Wild, riding 6-game win streak, finish road back-to-back at Utah

The Utah Mammoth will look to play with more pace in their game when they oppose the Minnesota Wild on Friday night in Salt Lake City.

Utah opened its post-Olympic-break portion of the schedule with a 4-2 home loss against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.

Dylan Guenther scored twice and Karel Vejmelka made 22 saves for Utah, which had won back-to-back games prior to the break.

“We played a good team, but I didn’t like our grind. I didn’t like our physicality,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I thought we didn’t have the pace we should have in our zone and on the forecheck. I don’t think we were the fastest team tonight, and that’s what makes us special. We need to realize that and be much better next game.”

Mammoth forward Logan Cooley returned to the lineup after missing 28 games with a lower-body injury, and he chipped in an assist in the loss.

“It’s good to be back out there with the guys,” Cooley said. “It’s no fun sitting in the stands watching them. It kind of felt like a long journey. There was a lot of hard work that went into it. … It felt good to be back.”

Captain Clayton Keller paces Utah with 38 assists and 55 points in 58 games, while Guenther has a team-leading 27 tallies in 56 games.

The Mammoth, who sit fourth in the Central Division, hold the top Western Conference wild-card spot. They are 11-4-1 in their past 16 games and 17-9-2 on home ice this season.

“You haven’t played for a while, so you want to make nice plays,” Guenther said of the Wednesday loss. “You don’t really have your A-game yet, so just playing your B-game solid, and I thought we did that better in the third (period).”

The Friday game will be the second of three meetings between the Mammoth and Wild. Utah upended Minnesota 6-2 on Oct. 25 in Saint Paul, Minn.

The Wild travel to Utah for the second game of a back-to-back set following a 5-2 win over the Avalanche on Thursday in Denver.

“I thought the guys did a good job preparing, whether they were at the Olympics or not at the Olympics,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “I thought everyone came together as a group and played well. Now we got another big one (on Friday) against Utah. I think to get a win was obviously nice and important for us, and now we can build from there.”

Matt Boldy scored twice and added two assists, Joel Eriksson Ek netted a pair and Mats Zucccarello added the other for the Wild, who have won six straight and are 9-1-1 over their past 11.

Kirill Kaprizov chipped in a pair of assists as the Wild improved to 18-8-3 on the road while moving into second place in the Central Division.

Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves before being replaced late in the third period after vomiting in the goal crease. Jesper Wallstedt took over and allowed one goal on two shots in 1:04 of relief.

Wallstedt, the likely starter on Friday, is 14-5-4 with a .913 save percentage and a 2.76 goals-against average in 24 games (23 starts) this season. He has never opposed Utah in his career.

–Field Level Media