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Utah Shuts Out Minnesota

Karel Vejmelka made 26 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Utah Hockey Club blanked the Wild 4-0 on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center. Barrett Hayton scored twice and as Utah skated past the Wild despite the return of Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon from injury. Kaprizov missed 12 games and Spurgeon missed nine but even their return to the ice wasn’t enough to lift Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson suffered the loss on 25 saves. He’s lost four straight decisions giving up 23 goals in the process. The Wild are now 28-16-4 overall but just 11-11-1 on home ice. They’ve dropped three straight in St. Paul and also seven of the last 10. They’ll host Calgary on Saturday night to finish off Hockey Day Minnesota with a 6 P-M puck drop. Coverage on KNUJ begins at 5:45pm.