SLC Puck!

*AUDIO IS A BIT CRACKILY AT FIRST, HANG IN THERE, IT GETS BETTER*

In a year of ups and downs, the Utah Hockey Club found an upswing with a 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night. In a game that featured NHL superstar Sidney Crosby’s 600th career goal, Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka turned in another strong performance. However, Utah forward Nick Schmaltz was denied what would have been his first goal of the season, keeping him off the goal column for all 20 games this season.

However, Austin Facer has a message to turn things around for Schmaltz. Facer will also be sharing his positively and energy on Friday as a member of the Utah Hockey Club’s first ever, Manningcast-style broadcast, the NashCast, starring Tyson Nash.

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As Utah sets off on a tough road trip, they’ll be counting heavily on Karel Vejmelka to carry the team while Connor Ingram is away with an injury. The team’s No. 2 goaltender, Vejmelka has already turned in Utah's best individual performance of the year. But with his team in desperate need of a string of strong outings, SLC Puck! host Austin Facer sees this road trip as Vejmelka’s chance to secure his spot as the leader in net for the rest of the season.

The trip begins with a stop in Boston, where the Bruins have just fired head coach Jim Montgomery, who was the NHL’s winningest coach in his time in Beantown. Does Montgomery’s firing open the floodgates for more dismissals across the league? Is Utah head coach André Tourigny on the hot seat? All this and more on the newest episode of SLC Puck!

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The Utah Hockey Club followed its best game of the season, a thrilling win over the Carolina Hurricanes, with a let-down against the Vegas Golden Knights, a 4-2 loss on Friday night at Delta Center. SLC Puck! host Austin Facer believes this is simply a bit of learning moment for a young team, just figuring how to compete with the big boys.

Looking ahead, Utah will be welcoming one of the game's future all-timers, Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin. The 39-year-old is in hot pursuit of the all-time goals record and likely nearing the end of his career. Even with a couple years left on his contract, this could be his one and only appearance in Salt Lake City. Buy your tickets now, Facer says. You won't want to miss seeing the soon-to-be-dubbed greatest goal scorer in hockey history live and in person.

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The Utah Hockey Club prevailed over the red-hot Carolina Hurricanes on the strength of an incredible goalkeeping performance by Karel Vejmelka. His 49 saves gave Utah a chance to win the game in a wild third period, which included three Utah goals in less than three minutes and a penalty killing unit tasked with running 11 minutes of shorthanded time off the clock.

If that wasn't exciting enough, the next game, featuring the debut of the team dog, Archie, and the first drop of official team sweaters for sale, is sure to draw a crowd on Friday against the Vegas Golden Knights.

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The first month of the Utah Hockey Club's inaugural season is in the books. With a 6-6-3 record, the team is in decent standing, especially considering the injuries it's had to overcome. With one month down, Austin Facer takes a moment to award his early season awards, including Best Fight, Best Moment, Scrappiest Player and Team MVP.

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The Utah Hockey is in a bit of a rough patch, winning just one of its last six games. With only one goal this season coming off a rebound in front of the net, Austin Facer feels the team would do well to adopt a more physical "meat and potatoes" style of playing offense.

Also, rumors are circulating that the YETI Cooler company is holding up what would be the Utah Hockey Club's permanent name. Austin dives into the rumor, reaches out to someone who claims to have an inside source to see if there's any truth to the rumor.

That and the larger story of Utah emerging as a growing sports scene in the United States, make up this episode of SLC Puck!

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The Utah Hockey Club didn't leave Vegas completely empty-handed, coming away with a point in the standings after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Golden Knights. Still, Austin Facer thinks they may have missed an opportunity to collect two points, if only the team had been more aggressive. The fact that the team's two stars, Clayton Keller and Mikhail Sergachev didn't have a single shot on goal seems perplexing.

That, and a homage to Utah's original hockey superstar, Doug Palazzari, as well as a chat about the future of women's hockey in the state, make up this episode of SLC Puck!

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It's All Hallows Eve and Austin Facer terrified about the Utah Hockey Club's upcoming road trip. With games against two of the NHL's best, the Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets, he thinks the club will be lucky to come out of the next stretch alive. But as we learned in the shocking loss to the San Jose Sharks, anything can happen.

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What happened? The Utah Hockey Club started the season so strong, scoring 16 goals in its first three games to lead the NHL in scoring. Since then, the Club has been outscored 22-8, including 12-3 over a 3-game losing streak?

There might be a lot happening to explain what's wrong, but Austin Facer thinks the reason why is simple enough. The team is not putting pucks on net. Right now, Utah is one of the worst shooting teams in hockey and missing the net far too often. Get that corrected and the team will have a much better shot of turning things around against San Jose and Calgary this week.

The Utah Hockey Club will welcome the Colorado Avalanche to the friendly confines of Delta Center for the first time on Thursday. While hockey rivalries are typically built in the playoffs, UHC hasn't been there...yet. For now, it seems like Colorado is the Club's natural rival. How does Utah stack up with a depleted blue line? Can a rookie making his NHL debut make a difference?

That, a talk on youth hockey and a fight breakdown fill up Episode 51 of SLC Puck!

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