WA-UTA-VejmelkaTradeOrExtend With its last game before a three-day Christmas break, Utah Hockey Club (16-12-6) lost 3-2 to the Dallas Stars (20-13-0) for the second time this season. It was a short turnaround for Utah as it played its second game in two days. In the first back-to-back game, it allowed the Anaheim Ducks to rally back from a 4-1 deficit and eventually win 5-4 in a shootout. So coming into Monday, Utah was looking to redeem itself in front of its home fans. Unlike last Sunday though, Utah was the one looking to rally after finding itself in a 3-1 hole. It looked as though Utah was going to have lots of goal shots in the second period as it built a 15-9 lead early. But its lead didn't last long as Dallas's defense upped its pressure. Along with that, its offense would outscore Utah 20-11 with goal shots the rest of the way. Utah allowed the Stars to get two goals in the second period, one of which happened after Utah failed to guard Stars left wing Jamie Benn, leaving him wide open for the Stars third goal of the night. To make things worse, Utah looked out of sorts on offense with its 18 total giveaways being a glaring reason as to why. Without any momentum and time running out midway through the third, Utah caught a break after Utah's Alexander Kerfoot managed to steal the puck and have a breakaway. While the play didn't result in any points due to him losing the puck right before his shot, momentum started to gradually grow for Utah from this point on. Finally, the big break Utah was searching for came after it managed to score its second goal of the night. The goal from Utah's Barrett Hayton gave him his 100th career point and Utah Hockey Club the life it was looking for. Utah suddenly had life on offense and almost got its third goal from captain Clayton Keller, but the puck would ricochet of his stick and fly over the net instead. While Utah made sure to keep fighting until the very last second, the 3-1 deficit in the second period proved to be too much to overcome. Early on, Utah looked like it had forgotten the loss from the previous night as it started the game with some really close shots on the goal. However, it ended up being Dallas who scored first. With Utah's Juuso Valimaki holding onto the puck too long, Dallas's Colin Blackwell stole the puck, raced down the ice with a one-man advantage and scored as he successfully put the puck over Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka's shoulder into the top right of the net . Utah wouldn't take too long to respond though as a shot from Ian Cole, all the way back at the blue line, zipped through and hit off Kevin Stenlund into the goal to tie the game at 1-1. Moment of Controversy: With under a minute remaining, a small scrum happened after a slight shove from Hayton caused Dallas's Esa Lindell to push him down into the ice. It was quickly broken up and play continued. Playoff Implications: While there is still over half of the season left to play, the game between Dallas and Utah had some important playoffs implications as the winner of the game would move into a Wild Card spot. With Utah's loss tonight, Dallas was able to take both the Wild Card spot, but also became 2-0 against Utah this year. With an upcoming rematch happening on Jan. 6, Utah will look to get its first win in the series when travels to Dallas. Until that game, both teams will look forward to break before action resumes Dec. 27 with Utah facing the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas facing the Minnesota Wild.
