The Hat Trick: Familiar Struggles Plague Utah Hockey Club In OT Loss To Columbus

Jan 31, 2025, 11:20 PM

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SALT LAKE CITY – Despite a late two goal lead in the third period, the Utah Hockey Club yet again lost in overtime as they allowed the Columbus Blue Jackets to steal a win on the road. Facing familiar struggles, Utah’s chances to make the playoffs are in danger of slipping away if the results remain the same.

Here are the key takeaways from Utah’s OT loss to the Blue Jackets.

Matias Maccelli responded well to his one-game scratch with a solid effort against Columbus

After sitting against the Pittsburgh Penguins as a healthy scratch, Matias Maccelli returned to lineup against Columbus with renewed energy and desperation.

While Coach Tourigny did not go into details as to why Maccelli was scratched the other night, it’s simply been a rough year for the 24-year-old forward.

Despite finishing last season with 57 points (third-most on the team) and a whopping 40 assists (second-most on the team), Maccelli has managed only 17 total points for Utah.

Overall, he’s on pace to finish the 2024-25 campaign with only 27 points, down 52 percent year over year.

With such a dip in production, Maccelli has played fairly uninspired hockey for a majority of the season as he’s struggled to create, hasn’t found his teammates nearly as often, has turned the puck over in bad areas and rarely played with a sustained effort.

However, against Columbus, Maccelli looked more like his former self as he demanded the puck, battled hard, moved with purpose and setup his teammates on a few dangerous chances.

While he didn’t score, that’s the kind of effort Maccelli needs to bring every night.

“He played with an edge and was assertive and I liked him,” Head coach Andre Tourigny said. “Whatever it was, it was a great game. He can give you the answer on what he feels and what he thinks, but I really like his game.”

He can be a really dangerous player when he chooses to be, and the team will need more of the same from him with Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley out.

It’s simply unacceptable the way Utah Hockey Club continues to lose close games at home

Different day, same result for the Utah Hockey Club as they blew yet another late lead at home and managed to only come away with a point in overtime.

Despite outshooting Columbus 33-23, outhitting them 23-19, winning nearly 62 percent of the faceoffs and leading 2-0 early in the third, Utah managed to lose again in front of the home crowd.

The problem? Costly turnovers and another series of breakdowns that eventually snowballed into three unanswered goals from Columbus.

“Even after the first period, we talked about how we didn’t do a lot of really good things in the game,” Columbus Blue Jackets Head Coach Dean Evason explained.

“They were out competing us in all areas, but it was only 1-0. We were hanging around enough to allow us to find those couple of breaks and work for those couple of breaks, and we did that.”

Like Evason pointed out, Utah was legitimately dominating the game early.

However, like they’ve done many times before, Utah let their guard down, refused to respond and allowed the opposing team right back into it.

While injuries have certainly played a part in Utah’s woes, it still does not excuse the consistent pattern of blowing late leads at home.

At some point, something has to change. Somebody needs to funnel their emotions and frustrations in a way that lights a fire for the group.

If not, that summer break is going to come early for this team.

Utah needs to start claiming two points or that playoff window will shut quickly

Despite the loss, Utah actually managed to move up in the standings by claiming a single point and somehow are still only six points behind the Calgary Flames for a wild card spot.

However, by only claiming two points over the last two games instead of four and with nine total OT losses this season, Utah simply has not done enough to help themselves in a tight race.

Sure, a single point is still positive but imagine if they had won five of those nine losses and hung onto a couple late leads rather than blown them.

Right now, they’d be in a wild card spot and primed for an even bigger push after the Four Nations tournament with Dylan Guenther and Sean Durzi approaching a return.

Lucky for Utah, all is still not lost at this point. They are still in the race, but that window will shut quickly if they don’t start piecing together some wins.

“Yeah, for sure. There’s never any doubt in this room. There’s a lot of games left in the season. We’ve gotten hot this year before, and it takes a game or two and your confidence is at an all-time high,” Keller said.

“You squeeze out some wins that maybe you shouldn’t. We just got to stay confident and keep going. Like I said, there’s a lot of games left and that’s when we have to play our best, is these last games.”

As Keller pointed out, there’s still time and according to him, the team still believes.

But a substantial change needs to happen now, or it simply won’t matter.

Next For The Utah Hockey Club

The Utah Hockey Club will host the St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon. 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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The Hat Trick: Familiar Struggles Plague Utah Hockey Club In OT Loss To Columbus