Guenther, Sergachev each has 3 points in 4th win in past 5 games
Kraken at Utah Hockey Club | Recap
By Matt Komma
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Hockey Club scored a franchise-record seven goals and defeated the Seattle Kraken 7-1 at Delta Center on Tuesday.
Dylan Guenther (three assists) and Mikhail Sergachev (one goal, two assists) each had three points, and Karel Vejmelka made 18 saves for Utah (36-30-12), which has won four of its past five games (4-1-0).
Seven different skaters scored for Utah, which moved to within seven points of the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference with four games remaining.
“You see where in every game, our offense can come from everywhere, like tonight,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “The power play was really good, but we had scoring from other lines as well. So that made a difference.”
SEA@UTA: Sergachev whips one in through traffic to get things started in the 1st
Jared McCann scored and Joey Daccord made 22 saves through two periods for the Kraken (34-39-6), who had won three straight.
“That's not the type of hockey we've been playing as of late,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “It was a challenge, certainly, with a back-to-back, something we know we've got to get better at. And I’m not disappointed with, I don't want to say the effort of the guys, but just how this game unfolded. It's disappointing.”
Victor Ostman made 12 saves in his NHL debut after replacing Daccord at the start of the third period.
“It was a lot of fun,” Ostman said. “Obviously, not one of the best circumstances, but I thought the guys played really good in the third for me. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.”
Sergachev opened the scoring at 2:44 of the first period, firing a wrist shot from the point to give Utah a 1-0 lead.
“I think we defended well, at least in the first two periods,” Sergachev said. “Everybody came back, we didn't turn the puck over on the lines, and we just got it deep and always got it back, so that's an improvement.”
Clayton Keller made it 2-0 at 12:54, beating Daccord with a wrist shot on a 5-on-3 power play.
SEA@UTA: Keller whips it off the post and in for a PPG
Kailer Yamamoto scored on a one-timer on the power play at 16:28 for a 3-0 lead.
“It's awesome. Obviously, I owe them one,” said Yamamoto, who played last season in Seattle. “They didn't want me, so I came in with a little bit of a vengeance, but it's a good one for us, for sure.”
Lawson Crouse scored 16 seconds into the second period, making it 4-0 when his wrist shot went off Daccord's glove and into the net.
Logan Cooley pushed the lead to 5-0 at 11:15, scoring off a pass from Guenther.
Nick Schmaltz scored Utah's third power-play goal at 16:05, tapping in a rebound off a shot from Guenther to make it 6-0.
SEA@UTA: Nick Schmaltz with a Goal vs. Seattle Kraken
Michael Carcone made it 7-0 at 18:07 with a wrist shot that beat Daccord on the blocker side.
McCann scored a power-play goal 23 seconds into the third period to make it 7-1 when he deflected in a pass from Andre Burakovsky.
“You can't give a team like that that many chances in power play, they're going to make you pay,” said McCann after Utah went 3-for-6 on the power play. “We just didn't have it tonight, and we left our goalie out to dry.”
NOTES: Sergachev scored his career-high 15th goal of the season, which is the third most goals by a defenseman in a franchise’s inaugural season since 1967-68... Vejmelka made his 21st consecutive start in net, which is the longest streak in the NHL since Darcy Kuemper’s streak of 22 games in 2019.
