The Utah Hockey Club is not yet officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoff -conflict, but they take steps forward which should make a difference along the way.
Utah (35-30-12, 82 points) is technically alive for the playoffs, but would officially be eliminated with a loss for regulation time. When the club reads to host Seattle Kraken on Tuesday in Salt Lake City, it comes from a 4-1 victory over the league-leading Winnipeg Jets on Saturday and has won three of four matches.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Clayton Keller, who gathered a goal and an assist against Jets, told Salt Lake Tribune. “We still learn each game how difficult it is to win.”
Utah put many of these lessons shown against Jets, a game where it recorded a three-goal lead at the end of the second period thanks to a couple of power-play goals.
“I like the fact that we’re not afraid. We’ll take it the right way,” said Coach Andre Tourigny. “We played against a really good team and we played a hell of a game.”
Thanks to his performance, Keller reached the 500-point milestone for his career.
“I honestly had no idea getting into the game, so I was a little surprised,” he said. “So many people in my life sacrificed for me to come to this level, so just super grateful for everything they have done to me. … I still feel that I have much more to give and I have just got started.”
The Kraken (34-38-6, 74 points) arrives at Salt Lake City after claiming an impressive 2-1 road victory over Los Angeles Kings on Monday.
Seattle, which has long been eliminated from the playoffs, erased a 1-0 deficit with a couple of goals 54 seconds from each other late in the first period and hung on for the victory.
“We want to stick to a certain standard that enters next year,” said forward Chandler Stephenson. “Against a good team you want to win such games.”
As disappointing as the season has been shown, the Kraken sees the performances expected from the squad that were built to take a step forward, although it took time for things to fall into place.
The Kraken has won the first three excursions in a five-game road trip and handed only two goals in total during that route.
“You see the shot blocks, the guys pay the price,” said coach Dan Bylsma. “I think we play faster and more aggressive against defense.”
Now the task is to continue pushing to end the season with positive results.
Not only are the Kraken Seeing players to achieve individual success-to example, Matty Benier made his 19th of the campaign and defender Brandon Montour has noted a career best 17 goals-they have had team success.
“Just go speed,” Bylsma said. “We have an extended road trip here and we have won a few different games, some big games, some tough games. We competed hard, got the victory and have to take it to Salt Lake.”
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