Wild's first shot would eventually come 13:57 into the period, with Cooley scoring soon after at 15:01. Utah outshot Minnesota 11-2 in the period and 31-16 overall.
With Cooley's goal being the last of the night for Utah, a total of six different players scored for the team.
Among them was Sean Durzi's first goal of the season, coming in his fourth game back after recovering from injury.
"Yeah it was special," said Durzi. "The crowd's been incredible. You get chills every time, but to finally contribute and, you know hear the crowd cheer when they call my name... it's so huge. We're so lucky to have these fans.
Arguably, his goal was the most important for Utah, as it served as a response to the Wild's only goal of the night, which came after Utah appeared unsettled following a shift change.
"To see them get some momentum from that goal, wasn't too happy about it, broken play. Obviously unfortunate," said Durzi. "But then to get one back is huge. We carried it in here. The energy was good in intermission. We knew we needed our best 20, and I thought we got that. So it was huge."
With no time to breathe, Minnesota found itself down 3-1 entering the third period, and the rest is history.
With its win over the Wild, Utah has extended its season-high consecutive home win streak to four.
Not only did Utah take the season series with a 3-1 record, but it is also now just one win away from completing a perfect homestand if it can win against the New Jersey Devils this Saturday.
Considering this is the same team that at one point struggled to win at home, the fact that it can now complete a homestand undefeated is a huge step forward.
To make the win streak even sweeter for Utah, it watched the Anaheim Ducks defeat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 right after its own win, leaving the Canucks just two points ahead of Utah for the final Wild Card spot.
With Calgary also getting shut out by Tampa, Utah finds itself winning at the right time. However, with the Devils coming to town, Utah will need to stay focused on its own game if it wants to emerge from the Western Conference Wild Card race on top.