The Utah Hockey Club held its own against the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday before ultimately falling 4-3 in overtime.
Ian Cole scored his first goal in a Utah HC sweater, while an assist by Tomáš Hertl put him at 500 career points. Brett Howden scored the overtime winner for the Golden Knights.
“We got better during the three periods,” said Utah HC head coach André Tourigny after the game. “I liked the way we finished the game. Unfortunately we couldn’t close the deal, but I liked our progression.”
Utah Hockey for dummies
The NHL standings are not based on wins. An overtime loss is still a step in the right direction because it’s worth one point in the standings, though a win is worth two points.
Saturday’s was Utah HC’s sixth overtime competition in 12 games this season. For comparison, the two teams last year with the most overtime games were the Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings at 19 apiece. Utah HC is currently on pace for 41.
While no team aims for overtime at the opening faceoff, teams do benefit from games that go the distance. It also indicates that the game was close, which is a lot better for morale and reputation than getting blown out.
Utah HC would prefer to win in regulation, but they shouldn’t hang their heads for an overtime loss to one of the best teams in the league.
Utah Hockey for casual fans
More often than not, the team with the most shots wins. Furthermore, if one team has significantly fewer shots than the other, that team usually loses by several goals.
But not always.
A glance at the shot counter suggests Saturday’s game was lopsided in the Golden Knights’ favor 35-19, ut that really wasn’t the case — Utah HC simply picked its shot locations differently.
Here’s the thing: You can take as many shots as you want, but if they’re from low-percentage places, all you’re doing is inflating the other goalie’s confidence.
Utah HC didn’t take a single shot until more than halfway through the first period Saturday, and they happened to score on that shot. Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill hadn’t stopped a shot since warmups, which happened probably 45 minutes earlier, and that played to Utah HC’s advantage.
That theme remained consistent throughout the game, yet the two teams were at a stalemate at the end of regulation.
Hockey players are never satisfied with losses — even when they come in overtime — so veteran forward Alex Kerfoot regrets that his team couldn’t shoot more.
“There’s a little bit of puck luck there,” Kerfoot said. “We had some grade-As, capitalized a bit on our chances, but it’s not like we were taking it to them by any means.”
Utah Hockey for nerds
Connor Ingram was Utah HC’s best player on Saturday, and it’s not really even a debate.
Of the four goals Ingram allowed, he really only had a chance to save one. The rest had a lot more to do with his teammates. Ingram spent the first half of the game making big save after big save to hold his team in a game wherein they were being badly outshot.
One example came just minutes into the game. Ingram stopped Noah Hanifin’s blast from the point, then got into position to poke the rebound away from Nic Roy with his pad, taking a sure goal away from Roy.
Per Natural Stat Trick, Ingram managed a high-danger save percentage of 0.889 in regulation — slightly above average. He saved more shots than he was expected to and he only allowed one low-danger goal against.
All you can ask of a goalie is that he gives your team a chance to win, and Ingram did exactly that against the Golden Knights.
What’s next?
Utah HC goes from one of the league’s warmest cities, Las Vegas, to one of its coldest, Winnipeg.
They will take on the Winnipeg Jets, the best team in the NHL right now. The Jets have experienced just one loss to this point in the season. They score a ton of goals, to the point that their fifth-highest scorer has more points than Utah HC’s leading scorer.
Connor Hellebuyck, the Jets’ goalie, is the reigning Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s best goalie. This year, he’s in the top five in save percentage, goals-against average, wins and shutouts — pretty much all the major stats by which goaltenders are judged.
After their trip to Winnipeg on Tuesday, Utah HC will visit two more divisional rivals: the St. Louis Blues on Thursday and the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
All three games start at 6 p.m. MDT and will be available on Utah HC+ and Utah 16.