By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo: Getty Images Sport
Dallas Stars defeated Utah Hockey Club 2-1 on Monday night at Delta Center.
Nick Schmaltz scored the only goal for Utah in the third period. It was his fourth goal of the season.
“I thought we were all over them,” Schmaltz said. “I think they were just hanging on chipping pucks out, and we were controlling the play for the most part.”
Utah did not stop fighting. They fought better in the third period despite trailing 2-0.
“I think it shows a lot of character,” Schmaltz said. “Guys care a lot. We want to win, but we must find a way to score. In a 2-1 game, we haven’t done a good job on the six-on-five. I think we can do better and tie games up late. Those points are huge, so unfortunately, they cost us the game tonight.”
Stars goalie Casey DeSmith made 34 saves out of 35 attempts. Outstanding performance.
Utah had more shots on goal (35 to 21) and won 59 percent of faceoffs. Utah went 0 for two on the power play, while Dallas went 1 for 2 in that situation.
“Dallas is, by any metric, you can find a really tough team,” coach Andre Tourigny said. “To get anything sustained again, then in terms of ozone time, they’re really putting a lot of pressure on you, and they normally create a lot of ozone time themselves. That’s their bread and butter; you look what we did against them. I’m proud of the guys. They fought, they played hard, they were focused.”
Utah’s next game is on the road against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com
X: @mmm_sportnfilms, Instagram: @miguel_passionforsports, TikTok: @miguelmikemedina