The Edmonton Oilers remember their first time playing the Utah Hockey Club – a hard-fought overtime win a month ago – and also know they’re coming off their first set of back-to-back losses since mid-November.
Combine that with Utah’s loss late last night in Seattle and the heat’s on the Oilers to keep their brief skid from turning into a longer slide Tuesday night (7 p.m.) against the Salt Lake City-based team.
Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins told media Tuesday morning competing and defeating a skilled Utah side will require his team to “dial it up a little bit more,” certainly more than what they showed in their last game, a 5-3 road loss on Sunday to the Anaheim Ducks in which Edmonton decidedly let their collective foot off the gas after taking an early lead.
“Over the past couple of years, we’ve been good at responding in games where we need to,” said Nugent-Hopkins, whose Oilers also …