Dylan Guenther nets a pair as Utah defeats Wild

Dylan Guenther scored two goals to give the Utah Hockey Club a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Friday night in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Günther’s two goals were all Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka needed to secure the win. Vejmelka stopped 28 of 29 shots for Utah, which tied a season-high with its fourth straight win.

Mats Zuccarello scored the only goal for Minnesota, which lost for the third straight season. The Wild have lost five of their last seven games, marking their worst slump of the season.

Vejmelka improved to 8-7-2 with his fourth straight win.

Wild goalkeeper Marc-Andre Fleury conceded two goals on 18 shots to concede defeat.

Minnesota scored first after a back-and-forth game between Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov with 9:40 left in the first period. Zuccarello made a pass to Kaprizov, who fired a pass back to Zuccarello for a one-timer from the right circle.

Sixty seconds later, Utah tied the score at 1-1. Fleury blocked a shot from Jack McBain, but the rebound landed just outside the goal area directly to Günther, who quickly put the puck into the net.

Guenther gave Utah the go-ahead power play with 9:59 left in the third period. After Utah won a faceoff, Guenther got the puck at the top of the left circle and fired a shot through traffic for his second goal of the game and his 16th goal of the season.

Utah finished the game 1-3 with the man advantage. Minnesota went 0-for-5 on the power play.

Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson was unavailable due to an unspecified lower-body injury that sidelined him the last three games. Jesper Wallstedt took over the role of Fleury’s replacement on the Minnesota bench.

The teams will meet twice more during the regular season. The Wild are scheduled to host Utah on January 23rd and visit Salt Lake City on February 27th.

–Field level media