Connect with us

Utah

Sidney Crosby hands Utah Hockey Club another loss with overtime goal

Published

on

Sidney Crosby hands Utah Hockey Club another loss with overtime goal


Sidney Crosby introduced himself to the Salt Lake City crowd for the first time.

The Pittsburgh Penguin — and future hall-of-famer — drove the puck down the left wing and right to the net before back-handing it in for the overtime winner Wednesday night at Delta Center.

Utah Hockey Club’s 3-2 loss showcased both one of the best players in the league and some of its own worst flaws. Namely, the inability to close out third periods.

Utah has now lost three consecutive games — and gave them all up in the final frame. The Club went into Wednesday’s third period leading 2-1 and lost in overtime after allowing two goals against. On Sunday in Ottawa, the game was tied 1-1 in the third until the Senators scored twice and Utah fell 3-1. In the 5-2 loss to Winnipeg on Friday, the Club tied things 2-2 early in the third before giving up three goals.

Advertisement

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (98) looks to pass down the ice during the second period of the game between the Utah Hockey Club and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.

Why has this become a pattern?

“If I had the answer it probably wouldn’t be happening,” Michael Carcone said. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

What will it take for Utah to finally learn from its mistakes?

“I don’t know. Time. A tough loss, tougher than the ones that we had before,” Mikhail Sergachev said. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know what it’s going to take.”

Advertisement

It seems the team, now six points out of a playoff spot, needs to find a new way to turn. Players like Sergachev — who is in the alternate captain rotation — have placed the responsibility on themselves.

“I’m one of the players on this team and I’m in this. It takes everyone,” Sergachev said. “I think the leadership group and the coaches are doing everything we can to try to turn it around. We can’t be too negative about it, but we can’t be just ‘whatever, next one.’ It can’t be like that.”

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club left wing Michael Carcone (53) and Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) crash into the glass during the second period of the game between the Utah Hockey Club and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.

Wednesday was Sergachev’s first time back in the lineup in five games after he was sidelined with an upper-body injury.

The defenseman reclaimed his spot on the first power-play unit and quickly made an impact. Nick Schmaltz dished a back-handed pass to Sergachev in the high slot where he lasered it past Penguins’ goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic for the 1-0 lead at 14:51.

Advertisement

Sergachev finished the night with a team-leading 25:57 of total ice time, one goal, three shots and four blocks.

“He has a lot of character,” head coach André Tourigny said. “He takes ownership and he doesn’t shy away from responsibility. He’s a winner. He’s won before so he knows what it takes and he believes in that group. He wants to win.”

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club center Logan Cooley (92) and Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk (24) crash into the glass during the second period of the game between the Utah Hockey Club and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.

Sergachev had a new partner in John Marino on the first pair. Previously, Sergachev had been playing with Olli Määttä when Marino was still sidelined with injury, but the imagined duo finally came to fruition on Wednesday.

“He’s very easy to play with,” Sergachev said of Marino. “He’s very poised with the puck, very good on breakouts. And without the puck, he knows where to put his body and how to play the right way.”

Advertisement

The Penguins found the 1-1 equalizer in the second period. Utah could not gain control of the puck in its defensive zone before it popped out to Marcus Pettersson at the point to blast in at 6:40.

Pittsburgh continued to push and ended the middle frame with 15 shots on goal to Utah’s seven. But, Carcone’s breakaway goal gave his team some breathing room ahead of the third.

Carcone utilized his speed and dashed up center ice as he intercepted a stretch pass from Marino. The forward went off on the breakaway and knocked in the rebound of his initial shot for the 2-1 advantage at 8:36. The play marked Carcone’s fourth goal of the season and first since Dec. 14 as he’s been in and out of the lineup.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) scores as Utah Hockey Club goaltender Connor Ingram (39) tries to defend during overtime in the game between the Utah Hockey Club and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.

Erik Karlsson made it 2-2 at 6:17 of the third after Schmaltz turned the puck over in transition while trying to get it up ice. Instead, it flipped to the right side of Utah’s O-zone and onto Karlsson’s stick. The defenseman released a snap shot that beat Connor Ingram and ultimately forced overtime.

Advertisement

“I think we just have to finish it off. They get one in the third and win it in overtime. If we can keep the lead in the third then that would’ve been great obviously. Seems to be happening quite a bit.”

Crosby’s overtime winner closed what was an overall lackluster showing from Utah through 60-plus minutes. The three games at Delta Center will have to be a gut check for the Club.

“It’s a tough one, obviously,” Sergachev said. “But I feel like it’s happened before. Multiple times. And we haven’t learned from it.”



Source link

Advertisement

Utah

22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide

Published

on

22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide


LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Officials have identified a 22-year-old man as the suspect in a Las Vegas homicide case that killed two people in a Southern Highlands neighborhood.

Detectives say 22-year-old Ziaire Ham was the suspect in the case. According to officials, Ham was located on Tuesday, March 3, by the Ogden City Police Department and the Utah Highway Patrol.

Ham was taken into custody and booked into the Weber County Jail. Las Vegas authorities said he will be charged with open murder with the use of a deadly weapon and will be extradited back to the valley.

MORE ON FOX5: LVMPD corrections officer arrested on multiple felony charges

Advertisement

The shooting occurred Monday night at the 11000 block of Victoria Medici Street, near Starr Ave and Dean Martin Drive.

According to police, officers were conducting a vehicle stop in the area when they heard gunfire. After searching nearby neighborhoods they found a car with bullet impacts with a woman and a toddler inside suffering from gunshot wounds.

The pair were transported to hospital where they later died. The Clark County Coroner’s Office identified them as Danaijha Robinson, 20, and 1-year-old Nhalani Hiner.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Utah

Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children

Published

on

Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children


A simple moment watching a child laugh changed everything for Ivan Gonzalez.

Eight years ago, Gonzalez was working at the Ronald McDonald House when he had an idea to throw a birthday carnival for the kids staying there.

“Let’s do a carnival, birthday carnival for the kids,” he said.

MORE | Pay It Forward

What happened during that event stuck with him.

Advertisement

“There I was watching this kid play whack-a-mole, just having a blast, laughing,” Gonzalez said. “And then I see his mom kind of with happy tears because he’s enjoying himself.”

That moment led to something bigger.

Gonzalez realized the experience shouldn’t stop with just one event or just one group of kids.

“I said, wait, we can do this not just for kids in the hospital,” he said with excitement.

So he started a nonprofit called Best Seat in the House, which creates events and experiences for children who often face difficult circumstances.

Advertisement

“We provide events and experiences for disadvantaged kids,” Gonzalez said.

The organization serves children battling cancer and other medical conditions, refugee children, kids living in poverty, those in foster care and children with special needs.

“These kids grow up too fast,” Gonzalez said.

For Gonzalez, the mission is deeply personal.

“I grew up very poor,” he said.

Advertisement

He remembers the people who stepped in for his family when they needed it most.

“The local church, we weren’t even a part of it,” he described. “My parents couldn’t afford Christmas gifts and I still remember the gifts they gave me. They didn’t even know me.”

Today, he hopes to create that same feeling for other children through his nonprofit.

“Kids live in poverty and they don’t know where the next meal is coming from, let alone going to a play or to a game,” Gonzalez said.

But for Gonzalez, the reward isn’t the events themselves, it’s the joy they create.

Advertisement

“You can give me a billion dollars, all the money in the world,” he says as tears roll down his face. “I won’t trade these opportunitieskids just enjoying life.”

Because of his work giving back, KUTV and Mountain America Credit Union surprised Gonzalez with a Pay it Forward gift to help him continue creating those moments for kids across Utah.

For more information on supporting Best Seat in the House, click here.

_____



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Utah

‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing

Published

on

‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing


SALT LAKE CITY — Francisco Daniel Aguilar says he’s sorry for shooting and killing his girlfriend, 16-year-old Jacqueline “Jacky” Nunez-Millan, a Piute High School sophomore, in 2023.

But just as he did when he was sentenced, he didn’t have much of an explanation on Tuesday as to why he shot her not once, but twice.

“It just kinda happened. I was mad. And I stepped out (of my truck) and started shooting,” he said. “When I saw her fall, I just kind of panicked, I just went and shot her again.”

But Jacky’s friends and family members say even before she was killed, Aguilar already had a history of violence, and they now want justice to be served.

Advertisement

“You don’t accidentally take a gun, you don’t accidentally grab a knife … you don’t accidentally shoot someone, those are all choices,” a tearful Rosa Nunez, Jacky’s sister, said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Keep him where he needs to be.

“Don’t release him ever. Please.”

On Jan. 7, 2023, Aguilar, who was 17 at the time, got into a fight with his girlfriend, Jacky, shot her twice and left her body near a dirt road outside of Circleville, Piute County. He was convicted as an adult of aggravated murder and sentenced to a term of 25 years to up to life in prison.

Because of Aguilar’s age at the time of the offense, board member Greg Johnson explained Tuesday that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is required to hold a hearing much earlier than the 25-year mark, mainly to check on Aguilar and “see how things are going.” Aguilar, now 20, is currently being held in a juvenile secure care facility and will be transferred to the Utah State Prison when he turns 25 or earlier if he has discipline violations and is kicked out of the youth facility.

According to Aguilar’s sentencing guidelines, he will likely remain in custody until at least the year 2051.

Advertisement

During Tuesday’s hearing, Aguilar told the board that he was feeling “stressed out” during his senior year of high school. He said he and Jacky would often have little arguments. But their bigger fight happened when he failed to get her a “promise ring” around Christmastime, he said.

On the night of the killing, the two were arguing about the promise ring and other items, Aguilar recalled. At one point, he grabbed a knife and then a gun because, he said, he wanted to “irritate” and “scare” Jacky. According to evidence presented in the preliminary hearing, Aguilar and his girlfriend had been “trying to make each other angry” when Aguilar took ammunition and a 9mm gun from his father’s room and then drove to the Black Hill area in his truck with Jacky.

Jacky’s friend, McKall Taylor, went looking for her that night and found her. But after Aguilar shot Jacky in the leg, he began shooting at Taylor, who had no choice but to run to her car to get away. Her car was hit multiple times by bullets. Aguilar then shot Jacky a second time as she lay on the ground and Taylor drove away.

On Tuesday, Taylor’s mother, Lori Taylor, read a statement to the board on her daughter’s behalf.

“My innocence and freedom was taken from me,” she said.

Advertisement

McKall Taylor says the “horrifying events of that night will forever play in my head,” and the sounds of Jacky screaming and the gunshots as well as the sight of Jacky falling to the ground, will never go away.

“Francisco is a murderer who has zero remorse,” her letter states.

Likewise, Rosa Nunez told the board that for her and her family, “nothing in our world has felt safe since” that night as they all “continue to relive this horrific moment.”

After shooting Jacky and driving off, Aguilar says he called his father and “told him I was sorry for not being better, for not making good choices, I told him that I loved him. I was just planning on probably shooting myself, too.”

His father told him that although what he did wasn’t right, “he’d rather see me behind bars than in a casket,” and then told his son to “be a man about it. … This is where you have to change.”

Advertisement

Aguilar was arrested after his tires were spiked by police.

“An apology won’t fix what I did. I’ll never be able to fix what I did. But I want to say I’m sorry,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t even know how to fix what I did. I’m hoping I’m on the right track now.”

Johnson noted that Aguilar has done well during his short time being incarcerated. But that doesn’t change the fact “the crime was horrific,” he said.

The full five-member board will now take a vote. The board could decide to schedule another parole hearing for sometime in the future or could order that Aguilar serve his entire life sentence. But even if that were to happen, Johnson says Aguilar could petition every so often for a redetermination hearing.

The board’s decision is expected in several weeks.

Advertisement

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending