Utah Hockey Club defeated the Colorado Avalanche, 4-1, at Ball Arena on Thursday night.
Dylan Guenther became one of the stars for the Utah club, finishing the game with three points (two goals and one assist). Vladislav Kolyachonok and Kevin Stenlund added goals.
Logan Cooley had two assists. Goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves.
Utah has won three of their last four games. They improve to 13-11-5. Utah also improved to 9-6-2 on the road this season, with five straight road wins by a combined 15 goals.
Kevin Stenlund has extended his career-long goal streak to four games, marking the new longest goal streak in Utah Hockey Club history.
Guenther extended his point streak to four games (two goals and five assists).
“I feel like we’ve been playing pretty well,” Guenther said. “The last month or so, just getting ready for the next one.
The Utah group is maturing. They’ve been playing good hockey lately, and Guenther certainly sees that in this team.
“I think we mature a lot,” Guenther said. “In many aspects, like closing up the game like that, knowing who we’re playing against their top guys, keeping their shift short, it was just a really good team win.”
It’s undoubtedly a feel-good win, especially for Guenther, whose mother was in attendance watching her son play. Guenther would express to the media what his mother meant to him.
“She had a big impact on my career. She is my biggest fan. She tries to watch every game and is nervous every time. This win is for her, for sure."
"She had a big impact on my career. She is my biggest fan - she is trying to watch every game, and she's nervous every time. This win is for her, for sure."@utahhockeyclub Karel Vejmelka after earning his third straight road win in front of his mom on the team's mentors' trip pic.twitter.com/hCMOWjD9Xo
— Utah Hockey Club PR (@UtahHC_PR) December 13, 2024
Utah did an outstanding job blocking shots. The team blocked 23 of the Avalanche’s shots. It’s not easy to do that against a good team like the Avalanche. Vejmelka is growing more confident in every game.
“Feeling better and better every game,” Vejmelka said. “I’m really happy we did a great job. We blocked a ton of shots, and we scored a couple of nice goals, too. So it’s a huge win for us today."
Beating the Avalanche is a confidence builder for this Utah group. They’re putting more pressure on defense and demonstrating good composure.
“We played solid defensively,” Tourigny said. “We were in the lane, good stick, we protected our slot really well, and we had a great goal ending, so we got the goal we needed and played solid.”
Utah has now joined the Washington Capitals (10), Vancouver Canucks (8), Winnipeg Jets (7) and Florida Panthers (6) as just the fifth NHL team to win at least five straight games away from home in 2024-25.