Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Utah Hockey Club lost 5-4 in a shootout to Minnesota, extending their home losing streak.
- Clayton Keller's two power-play goals helped Utah lead until the final seconds.
- Coach André Tourigny expressed mixed feelings, citing positives despite the loss.
SALT LAKE CITY — In most respects, the Utah Hockey Club has turned a corner.
Heading into Tuesday's game, the team had gone 4-1-1 over its last six games with a goal differential of plus-1. The curious thing? The two losses were the only two home games during that stretch.
"We go into every game with the same mentality to win the shift, to win the game," Utah Hockey Club defenseman Mikhail Sergachev said Tuesday morning. "So I never thought about that. They'll come; the results will come."
Utah got a result on Tuesday against one of the best teams in the game. But the Hockey Club will have to wait a little longer for another home win, though.
Utah fell 5-4 in a shootout to Minnesota at the Delta Center to lose its fifth straight home game.
But the Hockey Club got about as close as it can get to breaking the streak. Thanks to two power-play goals by Clayton Keller and another by Juuso Välimäki, Utah jumped in front 4-3 in the final minutes of the third period.
It was a lead that stood until there were only 43.3 seconds left in regulation.
Minnesota's Marcos Rossi shot around heavy traffic in front of the net and past Utah netminder Karel Vejmelka to tie the game. That sent the game into overtime — where each team had a close chances — and eventually into the franchise's first shootout.
The team, though, is still searching for its first shootout goal.
"It's fun," Keller said. "I mean, obviously, some people might not like it, but growing up, I loved watching the shootouts for whatever reason, just the skill and fun to watch."
It wasn't so much fun on Tuesday, though. Keller, Nick Schmaltz and Nick Bjugstad all missed their chances as Utah fell to the Wild.
And count head coach André Touringy as one of those who doesn't love the shootout to end a game.
"Do I like it or not? You know the answer," he said. "Have you ever met a coach who liked to finish on the skill session? I'v never met that coach. If you met one, introduce them to me."
The ending created some mixed feelings for Utah. On the one hand, Utah got a point against the division leaders; on the other, it was hard not to think it should have skated away with two.
"It's bittersweet," Tourigny said. "We get a big point against the No. 1 team in our division. Having said that, I would have preferred two, especially when you have a lead in the game. But there's a lot of positives,"
The main one: the third period.
Minnesota had pounced on two Utah mistakes in the second period to take the lead. First, Utah got caught in a change that led to a breakout goal from Marat Khunsutdinov. Not even a minute later, a poor turnover on the defensive blue line created another one-on-one chance for the Wild that Kirill Kaprizov finished off to give Minnesota a 2-1 advantage.
But Utah flipped the script in the third, and it was led by their captain. Keller tied the game up at 2-2 with a quick laser on a power play less than five minutes into the period.
Five minutes later, he did the same thing — from just about the same spot.
"I thought those two were really clutch at key moments," Tourigny said. "I like the way he competes. His game is really taking off — and the way he competes, the way he works from the inside, both sides of the puck. I think he's doing a good job."
With those two goals, Keller has already surpassed his goal total for all of November.
That lack of production is a big reason why Utah struggled to get results for much of that month as it fell out of playoff position. If Keller can return to his regular form — he now has three goals in the last five games — that would bode well for Utah as it tries to climb up the standings.
"There's gonna be games throughout the year where you're a little sloppy with your execution, and a couple mistakes here and there. But I'm proud of the way we fought," he said. "The power play stepped up, which we haven't recently, so that's a good step in the right direction. And I think we have a lot of confidence right now,, and we're heading in the right direction."
And maybe that will even include a home win.
