Utah HC pulls off late comeback to top hard-hitting Boston Bruins

In front of a sea of yellow jerseys, the Utah Hockey Club came out ahead of the Boston Bruins 2-1 in overtime at the Delta Center on Saturday night.

Utah HC didn’t score a goal until the last five minutes of regulation, when young defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok scored a beauty to tie the game before Michael Kesselring won it for Utah in overtime.

Utah HC was perfect on the penalty kill, but more importantly, they stayed out of the penalty box for the most part, something they’d struggled to do in recent games.

The box score might make it sound like a relatively mellow game, but there was a lot to unpack. Here’s what really happened.

Utah Hockey for dummies

A large portion of success in hockey can be attributed to puck luck. It’s a game of inches. Sometimes those inches favor you and other times they oppose you.

The inches opposed Utah HC for the most part on Saturday. For example, Kesselring hit the inside of the post on a short-handed chance. Those usually go in — and we all thought it had — but this time it went straight across the goal line and out the other side.

A while later, Kailer Yamamoto, playing in his first game of the season, scored a goal only to have it called back because he had entered the zone a couple inches offside.

Another close one trickled across the goal line of the Bruins’ net after a great shot from Dylan Guenther, but it ultimately stayed out.

None of that mattered in the end, though, after Kolyachonok took matters into his own hands late in the game. He scooped up the puck in the Bruins’ zone, cut to the front of the net and put a backhand shot above the outstretched glove of Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman to tie the game.

The contest went to overtime, where Kesselring won the game for Utah HC with a wrist shot, similar to the one with which he’d hit the post earlier in the game.

“I was a little frustrated after (hitting the post), but you don’t beat that goalie clean very often so it was good to get a little screen there at the end and it went in,” Kesselring said after the game.

Utah Hockey for casual fans

As he often does, Logan Cooley impressed a lot of people on Saturday. His play culminated in the primary assist on Kesselring’s game-winning overtime goal, but he did so much more all game long.

In one particular exchange, he found the puck deep in the defensive zone with elite defensive forward Elias Lindholm on his case. The 20-year-old Cooley made three or four spins to avoid Lindholm, eventually creating enough open space to get away and make a play.

If there’s one thing that Cooley does well, it’s create space.

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On another occasion Saturday, he showed off his speed by beating a Bruins defender in a foot race, resulting in a partial breakaway. He didn’t have enough space to really make a move, but he did get a great scoring chance out of it.

But offense is not Cooley’s only strong suit. Utah HC head coach André Tourigny praised the defensive side of his game in his postgame interview.

“When he wants to, defensively, he’s elite,” Tourigny said. “He had a tough start — his first shift was (so-so), but then he played solid. ... The second-last shift of the game, they had (Brad Marchand) and (David) Pastrnak together and it was Cooley who was there.”

Utah Hockey for nerds

We’ve exhausted the injury narrative among Utah HC defensemen the last couple games. Let’s talk about a possible solution today.

Two players seemed to step up in particular, filling the gaps left by injuries: Veteran Ian Cole and young gun Kolyachonok both stepped up their games, holding the Bruins to just one goal.

I just want to add that Kolyachonok ruined this section of the article, which I had already written, by scoring a sweet goal late in the third period. Now everyone is going to write the same story as I am. Regardless of the goal, he played great all game.

Kolyachonok and Cole each had a number of timely blocks to break up likely scoring chances. Kolyachonok fearlessly got in front of a Cole Koepke one-timer in the second period, keeping the Bruins off the scoreboard for the time being (Koepke would score later in the period, but not on Kolyachonok’s watch).

Cole’s best defensive play involved him dropping a knee to break up an east-to-west pass in the Utah HC zone. Both guys had a number of other good defensive looks in addition to some good offensive chances.

A minute into the game, Cole blasted a shot off the crossbar. Not a lot of shots got past Swayman on Saturday, but that one was close.

On a number of occasions, Kolyachonok walked the puck down to the faceoff circles before shooting. It’s not necessarily a difficult play, but earlier in the season he probably would have just fired weak wristers from the blue line. He seems to be developing a confidence that he didn’t have before.

“Koly has all the attributes,” Tourigny said. “He just needs to keep growing, (gaining) experience, tuning consistency in his decisions. He shows greatness every game. He just needs to do it a little bit longer, just a little bit more consistently.”

It seems that Kolyachonok’s effort in practice is paying off. He’s almost always the first one on the ice and the last one off.

Though he wouldn’t confirm it, his teammates were calling him “Coco Puffs” after the game. I hope that nickname sticks.

All that being said, Tourigny is not a coach who makes decisions based on one game. He made that clear before the game when asked about Kesselring’s game in Anaheim on Wednesday.

“What’s one game?” Tourigny said. “If, in March, I talk to you about the game in Anaheim in October, you will wonder, ‘What the hell is he talking about?’ That doesn’t mean much.”

What’s next?

The guys get to sleep in their own beds most of the coming week. They host the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, followed by the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday. After that, they fly back to California for another one-off game, this time against the Los Angeles Kings.

The Senators have been due for a bounce-back season for some time now. Goaltending has been their downfall for the last few years, but with their recent acquisition and subsequent extension of Linus Ullmark, they might be set. They own a 3-2-0 record so far this season,

They beat the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday thanks in large part to a three-point effort from Drake Batherson. Other stars in their lineup include Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson.

Utah’s proximity to Colorado could make for an instant rival. The Avalanche have had a slow start to the season, so they’ll be desperate for a win.

Their goalies would have trouble saving a beachball at this point, much less a three-inch puck traveling 90 miles an hour. They did, however, claim Kakko Kähkönen on waivers from the Winnipeg Jets this week, so they’re hoping he can plug some holes.

Both games will be streamed on both Utah HC+ and Utah 16. Tuesday’s game is at 7:15 p.m. MDT and Thursday’s game is at 7.