Simashev Rings Two Posts as Utah Chases a Lost Night
The young Utah defenseman twice hit the post in the second period while Edmonton kept pulling away in a 6-2 final.
Written during the game · 12:44 AM ET. Final was EDM 6, UTA 2.
The box score will not tell you that Dmitri Simashev came within inches of changing this game. Twice in the second period he hit the post: once at 6:10 and again at 12:22. Neither shot counted, but both were chances that were a bounce away from going in.
The timing makes them sting. Utah was already down 3-0 when the first one rang off the iron. At 10:57 of the second, Kasperi Kapanen made it 4-0 for Edmonton, and Leon Draisaitl added the fifth at 13:48, barely a minute after Simashev's second post. A goal in that stretch gives Utah a pulse. Instead, the puck stayed out and the gap grew.
The iron count across the game was three hits: both of Simashev's posts, plus a crossbar from Connor McDavid in the first period. Utah's two posts both came off Simashev's stick.
Utah did cut it to 5-2 in the third, with goals from John Marino and Mikhail Sergachev, and fired 28 shots on goal to Edmonton's 21. But McDavid answered with his second goal of the night, and the Oilers won 6-2.
