Nobody can accuse the Utah Hockey Club and the Tampa Bay Lightning of playing boring hockey on Saturday afternoon — and it came at a great time.

Utah HC held its “Next Gen. Game,” which was geared toward children. Youngsters held a variety of capacities around the arena, helping out with in-game entertainment, broadcasting, photography and more.

Some kids even got to stand with the players and officials during the singing of The Star-Spangled Banner.

It just so happened that the most goals ever scored in a game at the Delta Center came during Next Gen. Night.

“Kids like goals,” said Alexander Kerfoot, who was responsible for two of UHC’s tallies. “It wasn’t our plan to go out and score six or give up four, but it’s fun. I think that this was a great atmosphere for kids to come and watch the game. This is a new market. We’re trying to grow hockey here.”

The final score was 6-4 in Utah’s favor, with an additional two Utah goals that came back due to coach’s challenges. Those goals, combined with a spirited fight and rally towels, made the game one to remember.

Logan Cooley, who also scored two goals, was likewise appreciative of the environment in the arena.

“It wasn’t easy when the building’s packed and we weren’t winning in front of our fans,” he said, “but credit to them. They’ve stuck with us when things weren’t going our way, and now when you win in front of them, it’s such an amazing feeling. I like when they have those towels, too.”

Utah Hockey for dummies

Jack McBain made a statement in the second period with his fight against Zemgus Girgensons.

There’s an unwritten (but almost always followed) rule in hockey stating that if you throw a dirty hit, you have to answer for it in the form of a fight.

So, when Girgensons stepped out of the penalty box after serving his time for a bad hit on Michael Kesselring, his gloves came off.

The custom exists for the purpose of vengeance without going to the extreme of an eye-for-eye situation. Nobody wants to see injuries, but that’s what tends to happen when players refuse to answer for bad hits.

It’s also worth pointing out that Girgensons’ hit on Kesselring was, indeed, dirty (contrary to what Lightning fans proclaimed on social media).

It was late and Kesselring was in a dangerous position, meaning it could have warranted a penalty for either interference or boarding. Girgensons knew it, as did McBain, and that’s why they fought.

Utah Hockey for casual fans

Every “casual fan” is familiar with Cooley at this point, but they might not all be aware of just how good he’s actually been.

According to the NHL public relations department, Cooley became just the fifth active American player to record multiple 20-goal seasons at age 20 or younger.

As I explained in an article earlier this week, Cooley’s entry-level contract has bonuses built into it for certain milestones. Hitting the 20-goal mark guaranteed him an extra $250,000.

Cooley is far from the only player to get that bonus money this season, but he’s one of only four players who aren’t in the last years of their respective deals to do it. You may have heard of the others: Macklin Celebrini, Adam Fantilli and Matvei Michkov.

That’s elite company.

“It’s always, probably, in the back of your head, but it’s something that, you know, you’re scoring to help the team win,” Cooley said of the achievement. “Individual success is nice, but again, it’s just two big goals that get us the win.”

At any rate, that’s a lot of success for someone who’s just 20.

Utah Hockey for nerds

When a team has a goal overturned due to a coach’s challenge, it can really shift the momentum. When it happens twice in the same game, it can be enough to cause the frustration to boil over.

But that wasn’t the case for Utah on Saturday.

“That’s just where our team grew, and that’s where our team (is) capable of weathering the storm here and there,” said head coach André Tourigny said of his group’s attitude with the two overturned goals.

In fact, it hasn’t really been the case for Utah all season.

Utah has had goals overturned in 11 games this season. Their record in those games is an astounding 8-1-2. That’s the kind of mindset that it takes to win in the NHL: If you get too low, you lose your confidence. If you get too high, lose the attention to detail that it takes to win.

That mindset was apparent on Saturday outside of the overturned goals, too. On two occasions Utah HC lost their lead, but both times, they went right back out and scored on the very next shift.

If they continue holding their heads high — but not too high — they’ll be in a position to have success for years to come.

What’s next?

Utah is back in action on Monday as the Detroit Red Wings come to town.

The two teams played in Detroit earlier in the month. Though the game didn’t start the way Utah HC drew it up, they found a way to get back in it and they ultimately walked away with the win.

Another Utah win will be critical in keeping its playoff hopes alive. The Calgary Flames and the St. Louis Blues both won on Saturday, meaning Utah HC remains four points out of the final wild card spot in the NHL’s Western Conference and behind the Blues, Flames and Vancouver Canucks.

Monday’s game starts at 7 p.m. MST and will be featured on both Utah 16 and Utah HC+.

The Buffalo Sabres added a lowlight to their rough season during their 5-2 loss to the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday in the Delta Center. 

The Sabres, who are last in the Eastern Conference, were down 3-2 with just over one minute remaining in game time. 

Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff pulled goaltender James Reimer from the net in exchange for an extra skater, giving the Sabres a six-on-five advantage to try and tie the game. 

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However, Sabres forward Tage Thompson tried to send a pass back to defenseman Rasmsus Dahlin. The pass went awry as Thompson missed Dahlin and the puck banked off the boards and went into the back of the Sabres’ own net, with no goalie to stop it. 

The own goal put the Sabres down 4-2. The Sabres then gave up another empty-net goal to Utah forward Mikhail Sergachev to put the final score at 5-2. 

The Sabres were down 2-1 entering the third period, but Ryan McLeod took advantage of a Utah turnover and buried a short-handed goal with a nifty backhand to tie it up at 2-2 at the beginning of the third period.

EX-NHL DEFENSEMAN TOMAS KLOUCEK DEAD AT 45 AFTER SKIING ACCIDENT

Buffalo Sabres center Ryan McLeod (71) celebrates a goal with right wing Alex Tuch (89) during the third period at Delta Center on March 20, 2025. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)

However, Utah forward Dylan Guenther scored his team-leading 25th goal of the year when he buried a rebound with 5:47 left to play to break the tie and give Utah a lead they would not relinquish. 

While the Sabres are playing more for draft position at this point than for playoff position, the Utah Hockey Club is on the fringe of the Wild Card race in the Western Conference with 73 points.

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The Utah Hockey Club celebrates an open-net goal against the Buffalo Sabres during the third period at Delta Center on March 20, 2025.  (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)

They are four points behind the St. Louis Blues (77 points) for the second spot, but are also vying for that final spot with the Vancouver Canucks (76 points) and Calgary Flames (75 points).

Utah will look to build on their win over the Sabres when they play the Detroit Red Wings on Monday at 9 p.m. ET. The Sabres will look to bounce back from the loss when they play the Minnesota Wild at 2:00 p.m. ET on Saturday. 

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There is a lot of familiarity and mutual respect between the Boston Celtics and the Utah Jazz. With the Jazz poaching executives and some coaches from Boston, Utah hopes to replicate the success of the Celtics sooner rather than later. But tonight, Utah got a lesson in what the finished product looks like. It’s no secret that the Jazz have been using this year to focus on development, but the Celtics made the Jazz look like a G-League team that is further away from contention than they would like to think. Of course, one game is not an indictment of an entire rebuild, but Utah looked like a JV team almost the whole game

It was a pretty pedestrian game for Celtics star Jason Tatum, by his standards, but he still had 26 pts, 6 r and 6 assts and made one back-breaking shot after another. His co-star Kristaps Porzingis led the Celtics with 27 pts, 10 r, and 6 Assts. Boston has played together for long enough that they make their dominance look easy sometimes, but one way they frustrate teams is their defensive hustle and scrapping for every loose ball. It seemed that almost every 50/50 ball went the Celtics way tonight, that is usually not an accident but rather good coaching and team chemistry.

For as inferior as the Jazz looked tonight, they did show some grit at times during the game. Even after falling behind early on, they were able to and hang with the Celtics for much of the first half. Utah trailed by only 9 entering the break. The Jazz were able to pull within two about halfway through the third quarter before a combination of mistakes and poor shooting allowed the Celtics to pull away for good. Utah was without star Lauri Markkanen tonight and didn’t have a lot of depth, but the play of Collin Sexton and Keyonte George was a lone bright spot, with George shooting 5-9 from three and dishing out 7 assists from off the bench.

We know the mission for the Jazz this year is not to win games, but we have seen other games where the development looks a little bit further along. That being said, there is not a lot to take from a game where 60% of your starters are out and you are purposely trying to jockey for the worst record in the league. One would hope that at this time next year that Utah’s rebuild is over and we are jockeying for a good playoff spot instead, GO JAZZ!!