Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Utah Hockey Club's playoff hopes were at stake against Vancouver Canucks.
- A crucial four-minute penalty kill helped secure a 3-1 victory.
- Coach Tourigny praised veterans for guiding team through high-pressure moments.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — It could have been the beginning of a disaster.
Utah Hockey Club forward Clayton Keller was hit from behind by Vancouver's Brock Boeser midway through the third period. As Keller fell to the ice, his stick flew up high and struck Boeser — and drew blood.
That triggered a near automatic four-minute double minor penalty for high sticking. Unfair? Maybe, but that's the rule. Just like that, Utah's 2-1 lead didn't feel very safe — and neither did its postseason chances.
"Playoff hopes were on the line to an extent in a game like this," forward Alexander Kerfoot said.
That wasn't hyperbole — far from it. A loss would have put Utah into a deep 6-point hole for the final playoff spot. For much of the last few weeks, The Hockey Club claimed that every game had felt like a playoff contest. This one, though, felt like a Game 7; it was essentially win or better luck next year.
With that as a backdrop, Kerfoot and Co. took the ice for the most important penalty kill of the season. Four minutes later, Utah still had its lead.
"(Kerfoot) had a clinic on the PK tonight," Utah head coach André Tourigny said.
Utah denied entry passes and won faceoffs, making it difficult for the Canucks to set up their actions. Kerfoot was a magician at keeping the puck high in the zone and bleeding the clock any chance he had.
It all led to a choppy power play that yielded a few chances from up high, but nothing that Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka struggled to stop.
"The few looks that they did have were from the outside," Kerfoot said. "So we did a really good job. Veggie was great, but I mean a four-minute kill at that point in the game is game breaking."
And game-deciding.
Once Keller was freed from the penalty box, a little over five minutes remained and Utah had all the momentum. The monstrous kill essentially won The Club the game in its 3-1 victory over Vancouver and demonstrated how far the team has come this season.
There was a quiet confidence as the PK unit took the ice. All game long, the message from Utah's coaches had been the same: You earned the right to play in such a game; now, go take advantage of it.
"When we took that, we never felt, 'Oh my god', the panic or whatever," Tourigny said. "They said 'OK, it's a key moment, let's do it, let's get at it.' It was more a challenge than a fear."
It turned out it was a challenge Utah was ready for on Sunday.
It was the latest sign of a team quickly maturing from a young upstart to a full blown playoff threat; of a team that has learned how to handle adversity and not let a bad moment sink a game, or a poor contest end a season.
"There are going to be times when things aren't going great and we're likely not going to win 15 straight games to closeout the year," Kerfoot said. "Everything doesn't have to be perfect all the time, but we have to be resilient enough and believe in ourselves enough that we can't let bad shifts turn into bad games, bad games turn into a couple of bad games."
Utah showed that on Sunday. It moved on from a bad loss in Seattle to outplay Vancouver for much of the 60 minutes; and when adversity struck late, it had an answer.
Tourigny credited the playoff veterans — Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino, Ian Cole, Kevin Stendlud — for helping the team rise up to the moment. He said that group has dragged youngsters like Logan Cooley, who scored the game-winning goal on Sunday, so they were prepared for such a high-pressure game.
"We worked hard for 60-some games to earn the right to be in the game where it can make the difference in the standings," Tourigny said. "So let's go out there and enjoy it and embrace it."
They did just that.
And now bigger games are on the horizon.
