Last night, the Utah Hockey Club put on a goal-scoring clinic in their fourth game of the NHL preseason. They took the ice with an exciting roster that included top-end talent like Clayton Keller and Mikhail Sergachev and guys like Josh Doan and Kailer Yamamoto, who could be battling for the last roster spot.
Utah matched up with the Colorado Avalanche, who had little of their high-end talent in their lineup, but they did have a lot more quality NHL talent than the 6-3 final score would suggest.
While it is preseason, and this win doesn't count for any points, there is much worth discussing from this game, starting with the Utah star offensive players. Considering the Avalanche did not dress any of their superstars, you would expect Utah's stars to dominate the game, and that is precisely what they did. Dylan Guenther and Clayton Keller both registered three points. Other notable contributors were Mikhail Sergachev, Patrick Koch and Josh Doan, who all had multi-point nights in the win.
Utah Hockey Club Dominates Avalanche For Third Preseason Win
Incredibly, in a game in which Utah spent eight minutes on the penalty kill and only a minute and 26 seconds on the power play, they managed to outshoot the Avalanche by nine and somehow win the expected goal battle.
When you look at the rosters, this is something that Utah should have done, and I would have mentioned it if they played almost 12% of the game at a man or two-man disadvantage. The only thing that could be seen as concerning from this box score was Karel Vejmelka giving up three goals on 29 shots for a .897 save percentage. However, Vejmelka played well for the quality of chances he faced, saving 0.22 goals above expected. Vejmelka saved all 18 of the low and medium-danger chances he faced and only surrendered one goal on a high-danger chance at five-on-five. The other two goals he let in came on high-danger chances on the penalty kill, and those are just goals you can't blame the goalie on.
The next thing to be mentioned in this game is Josh Doan. Utah brought in Kailer Yamamoto on a professional tryout contract, and he appears to be the guy Josh Doan may be battling with for the final roster spot on Utah's opening night roster. If that is the case, Doan made his case for that spot. He tallied a goal and assisted and led the team in scoring and high-danger chances, while Kailer Yamamoto failed to register a shot on net in his 14 minutes on the ice despite three of those minutes coming on the powerplay.
One final thing to note is Tij Iginla's preseason debut. Utah drafted Iginla with the sixth overall pick in the 2024 entry draft. Due to injury, he missed rookie camp and the first part of training camp; however, he got into his first NHL game action last night.
There are good and bad to take away from his first game in the NHL. He contributed to Utah's penalty troubles by taking a four-minute double minor, which led to an Avalanche goal. But he did register two shots and one scoring chance and generally looked like he belonged out there.
Even though it is just preseason, and going into it, Utah was a heavy favourite; it was encouraging to see them win dominantly but also be resilient after getting into big-time penalty trouble early.
All stats from @NaturalStatTrick