Marino wasn't the only defenseman to step up with Sergachev out. Michael Kesselring was elevated to the top power-play unit and didn't take long to find success. Kesselring scored Utah's opening goal on the man advantage in the first period.

Devan McConnell, the team’s director of high performance, is at the forefront of the effort. He uses sports science to maximize the performance of Utah’s skaters. It is an area of the game that has been further embraced by the NHL in recent years.

The Minnesota Wild (28-15-4) host the Utah Hockey Club (20-19-7) during Thursday’s NHL schedule, starting at 8:00 PM ET at Xcel Energy Center and broadcast on ESPN+. The Wild sit in fourth place and the Utah Hockey Club are 11th in the Western Conference.

Marco Rossi and Nick Schmaltz will be two of the top players to watch when the Minnesota Wild play the Utah Hockey Club at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday, January 23 at 8:00 PM ET. Buy tickets for this game at StubHub!

Facing Connor Hellebuyck — the league's most dominant goaltender this season — Utah poked holes in what had been a brick wall all year, cracking Winnipeg's net wide open.

The Winnipeg Jets, the top team in the NHL at the time, took down the Utah Hockey Club 3-0 on Nov. 5 at Canada Life Centre. Reigning Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck recorded his 39th career shutout with 21 saves against Utah, and Nino Niederreiter scored two goals for Winnipeg in his 900th NHL game.

Saturday night brought a huge win to the Delta Center for the Utah Hockey Club as they took down their division rivals, the St. Louis Blues, by a score of 4-2.

Sergachev has played the second-most minutes per game of any skater in the league this year. If Kesselring can reliably take a portion of his workload, it would be a win-win-win for Sergachev, Kesselring and the team. Keller said he gave Kesselring some advice before the game.

The Utah Hockey Club recently lost one of its top forwards, Dylan Guenther, to a lower-body injury suffered against the Florida Panthers. The injury occurred when Guenther collided with Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov,

The Rangers engineered their first third period comeback in 19 tries, extending their point streak to six games with a 5-3 win over Utah.

Artemi Panarin scored two goals, Chris Kreider had the go-ahead goal off a defensive deflection with 9:38 to play, and the New York Rangers rallied for a 5-3 victory over the Utah Hockey Club.