When they woke up on Monday, the Utah Hockey Club was 7-11-4 at home. Their Monday opponents, the Winnipeg Jets, were 13-8-0 on the road. Naturally, the second-place Jets were the heavy favorites in the game at the Delta Center.
Despite that fact, Utah pulled off a 5-2 win to record their first set of consecutive home wins since Nov. 13.
“Any time you play a division opponent, it’s a huge game,” said Utah captain Clayton Keller after the game. “(Winnipeg) is such a great team … I think we did a good job tonight of taking what was there and not forcing it. I think that’s something that maybe, earlier in the year, we wouldn’t have done.”
Though you wouldn’t have guessed it considering the final score was 5-2, the game’s first goal didn’t come until the final four minutes of the second period. Utah tallied another before the end of the frame and two more in the first 10 minutes of the third period.
Two Jets goals in a span of 4:16 silenced the home crowd momentarily, but Keller managed an empty-net goal to seal the deal.
The two teams play again on Friday in Winnipeg.
Utah Hockey for dummies
In Game 6 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and captain Paul Kariya received a soul-crushing hit from New Jersey Devils captain Scott Stevens. Despite the crowd wondering if he’d ever play hockey again, Kariya returned before the end of the period — and scored to make it 4-1 in his team’s favor.
Although Utah’s game against Winnipeg wasn’t in the Stanley Cup Final, you may have thought it was, based on the crowd’s reaction.
Early in the second period, Keller took a deflected shot to the forehead. That type of mishap has been known to end players’ careers on occasion, so Utah HC fans waited with bated breath for an update.
To the crowd’s utter delight, Keller returned before the end of the period — albeit a dozen stitches heavier. To their uncontrollable excitement, he scored the first goal of the game (the NHL later changed the credit to Olli Määttä, but for a moment it was Keller’s goal). Keller ended up sustaining credit for an empty-net goal in the third period, legitimizing this part of the story.
“He’s a hockey player, eh?” said head coach André Tourigny when asked about Keller after the game.
Keller had a positive attitude in his post-game press conference.
“I’m feeling great,” he said. “I got lucky. (The puck) didn’t catch my eye. When it happened, it happened so fast. You don’t really feel much. But I tried to look through my eye and I knew I could, so I wasn’t really too worried after that.”
Utah Hockey for casual fans
I talked to Josh Doan over the phone halfway through his 25-game AHL stint with the Tucson Roadrunners, at which point he told me that the move was all about building his confidence.
“Confidence is a separation factor at this level,” he said. “When you’re scoring, you’re feeling good and your game is elevated. When you’re not, you tend to grip the stick a little bit tighter.”
If there’s one word to describe, Doan’s game on Monday, it’s ‘confident.’ He had a pair of assists, both on plays that a replacement-level player probably wouldn’t have had the audacity to make.
“I think it’s just learning how to make those plays and, when you have opportunities, to take advantage of that,” Doan said after the game on Monday. “It’s one of those things where you slowly learn. It’s part of the process, learning when you can make those passes and when you can’t.”
Utah Hockey for nerds
Defending leads has been one of the tougher tasks for Utah this season, but the last two games should give their fans hope. Everyone will remember their 4-1 leads on both the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks. They blew both leads and lost both games, but they seem to have learned not to get too comfortable.
“Even when they had a push ... we never felt the boat was rocking,” Tourigny said. “We had great leadership. We had a great presence. I’m really proud of the way we weathered the storm. We stayed with it and I think that’s what made the difference.”
“When we took the lead, we didn’t change the way we played,” Tourigny continued. “We kept playing the same way. We started the third period, we didn’t back down or get nervous, we kept playing — playing the right way. For me, that is the key moment.”
It’s the second game in a row where Utah survived a late push to hold on and win the game. They played a similar game against the Blues on Saturday, holding onto a 3-1 lead (which eventually became a 4-2 lead) to grab a home win — something that has eluded them all season.
What’s next?
Utah’s seven-game home stand is finally over. They hit the road later this week, taking on the Minnesota Wild in a nationally televised game on Thursday.
Like the Jets, the Wild have silenced a lot of doubters with elite play this season. They currently hold the second spot in the Central Division standings with 60 points through 47 games thanks to their win over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.
Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov has been out with an injury since just before Christmas, but NHL insider Frank Seravalli reported this week that he could make his return against Utah on Thursday.
The game will be broadcast exclusively on ESPN+ and Hulu. It starts at 6 p.m. MST.