Opening night was historic and the comeback on Long Island was resilient, but Saturday’s 6-5 overtime win against the New York Rangers officially introduced Utah Hockey Club to the National Hockey League.
This team is here to play.
Utah’s 3-0 record is an early and small sample size.
But this was a character win that showed what this team is capable of.
The Hockey Club skated into the Rangers’ opening night at Madison Square Garden in front of 18,000 fans and displayed a heightened level of competitiveness, weaponizing speed, physical edge and goal-scoring flair that allowed it to pull out a win against the reigning President Trophy winners.
“This is a long season, only three games in,” said Clayton Keller, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime. “For sure this is a big win, that’s a great team. They’ve had a lot of success, they’re hard to play against. I thought we did a good job staying with it the full 60.”
Keller’s goal came at 4:05 of the extra 3-on-3, five-minute period. The captain picked the puck up behind the net, circled around and took the little space he had to snap it bardown past Rangers’ goaltender Igor Shesterkin. The play marked Keller’s second goal of the game and third of the season.
“I was shocked he was able to get it up from that angle,” forward Barrett Hayton said. “We were all just making sure it went in.”
Hayton opened the scoring for Utah in the first period before New York found the 1-1 equalizer at 8:38 of the opening frame when Artemi Panarin sniped it through Vladislav Kolyachonok’s legs and into the net.
Then came a second period that felt like a whole game itself. There were a cumulative seven goals scored and 50 penalty minutes taken — including two fights and two game misconducts — in the rowdy middle stanza.
“Entertainment. We’re in Manhattan. That’s the way we wanted it,” head coach André Tourigny quipped.
Jack McBain potted his first of the season with a knock-in tally from the left doorstep for the 2-1 lead at 1:48. Panarin’s second the night tied things 2-2 soon after. Keller and Kevin Stenlund both scored to put Utah up 4-2 by 8:38.
A bizarre sequence from K’Andre Miller made it 4-3 at 9:18. The Rangers defenseman dumped the puck into the zone, it bounced off the left corner boards and into the empty net. Connor Ingram was behind the net expecting the puck to come around.
New York Rangers’ Will Cuylle, center front, shoots as Utah Hockey Club’s Clayton Keller, left, Sean Durzi, center back, and Juuso Valimaki, right, pursue him during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
McBain and Michael Kesselring both dropped the gloves with New York’s Adam Edstrom and Sam Carrick, respectively. McBain and Edstrom were assessed game misconducts because they instigated a second fight once one was already going between Kesselring and Carrick.
“I liked how our guys stepped up and they pushed back for the team,” Tourigny said. “A ton of respect for that and I’m proud of that. No problem with that.”
Dylan Guenther’s fifth goal in three games gave Utah a 5-3 advantage at 13:59. The 21-year-old forward was stationed at the left circle and snapped it home on the power play. Hayton and Nick Schmaltz picked up their second points of the game with assists on the play.
The Rangers closed out the second with a wrist-shot goal from Braden Schneider to put the matchup at a 5-4 scoreline heading into the final 20 minutes of regulation. Will Cuylle scored for the Rangers in the third to tie it 5-5 and force overtime.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club forward Barrett Hayton (27) as Utah Hockey Club hosts the Los Angeles Kings, NHL pre-season hockey in Salt Lake City on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024.
“I think teams like [the Rangers] when they’re pushing, if you give them too much time, too much space and just kind of play tentative, they’re gonna kill you. Just stick with our game and weather it,” Hayton said of New York’s third-period push.
Keller’s overtime heroics to secure the 6-5 victory capped off a game that Utah can look back at throughout the year and say, “We can play against the best.” It is not to say this team is going to win the next 10 straight games; it could lose the next 10 for all we know.
There were lapses in coverage, spotty breakouts and plenty of room for improvement. But Utah figured it out. The believability that injects into a locker room is invaluable.
“It’s a good step in the right direction,” Keller said. “I think as a group we all just stayed patient, stayed in the moment and were able to fight through and get the win.”