Game Preview, 2/9: Utah Hockey Club vs. Washington Capitals

WHEN: 10:30 a.m. MT

WHERE: Capital One Arena – Washington, DC

TV: SEG+, UtahHC+, Utah 16 | RADIO: KSL Sports Zone 97.5 FM, NHL App

In its final game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the Utah Hockey Club (23-23-9) meets the Washington Capitals (36-11-7) this afternoon at Capital One Arena. Today is the third and final game of a road trip that has included a 3-2 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night and a 7-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes yesterday. Following today’s game, Utah will be off until the team visits the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 22.

ONE-TIMERS

• Clayton Keller is the first Utah Hockey Club player to 20 goals this season.
• Utah’s penalty kill has only allowed four power-play goals in the last 17 games.
• Dylan Guenther has set new career highs in goals (19), assists (20), and points (39) this season.
• Utah is 14-11-3 on the road this season.
• Utah is 7-5-2 against the Metropolitan Division.

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP

After matching up against a Carolina team that ranked top 10 both offensively and defensively, Utah faces a Washington team that is top two on both sides of the puck. The Caps average 3.56 goals per game (second best) and allow just 2.46 goals against per game (second best). Dylan Strome leads a balanced attack for Washington with 52 points (15G, 37A), but the Caps get their goals from all over. Nine players have at least 10 goals for Washington, and eight of their skaters have over 30 points. The Caps are second in the NHL with 79 points.

In net, Logan Thompson has been fantastic this season and has only lost two games in regulation over 30 appearances.

Of course, one cannot mention the Capitals without bringing up the legendary Alex Ovechkin. The future hall-of-famer missed 16 games with a lower-body injury he sustained against Utah on Nov. 18, but he has 11 goals in the 20 games he’s played since returning.

WHO TO WATCH

UTAH: #9 CLAYTON KELLER – After two lamp-lighters yesterday against Carolina, Clayton Keller now leads Utah with 20 goals, making 2024-25 the fifth 20-goal season of his career. The Utah captain now has four multi-goal games under his belt this season.

WASHINGTON: #8 ALEX OVECHKIN – After goals in four straight games entering today, Ovechkin is now just 16 markers away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record of 894. Ovechkin already has 40 points (26G, 14A) in 38 games this season.

LOOK BACK

Utah’s loss to Carolina yesterday at Lenovo Center was more competitive than the 7-3 final might suggest. Utah tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal from Josh Doan in the first period.

Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho scored what would be their first of two goals each in the second period before Clayton Keller scored on a breakaway later in the frame. Leading 3-2, Carolina stretched their advantage with a shorthanded goal from Aho and a breakaway tally from Jarvis to make it 5-2. Yesterday’s second period marked just the second time all season that Utah has given up four goals in a single frame.

Keller pulled Utah back within two scores with a third-period 5-on-3 power-play goal, but Jordan Martinook hit an empty-netter for the Canes and Jack Roslovic netted the seventh goal to secure the final. Utah ended up outshooting Carolina 39-38 in the contest.

LAST MEETING

Utah jumped out to an excellent start on Nov. 18 against the Washington Capitals when Jack McBain scored just three minutes into the first period at Delta Center. Later in the first, Washington took control with three goals within a 3:19 window to take a 3-1 lead. Alex Ovechkin scored his 867th and 868th career NHL goals as the Caps piled on throughout the contest. Nick Bjugstad picked up his third goal of the year to lower Washington’s lead to 4-2, but that would be as close as Utah could pull, and the scoreboard displayed a 6-2 Capitals edge by the final buzzer.

POWER PLAY

Utah’s power play lurched to life yesterday in Raleigh after power-play goals from Josh Doan and Clayton Keller. Utah’s man advantage went 2-for-5 against Carolina, who owned the best penalty kill in the league entering the game. Yesterday’s game marked the sixth time this season that Utah recorded multiple power-play goals in a game.

The two conversions against the Canes also snapped what had been a three-game drought on the PP for Utah- the longest since November when Utah went five games without a power-play goal. The Mountain Blue now has 10 power-play goals over the last 15 games, going 10-for-40 (25.0%) in that span. Utah’s power play ranks 15th across the league with a 21.9% conversion rate for the season.

Utah Assistant Coach Blaine Forsyth, who helps run the power play, was formerly a video coach and then assistant coach with Washington from 2006 to 2023.

4 NATIONS FACE-OFF

The Utah Hockey Club will be off for 12 days as Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the U.S. square off in a battle for international supremacy on the ice in a round-robin tournament from Wednesday, Feb. 12 to Thursday, Feb. 20 in Montreal, Quebec and Boston, Massachusetts. It will be the first international best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016.

Utah’s Olli Määttä and Juuso Välimäki will both represent Team Finland at the event. Each team will play three tournament games in a traditional Round Robin format, under the following points system: 3 points for a win in regulation time; 2 points for a win in overtime/shootout; 1 point for a loss in overtime/shootout; and 0 points for a loss in regulation time. The two teams with the best tournament record will then advance to a one-game Final.

LOOK AHEAD

After the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Utah Hockey Club will face the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 22 in California.