The Hat Trick: Utah Hockey Club Return To Basics In Commanding Win Over Blackhawks

Mar 30, 2025 , 5:36 PM | Updated: Mar 31, 2025, 3:05 pm

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COLE BAGLEY


Utah Mammoth Insider

SALT LAKE CITY – After a rough stretch of games offensively and several losses in a row, the Utah Hockey Club returned to the basics against Chicago and experienced an explosion of offense enroute to victory. Despite a tall task ahead of them, Utah continues to battle in pursuit of the playoffs as they embrace the challenging process of a rebuild.

Here are the key takeaways from Utah’s commanding win in Chicago.

An explanation for Karel Vejmelka’s 17 straight starts in net for Utah Hockey Club

For the 17th straight game, goaltender Karel Vejmelka was between the pipes for the Utah Hockey Club against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Despite the astonishing number of starts in a row, Vejmelka looked fresh, tracked the puck well, made 27 critical stops and put his team in a position to win the hockey game.

“He’s been battling. He works so hard. He gives us a chance to win and that’s all you can ask for,” Lawson Crouse said.

“He’s kept us in a lot of hockey games…When he’s in net, he gives us a chance to win the game.”

Now, how does his assignment compare to the other teams who are not only battling for a playoff spot but have a better chance of cracking into the postseason?

According to Former NHL Video Coach Steve Peters, Vejmelka has nearly triple the number of consecutive starts than St. Louis’s Jordan Binnington (6), Vancouver’s Kevin Lankinen (4) and Calgary’s Dustin Wolf (4).

Additionally, Peters also shared that Vejmelka’s 17 straight starts are the most since 2021 when Jacob Markstrom started 15 in a row for the Calgary Flames.

So, why 17 in a row for No. 70?

First off, with Connor Ingram out indefinitely, Utah has been shorthanded in net since March 9.

While they did recall Jaxson Stauber and more recently Matt Villalta from the AHL, the two only have a combined 11 NHL starts. That doesn’t exactly instill confidence into a team that’s refusing to quit battling.

Second, Utah clearly hasn’t given up on their playoff hopes despite trailing by nine points with only eight games left on their schedule.

“There’s never going to be any quit in this room ever. We’re going to fight all the way until the end. We’re going to try to win every single game from here on out,” Captain Clayton Keller said.

“You never know what can happen. We’re going to stay motivated.”

As Keller pointed out a few games back, there’s no quit in this team and Vejmelka remaining between the pipes is a reflection of that.

Is it the best idea? Depends on who you ask.

But for a team that wants to keep fighting as they have yet to be mathematically eliminated, Vejmelka is the guy.

When in doubt, put pucks on net and good things will happen

After being outscored 15-2 over the last three games, the Utah Hockey Club went back to the basics in Chicago and experienced an eruption of offense.

Despite the simplicity of their strategy, Utah discovered success by going towards the painted area, generating traffic and putting pucks on net with pace.

The result? Five goals in 60 minutes to claim a commanding victory over the Blackhawks.

During the past week, Utah struggled to play their style of offense as they consistently made too many extra passes, lacked a strong net front presence and failed to create greasy chances.

Against Chicago, Utah clearly had enough as they applied consistent pressure, generated turnovers, got bodies to the net and shot the puck.

“We just needed to stick to our game,” Kailer Yamamoto said. “We needed to get pucks deep, be able work off the goal line and take pucks to the net.”

A lot of the time, all it takes to revive an offense is to return to the basics.

For Utah, they embraced those reliable strategies and secured a much-needed win to conclude their road trip.

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Utah Hockey Club embraced the process after surpassing last season’s point total with eight games left

While hitting the reset button in the NHL is certainly not uncommon in the quest for Lord Stanley, trusting the process and finishing the rebuild can be.

Despite a lengthy list of accomplishments remaining for the Utah Hockey Club on their lengthy journey to the top of the mountain, there’s been visible and steady progress in the process.

Following their victory over Chicago on Sunday afternoon, Utah officially surpassed last season’s point total (77) with eight games left on their schedule.

Additionally, they also recorded the most points in a season since the 2018-19 campaign (86).

That’s significant.

For an organization that hasn’t made the playoffs since Logan Cooley was 15, what General Manager Bill Armstrong and the front office are building is clearly working.

“We’ve taken good steps. I like the way our team plays. I think there’s been some learning lessons along the way.”

“There’s a lot of pain you have to go through to make the next step…we’re getting there. We’re in the fight. We’re right where we are supposed to be…there’s 20 game sevens left for us to play. It’s on, definitely,” Armstrong said following the trade deadline.

As Armstrong pointed out, there’s a lot of pain a team has to endure before they can make significant steps.

While the playoffs are likely unattainable this season, Utah is maturing, and a lot of things are going their way.

Draft picks like Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther were clearly a home run, trading for Mikhail Sergachev elevated the team the way they’d hoped, adding seasoned veterans has altered the culture and there’s still so much time for this team to improve.

So, regardless if Utah makes the playoffs this season or not, the process is clearly working, and they aren’t far away from taking the next big step.

With a little more time, more growing pains and a few adjustments to the roster through free agency and their long list of prospects, Utah is arguably the most well-prepared team for the future.

Next For The Utah Hockey Club

The Utah Hockey Club will now return home to host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night. The game can be viewed on SEG+. Fans can also tune in on air on the KSL Sports APP or on 97.5 and 1280 The Zone. Click here for the full schedule.

Cole Bagley is the Utah Hockey Club insider for KSL Sports. Keep up with him on X here. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.

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