Who needs the Super Bowl when you have a hockey game to watch?
Utah Hockey Club fans were out of their seats early in Sunday’s game against the Washington Capitals, and they hardly got a chance to sit back down in the first period.
Josh Doan opened the scoring 1:10 into the game with a shot from the blue line that sifted past an unsuspecting Logan Thompson. Just 32 seconds later, Michael Carcone followed it up with a goal of his own.
That meant a 2-0 Utah lead less than two minutes into the game against the best team in the league.
Some penalty trouble led to a Capitals goal, courtesy of Tom Wilson, but Jack McBain answered a few minutes later with a goal of his own.
The Caps would score another power play goal before the end of the period, but it took less than three minutes of second-period play for Dylan Guenther to respond in Utah’s favor.
A pair of Capitals goals in the third period would tie the game, sending Utah to overtime for the fifth time in their last seven games. Neither team got the job done in the extra frame, meaning this one needed a shootout.
Nick Schmaltz scored the lone shootout goal to bring victory to the underdogs.
Utah Hockey for dummies
Connor Ingram started the game in net for Utah, but shortly after extending his point streak to two games, he left with an upper-body injury.
The injury came on a hard shot from Alex Ovechkin that hit Ingram in the mask. To add insult to injury, the Capitals scored on the play.
Those who aren’t overly familiar with hockey might be wondering how Ingram got hurt when the puck just bounced off his mask. The answer is that the mask is meant to protect the goaltender if he happens to get hit in the head, but it still hurts.
Goalies getting pucks to the head rarely results in long-term injuries, but it can be enough to rattle a guy.
The other half of this story is Karel Vejmelka, who came in to replace Ingram, despite having played a full game less than 24 hour before. He allowed six goals on Saturday, so he was looking to redeem himself on Sunday — and he did just that.
Vejmelka allowed two goals on 32 shots, but most importantly he stopped everything in overtime and the shootout to secure the win for his team.
One of those saves in overtime was particularly spectacular.
Ovechkin, who had three assists in the game, set Jakob Chychrun up with a perfect pass with eight seconds left. It was as good of a scoring chance as any, but Vejmelka tracked the pass and got over in time to stop his former teammate.
“Playing on back-to-back days, that’s pretty impressive for him to stay ready and help us get a win,” Schmaltz said after the game.
Head coach André Tourigny agreed.
“He was assertive,” Tourigny said. “I never felt he was shaky or whatever. He was assertive, he wanted to play, he was confident.”
Utah Hockey for casual fans
You’ve probably noticed that McBain’s start to the season was heads and shoulders above his recent play — but he set out to change that on Sunday.
McBain tallied his first point of 2025 on Sunday with an assist on Doan’s game-opening goal. He scored a goal of his own before the end of the period, too.
McBain has all the tools necessary to be a reliable power forward. UHC fans saw that at the beginning of the season, when he was scoring, fighting and making big hits.
If McBain can use his performance on Sunday as momentum, he should be able to get back to that level at which he started the season.
Utah Hockey for nerds
Let’s talk about defending leads again.
The Carolina Hurricanes demonstrated lead protection perfectly against Utah HC on Saturday. Rather than sitting back and waiting for the clock to run out, they continued to push offensively.
Winning is not necessarily about scoring more goals; the more time you can spend in your opponent’s zone, the less risk you have of allowing a goal.
Utah took a strong lead early against the Capitals on Sunday, but then players slipped back into their old habits and let the play come to them, eventually allowing the Capitals to tie the game.
Per Natural Stat Trick, the Capitals led in the third period at 5-on-5 in:
- Goals for (100%)
- Expected goals for (67.03%)
- High-danger scoring chances (60%)
- Corsi for (53.85%)
- Fenwick for (55.56%)
Not all of those stats are particularly useful in determining who played better overall, but they do indicate trends. The trend in this case is that the Capitals controlled the puck in UHC’s zone more often than not in the third period.
Winning teams don’t let that happen when they’re leading. Again, Utah is still learning to win, but this should be a top priority in their next few team meetings.
Utah has been to overtime 17 times this season — more than any other team in the league. That’s because they constantly let leads slip away from them.
What’s next for Utah?
The NHL now pauses its regular season to hold a miniature international tournament, the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Olli Määttä and Juuso Välimäki will represent their home country of Finland as the only Utah Hockey Clubbers selected to participate in the tournament.
The tournament will run from Feb. 12-20, after which the league will get right back into action.
Utah’s next game will be in Los Angeles on Feb. 22, when they’ll take on the Kings.