'Connected' Utah set to face new-look Blackhawks

The Utah Hockey Club enjoyed plenty of positives in their last outing despite seeing their winless skid extended to three games.

After falling in overtime in their last contest, Utah HC looks for a positive result on Sunday afternoon when they conclude a three-game road trip against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Utah (32-29-12, 76 points) has fallen short in various ways during its losing streak (0-2-1). Utah dropped lopsided results to both the Detroit Red Wings and the Tampa Bay Lightning before losing 2-1 in overtime to the Florida Panthers on Friday.

"We had no passengers today," Utah head coach Andre Tourigny said after the game versus the Panthers. "Everybody was engaged. Everybody was connected. I'm really proud of them."

Tourigny also praised Karel Vejmelka, who turned aside 30 of 32 shots after yielding four goals in three straight outings.

"I think he was rock-solid," Tourigny said of Vejmelka, who has played in 16 consecutive games. "He showed a lot of resilience and a lot of character."

Vejmelka stopped 21 of 22 shots in Utah's 2-1 win over Chicago on Feb. 25. He yielded four goals on 25 shots in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Blackhawks on March 7.

Utah's Nick Schmaltz, who started his career with the Blackhawks, scored a goal in the most recent contest against his former team. He had 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) during a 14-game stretch before failing to dent the scoresheet in each of his last three contests.

Defenseman Sean Durzi scored the lone goal for Utah on Friday.

"Proud of the effort, loved our intensity. We had the right mindset," Durzi said. "What happened in Tampa, happened in Tampa. Everyone and their grandmother knows that wasn't a good effort. ... Disappointed we didn't get that one, though."

The Blackhawks (21-43-9, 51 points) know disappointment all too well. Case in point, they lost for the ninth time in 10 games (1-8-1) with a 5-3 setback to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.

A pair of Chicago first-round draft picks will make their NHL debut Sunday when Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel take the ice. Both 20, the duo comes to the Blackhawks from the University of Minnesota, which concluded its season Thursday with a 5-4 overtime loss to Massachusetts.

Chicago's Ryan Donato recorded his first career hat trick on Friday, boosting his point total to seven (five goals, two assists) over his last three games.

"Obviously the win's most important, right?" Donato said. "It's nice to obviously have that milestone, it's really cool for me. Obviously feel super blessed to have that happen but still need to win."

"I think we've generated a lot of chances obviously against a good team," he added. "Puck's going in, that's good. But I think there's obviously a few things that we can clean up at the same time."

Donato, who leads the team in both goals (28) and points (58), notched an assist in each of the last two encounters versus Utah.

Ilya Mikheyev had two assists on Friday to extend his point streak to four games (two goals, three assists).

Connor Bedard shuffled from wing back to center on Friday in a move that interim coach Anders Sorensen believes will prove beneficial.

"Hopefully, it will loosen him up and get him some more speed," he said. "We've had a hard time as a group getting the puck up the ice. When the wingers are getting stuck along the wall, it eliminates that part of it. We're hoping for more pace up the middle and supporting his game that way."

--Field Level Media