The Utah Hockey Club will vie for their second consecutive victory when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday night.
Utah ended a three-game losing streak with a 6-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night in the second of their four-game road trip.
Dylan Guenther scored two goals and set up another and Clayton Keller had three assists for Utah, which went 3-for-4 on the power play.
“It’s huge for us, just for a confidence booster,” said Guenther, who scored twice in the third period with the man advantage. “Nice for us to get a few there.”
“It just came down to compete,” said Nick Bjugstad, who scored Utah’s other power-play goal. “I think that’s kind of the theme of the night. Good things happen when we work hard.”
The Maple Leafs recorded their third win in a row and sixth in their past seven games with a 3-0 victory over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
Toronto again will be without captain Auston Matthews (upper body), who skated before the team’s practice on Saturday.
The center spent five days in Germany recently for evaluation by a doctor.
“It kind of flared up a little bit in preseason and then it felt better and then it was just kind of getting worse, so I thought it was time to kind of take a step back and re-evaluate it and take it day-by-day,” Matthews said. “It hadn’t necessarily gotten worse but it wasn’t really getting better, so I wanted to be proactive.”
Matthews could return next week, possibly on Wednesday when Toronto visits the Florida Panthers.
“He’s feeling a lot better, which is good,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “He skated (Saturday) and he will probably get on the ice again (Sunday).”
Matthews led the league with 69 goals last season. He has five goals this season, playing in 13 of Toronto’s 20 games.
“We’re missing him a lot out there, the leadership he brings and everything he can do on the ice,” said William Nylander, who leads the team with 13 goals.
Toronto also is without fellow forwards Matthew Knies, Max Domi, Calle Jarnkrok, David Kampf and Max Pacioretty. Knies has an upper-body injury, while the others have lower-body ailments.
The Maple Leafs have responded well to Berube’s philosophy of emphasizing defense.
“As players, we feel it, and I think you can tell by watching that it’s a different kind of game than what we’ve played in the past,” defenseman Morgan Rielly said. “It has been a bit of an adjustment, but it has been good. I think we’re doing all right.”
Utah will be playing on back-to-back nights for the first time this season.
Karel Vejmelka made 27 saves on Saturday and has played in five straight games, including four starts. He has allowed a total of two goals in the past two games.
“He radiates confidence,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said of Vejmelka. “We will surely talk about it (starting Vejmelka on Sunday). I don’t know if it’s the right move because it’s four (games) in six (days). Probably, the answer will be no, but we’ll see.”
Backup Jaxson Stauber has not played in the NHL this season and was recalled from the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League this week. Fellow goaltender Connor Ingram (upper body) is out.
–Field Level Media