ST. PAUL (AP) – Karel Vejmelka made 26 saves for his first shutout of the season, and the Utah Hockey Club defeated the Minnesota Wild 4-0 at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.
“We did a great job,” Vejmelka said. “Boys played real well in front of me and they helped me a lot. So it’s a big team win tonight, and it’s not a lot of time to enjoy it because we are playing tomorrow again (at the Winnipeg Jets), but we need to take pride and do it again tomorrow.”
Barrett Hayton scored twice, and Nick DeSimone had two assists for Utah (21-19-7), which has won three in a row.
“I really like our pace starting the game,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I like our composure as well during the game. I think we knew when starting the second they would have a push, and they had a push, but we kept them on the outside pretty good … we stayed composed. I like where our guys, their mind was at.”
This was Utah’s second shutout of the season. Jaxson Stauber had the other one against Vegas on November 30, 5-0
Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves for the Wild (28-16-4), which has lost four of its past five. Forward Kirill Kaprizov had three shots in 16:39 after missing the past 12 games with a lower-body injury.
“Good to see him in a game. It’s game action,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I thought there were times when he had opportunities to make plays, and he made some plays. Other times it wasn’t. But I think when you’re off that long, sometimes it’s timing and things like that. But I think it was good for him to get in and play and we’ll build from there.”
Hayton put Utah ahead 1-0 at 1:46 of the first period when he redirected DeSimone’s point shot past Gustavsson.
Clayton Keller made it 2-0 at 15:55 with a power-play goal, skating right to left across the slot before firing a wrist shot short side over Gustavsson’s right shoulder. Utah’s captain has three goals and seven assists during a five-game point streak.
“There’s two teams out there,” Wild forward Mats Zuccarello said. “One team is playing up to their standards and I feel like we didn’t, especially the first. You’re chasing the rest of the game and just all in all frustrating. We got outplayed in the first period and then you’re chasing the rest of the game, and we couldn’t really find an answer. We couldn’t score on our chances, and they scored on their chances and we gave them too easy offense. Not good enough.”
Lawson Crouse extended the lead 3-0 at 14:14 of the second period, getting position on Declan Chisholm in front to bat in a feed from Olli Maatta along the left wall.
“I mean, a lot of goals came from there,” Crouse said of the net front. “I think just putting pucks there, and putting bodies there was important. We talked about playing an inside game and we did that. Obviously, (Vejmelka) played incredible at key moments of the game, and very well-deserved shutout for him.”
Hayton backhanded a rebound down low for the 4-0 final at 1:48 of the third period. He has three goals and two assists in his past two games.
“We can’t be any softer at the net front than we were tonight,” Hynes said. “I’m not even talking about goaltending tonight. I’m talking about what happened in front of him.”
Nick Schmaltz had an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (three goals, six assists).
Utah is back on the ice Friday night at Winnipeg.