‘This is what you dream of’: Utah Hockey Club wins dramatically in front of packed Delta Center

Fans at the Utah Hockey Club’s game against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday got a little extra bang for their buck — almost 64 minutes and 48 seconds, rather than the typical hour.

That is, of course, because it took until the final seconds of overtime for a winner to be decided.

Utah HC defenseman Mikhail Sergachev was the hero. He accepted a pass from Logan Cooley on a 2-on-1 and made no mistake burying it to give Utah the 3-2 win.

That came after Utah pulled off a comeback from a two-goal deficit. Captain Clayton Keller busted Thatcher Demko’s shutout with a rebound goal midway through the third period, and five and a half minutes later, Dylan Guenther scored on the power play.

“A lot of players stepped up and made big plays at key times,” Keller said after the game.

Utah Hockey for dummies

Team owner Ryan Smith gave away 2,000 limited-view tickets for free and opened the entire upper bowl — something the team has rarely done this year. As such, a lot of fans who wouldn’t otherwise go to games attended on Wednesday.

It was good timing, too. It’s well-documented that it had been more than a month since Utah HC’s last home win. They were playing well enough on the road to offset it, but the home fans were ready for a victory.

“It was an amazing crowd tonight,” Keller said. “It gives all of us chills. This is what you dream of, playing in front of however many thousands of people, playing the game with your best friends. There’s no better feeling.”

Head coach André Tourigny agreed.

“That means a lot for the players, it means a lot for the coaches, it means a lot for everybody,” he said. “The atmosphere and the reaction of the fans tonight from the first period ... to overtime, don’t tell me you didn’t have goosebumps.”

Utah Hockey for casual fans

The state of Utah got a formal introduction to one of the best goalies in the world: Thatcher Demko.

Demko was the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy last season, awarded to the league’s best goalie. Wednesday was just his fourth game of the season after he sustained a knee injury in the first game of last year’s playoffs, but it doesn’t look like he’s skipped a beat.

He was perfect through the first two periods on Wednesday, and the only shots that beat him were a rebound, a weird deflection and a 2-on-1.

Utah had chance after chance after chance through the first two periods, peppering Demko with 13 high-danger scoring chances, several breakaways and 31 shots, and they finally found ways to crack him.

“He’s an unbelievable goalie,” Keller said. “He’s big in the net, he makes great saves side-to-side. I think after the first and second (periods), we just wanted to try to get more traffic in front of him — get an ugly one, I guess.”

Utah HC stuck to their game plan and got a couple “ugly” ones, which ultimately brought them the win.

Utah Hockey for nerds

Barrett Hayton, who plays on Utah’s top line, recorded his first point in five games on Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been effective.

“You gotta play well on the defensive side of the puck to get those opportunities, so I think we’ve done a pretty good job at that,” Hayton said after morning skate on Wednesday.

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That’s something Hayton has done extremely well over the past few weeks. First-line players are almost always judged by the amount of offense they produce, but it’s easy to forget that they’re doing it against other teams’ best players, night in and night out. Someone has to anchor the line defensively, and that’s what Hayton has done for his group.

Keller has four goals in his last four games — an impressive achievement — but it wouldn’t mean much if his line had given up just as many goals over that stretch.

He has allowed just 14.8 expected goals against, while being on the ice for 18.8 expected goals for. He has won 56.3% of his faceoffs, he’s blocked 19 shots and he’s taken just one penalty. Will he ever be a point-per-game player? Probably not. Does he provide value as a top-six forward? Absolutely.

A quick note

Hopefully this article didn’t reflect it until now, but growing up, my primary identity was “Canucks fan.”

My childhood bedroom in two different houses was painted Canucks colors. I wore my jersey day and night during the playoffs, only ever taking it off to shower and go to church.

I screamed my head off when Alex Burrows slayed the dragon and I bawled my eyes out when Zdeno Chara shook the Cup over his head like a madman.

I supported the team through all the highs and lows — from the glory days of the West Coast Express all the way to the time when Ben Hutton led all Canucks defensemen in scoring.

My occupation prevents me from cheering for either team now, but regardless, it was surreal to rub elbows on Wednesday with some of the guys I grew up watching. I wish I could travel back in time and show 11-year-old me what the future had in store.

What’s next?

Utah makes a quick trip out to Minnesota before a pair of back-to-back home games on the weekend. It’ll be an easy pre-scout for the coaching staff this time around — they played the Wild last week.

It was a 5-4 shootout loss for Utah, but they proved that they can keep up with one of the league’s best teams. Utah has been excellent on the road, so they hope to have better fortune against the Wild this time around.

The game starts at 6 p.m. MDT and will be televised on both Utah HC+ and Utah 16.