Utah Loses 5-3 In Back And Forth Affair with Montreal Canadiens

The home record woes continued for Utah HC (18-18-7) as it lost 5-3 to the Montreal Canadiens (21-18-4).

With the loss, Utah is now 1-3 amidst its seven game home stand and now has only two wins in its last eleven games.

It was quite a sloppy game as both teams managed to have 13 combined penalties and 20 combined takeaways.

With it being a physical and penalty filled game, lots of hits were delivered, scrums broke out regularly and Montreal even was given a penalty shot due to Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev hooking Montreal forward Jake Bates on a breakaway.

But despite this sloppy game turning into another loss, Utah remained competitive for most of the night before Montreal forward Kirby Dach scored the game-sealing goal, as his deflected shot managed to slip under the hand of Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka.

Coming into the third period down 3-2, Utah needed offense badly because it took 14:25 before Utah could get its first shots of the second period. Without any offensive momentum, Utah gave up two goals and got outscored 12-6 on goal shots.

So when Utah's goal came early in the third after Logan Cooley's rebound off a Clayton Keller shot went in the net, Utah looked as though it rediscovered the offense it lacked in the second.

But minutes later, Montreal would catch Utah committing a big mistake that would give the Canadiens a 4-3 lead.

After the puck managed to go into the benches, Montreal's Nick Suzuki would win the face off against Utah's Barrett Hayton. But with Utah's rotations coming too slow, likely due to Utah's Oli Maatta not switching off his defensive matchup quick enough, Cole Caufield would find himself wide open and score Montreal's fourth goal.

Though there was still plenty of time for Utah to tie it again, Utah would have only two shots on the goal in the last ten minutes of the game, one of which came in the closing seconds of the game when Montreal had secured the win.

Utah played with renewed energy after Cooley's goal, but it proved to make too many mistakes that Montreal benefitted from.

Related: John Marino Making Debut For Utah Hockey Club Against Montreal

Utah had a slew of mistakes that allowed goals. Whether it was turning over the puck in the neutral zone, not contesting shooters or even allowing breakaways to happen, it seemed like Utah couldn't recover in time to make shots on the goal harder for Montreal.

While it did allow a quick breakaway that resulted in Montreal's Mike Matheson goal in the first period, Utah was the one benefitting off of mistakes.

The Canadiens had four penalties in the first period resulting in lots of power play opportunities for Utah. In the opening minute, Montreal managed to have two penalties within thirty seconds of each other resulting on a 5-on-3 advantage for Utah.

With opportunities like that rare to come by, Utah was given a great chance to get the lead early and fast.

While Montreal has proven to be good at scoring shorthanded goals, having done so five times, being down two men proved too much. Off a Keller shot, Utah's Jack Doan would rebound the puck and get it past Canadien goalie Sam Montembeault.

Doan, who was recently called up after Utah's Dylan Guenther was injured, scored his second goal of the year—his first since rejoining the team.

While it says Utah only managed to score on one of its six power plays on the stat sheet, Utah basically got its second goal on another power play opportunity towards the end of the period.

Right as the power play ended, Utah managed to score its second goal of the game on a shot from Nick Bjugstad.

Before Montreal could get Dach out of the penalty box, Bjugstad's shot managed to deflect off the net onto the back of Montembeault where it rolled into the net to give Utah a 2-1 lead.

Due to all the penalties in the period, Utah would also outshoot Montreal 14-3 with shots on the goal.

Eventually though, Utah would end up giving up the lead in the second period largely in part due to the six penalties it had.

While Utah wouldn't allow Montreal to score on any power plays, it did allow the Canadiens to score on a 4-on-4 stint after both teams had a players issued with roughing penalties.

Though Utah's defense gave up five goals, Utah should be optimistic that it managed to get three goals even without Guenther playing. With its next game against the New York Rangers happening Jan. 15, Utah will need to play a more complimentary game if it wants to get back to its winning ways.

Do you think Utah can fix some of the mental errors it had ahead of its matchup against the Rangers? Can Utah win its last three home games? Let me know what you think down below.