Utah Hockey Club beats Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 – Deseret News

For the first time since the first week of the season, the Utah Hockey Club has won two games in a row.

The latter win came on Sunday evening against the Philadelphia Flyers. Logan Cooley was the hero for Utah, scoring a goal that should make fans optimistic about his future if they weren’t already.

The final score was 4-2 as Utah won its two-game Eastern Conference road trip. They have once again come within three points of a wildcard spot.

Utah Hockey for Dummies

There have been two shorthanded goals (goals scored with a penalty) in Utah HC history – and both were worthy of the all-time breakdown list.

The first came on November 30th against Alex Kerfoot’s Vegas Golden Knights. He caught a bad pass in the neutral zone and shot as quickly as he could, getting past goaltender Ilya Samsonov.

Kevin Stenlund scored a similar goal on Sunday.

“(It was a) good goal,” Stenlund said after the game. “We needed that.”

In the half-dozen interviews I’ve conducted with Stenlund this year, I’ve learned that he doesn’t say much, but he chooses his words carefully: He means exactly what he says, and he was right.

This goal secured Utah the victory. It ended Philadelphia’s hopes of tying the game on the power play and added that extra measure of security. No, it wasn’t the game-winning goal, but it destroyed any confidence the opponent had. Without them, I might have written about an overtime game.

Utah Hockey for the casual fan

One of the main goals of a team after a rebuild is to learn how to win. It brings with it dozens of nuances, one of which is maintaining the lead – something Utah HC struggled with all game.

Just 19 seconds after Utah scored the game’s first goal, the Flyers came out and tied the game. Utah scored again shortly after, but that lead lasted less than four minutes. They put another goal in the net before the end of the period, but the Flyers responded with another goal early in the third period (which was eventually given back, but the point stands).

In the end everything was fine for Utah, but you know head coach André Tourigny wants to nip that tendency in the bud.

“When we have the lead, sometimes we tend to take a step back and give them more space, more time for some reason,” Utah captain Clayton Keller said after the game. “We’re just afraid of making a mistake (but) I think we’re learning how to still play offense with the lead.”

Utah hockey for nerds

At the start of the season, Juuso Välimäki made a habit of going to the front of the net and looking for rebounds and deflections. When I asked head coach André Tourigny about it after that game, he expressed his displeasure and said that Välimäki was “going beyond himself.”

But with the confidence that comes with being called up to the Finnish national team, he did the same thing on Saturday.

In the middle of the second period, Välimäki recognized an opportunity and headed into the net. As he arrived, Mikhail Sergachev fired a shot from the point, and Välimäki deflected it perfectly past Samuel Ersson to give Utah a 2-1 lead.

“He’s been playing well for us lately,” Tourigny said after the game. “He makes good plays and creates movement in the O-zone. That’s how he got there and got a stick on the puck.”

It was Välimäki’s first goal in a Utah HC jersey and the tenth of his NHL career.

What’s next?

The road trip is over, but Utah HC doesn’t have much time before it gets going again. They host the Minnesota Wild at the Delta Center on Tuesday.

The Wild are one of the most surprising teams in the league this season. Despite missing the playoffs last year, they are currently in second place in the league. It’s impossible to attribute their success to one man, but Russian striker Kirill Kaprizov is making a case for the Hart Trophy. After just 26 games this season, he is tied for the lead in the league with 42 points.

While most Utah home games begin at 7:00 p.m. MDT, this one takes place at 7:30 p.m. Since this is a nationally televised game, it will not be broadcast on the regular networks. Tune in to ESPN+ or Hulu to watch.