The Utah Hockey Membership and the Philadelphia Flyers opened the weekend by taking completely different doses of momentum drugs.
Utah hopes on Sunday to hold over the vitality from an thrilling win when it visits Philadelphia, which is aiming to rebound from a tricky defeat.
The Utah Hockey Membership are coming off a convincing 5-2 highway victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday through which they scored 5 straight targets after giving up the primary tally of the afternoon.
“It appears like an vital win,” mentioned Utah coach Andre Tourigny, who notched his one hundredth NHL win in his 272nd profession sport. “I feel it was good, vital for us to begin that journey the best method. We had a great break. We had 5 days off, so it is at all times robust to get going after that. I like the way in which the fellows performed, particularly the primary two (intervals). … I like the way in which we performed offensively and defensively.”
Among the many Utah gamers who had robust performances towards Buffalo have been defenseman Michael Kesselring, who registered a objective and an help, and ahead Nick Schmaltz, who had a objective amongst his team-leading 5 pictures.
“It is good for the boldness,” Kesselring mentioned. “I felt like we have performed good the final 5 – 6 video games now, so (it is vital to maintain) the momentum going.”
The Flyers are battling the alternative mindset after squandering a 3-1 third-period lead in Saturday’s 4-3 extra time loss to the host Boston Bruins.
That marked the second straight late-game meltdown for Philadelphia, which led the Florida Panthers 5-4 in its earlier contest earlier than permitting the final three targets in a 7-5 setback.
“We have got to be taught from our errors,” Philadelphia captain Sean Couturier mentioned. “That is two video games the place we take silly penalties, give the opposite crew an opportunity to return again, and we did it once more right now.”
Nonetheless, Flyers coach John Tortorella is not dropping any confidence in his squad, which had posted a 4-0-1 stretch previous to the present two-game skid.
“It is by no means a query with me about our battle,” Tortorella mentioned. “That is a given inside our room right here. So, that is what retains us afloat. That is the one method we will keep afloat on this league is that — it is the need and never keen to present in.”
The Flyers play 4 of their subsequent seven video games at residence earlier than embarking on a season-long six-game highway journey.
“We’re a great crew and we count on to win each sport,” Philadelphia defenseman Cam York mentioned. “So, to lose that one, clearly it hurts. However we have got a possibility to return again (Sunday) and, hopefully, come out on prime.”
The Flyers will definitely be specializing in Dylan Guenther, who leads Utah with 10 targets, and Clayton Keller, who has posted a team-high 23 factors. Guenther enters on a four-game goalless streak, whereas Keller has been comparatively quiet with one objective and three assists over the previous six video games.
“It is big. Clearly, we need to get away with 4 factors right here,” mentioned Kevin Stenlund, certainly one of Utah’s objective scorers towards Buffalo, of his crew’s two-game highway journey. “Large sport (Sunday). Deal with that and transfer on.”
–Subject Stage Media