The Boston Bruins look to erase a string of three consecutive losses and finish their first Western Conference road trip of the season strong, paying a Sunday night visit to Salt Lake City to clash with the Utah Mammoth.
Marco Sturm made the first major lineup shake-up of his young Bruins coaching tenure ahead of a 4-1 Saturday loss to the 5-0-1 Colorado Avalanche, opting to bring Johnny Beecher in for his season debut while Pavel Zacha joined Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak on the top line.
“Against a team like Colorado, we need the whole package. We spread it out a little bit more (on the lines),” Sturm said, noting Beecher’s strong penalty-killing and faceoff ability.
Come Sunday, though, it could be back to the drawing board for Sturm.
Beecher rewarded his new coach with a first-period goal just 3:11 in, but the Bruins were dominated to the tune of 38-14 in shots and went more than 17 minutes without a single shot at one point.
Not nearly enough Bruins were going. For one, Pastrnak finished without a shot and had a minus-2 rating.
“My grinders were the best players again. If your grinders are your best players rather than your best players, you’re going to be in trouble,” Sturm said in a television postgame interview.
Defenseman Hampus Lindholm did give the Bruins a veteran boost after being considered a game-time decision on Saturday morning. He returned from a three-game absence (lower-body injury) to play 20:44 against Colorado and hopes to finish the back-to-back in Utah.
“It’s nice to be out there playing. Tough game tonight, but lots of stuff to build on for myself, and I feel like as a team, (we want to) get back on the horse,” Lindholm said.
Jeremy Swayman tended the goal for the first two games of Boston’s trip, which began Thursday with a 6-5 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. Joonas Korpisalo is expected to make the Sunday start.
The Mammoth has turned around a 1-2-0 start with back-to-back wins for the first time this season, including a season-high scoring output in a 6-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Friday. Utah enters Sunday as one of just five teams (2-0-0) still unbeaten at home this season.
“Eighty-two games, it’s a race for improvement. We’re far from the finish line, we need to improve,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. ” … I’m proud of the focus of the guys, the way they commit to what we have to do.”
Nick Schmaltz and captain Clayton Keller paced Utah as the first pair of teammates to record four points in the same game this season.
While Keller recorded his fifth four-point game in the last two seasons, Schmaltz notched his second career hat trick and the second in Utah franchise history with the help of two goals in a span of 3:52 in the first period. Schmaltz’s first goal broke the team’s 0-for-13 drought on the power play, which was a league-worst 1-for-16 entering the game.
Schmaltz leads the Mammoth with seven points, including at least one in four of the first five games.
“I feel like I’ve had a lot of chances early on in the season here and (I’m) trying to shoot the puck more, take it to the net, be around the net more,” Schmaltz said. “A couple guys made some great plays to me and found me in open areas. It was fun to see a couple go in there.”
The teams split their two meetings last season. Utah won its home game 2-1 in overtime on Oct. 19, 2024.
