Utah crushes Kraken behind season-high goal total

Mikhail Sergachev scored once in a three-point game and Dylan Guenther collected three assists to lead the Utah Hockey Club to a 7-1 drubbing of the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday in Salt Lake City.

Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley both collected one goal and one assist for Utah (36-30-12, 84 points), which has won four of five games to keep its slim playoff hopes alive. It was the franchise's highest-scoring game since moving from Arizona to Utah before this season.

Kailer Yamamoto, Lawson Crouse, Nick Schmaltz and Michael Carcone also scored for the hosts. Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka, who started his 21st consecutive game, made 18 saves.

Jared McCann scored the game's final goal for the Kraken (34-39-6, 74 points), who had a three-game winning streak snapped.

Starting goalie Joey Daccord stopped 22 of 29 shots before being pulled after the second period. Victor Ostman, summoned from the minors with Philipp Grubauer out due to an illness, stopped all 13 shots faced in his NHL debut.

Sergachev put Utah on top 2:44 into the clash. As his team worked the puck around the zone, the defenseman slipped into the high slot for a pass and found the mark with a screened shot.

Keller doubled the lead with a power-play goal at 12:54 of the first period. During a five-on-three advantage, Keller gained the puck at the right faceoff dot and sent a rocket of a shot home for his team-leading 27th goal of the season.

Yamamoto added another man-advantage marker at 16:28 of the first, a shot from the left dot set up by a cross-ice pass.

Crouse extended the lead to four goals 16 seconds into the second period when he intercepted a poor clearing attempt and lifted a top-shelf wrister.

Cooley continued the shellacking when he redirected Guenther's crossing pass as he gained position in front of the net at 11:15 of the second period.

Schmaltz added another power-play goal at 16:05 of the middle frame, tapping home a loose puck after the besieged Daccord made the stop but could not contain the rebound.

That was followed by Carcone's long shot from the side boards that made it 7-0 with 1:53 remaining in the second period.

McCann put Seattle on the board with a power-play goal 23 seconds into the third period.

--Field Level Media