Utah Hockey Club forward Josh Doan (91) shoots the puck against the Colorado Avalanche defensemen Calvin de Haan (44) in the second period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Thu Oct 24, 2024 (AP News photo)

Utah Buried By Avalanche 5-1 Defensive woes continue for struggling Utah Hockey Club

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–On the heels of a perfect 3-0 start to the 2024-2025 NHL season, the Utah Hockey Club has come back down to earth losing four of the next five games including Thursday night’s 5-1 home loss to the visiting Colorado Avalanche, bringing their record to 4-3-1.

Netminder Karel Vejmelka got the start following his two shoutout periods of relief in Tuesday night’s loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Halfway through the first period the Avs took advantage of a tripping penalty against Ian Cole as forward Ross Colton scored his seventh goal on the season, assisted by Mikko Rantanen and Casey Mittelstadt.

Before Utah had a hockey team, many of its residents were followers of the Avalanche which was evidenced by the loud cheers for the power play goal. Colorado defenseman Cale Makar made it 2-0 near the end of the first period, assisted by Mikko Rantanen, his second of the game, and Nikolai Kovalenko.

Utah HC fared no better in the second period of play. At 14:25 of the middle frame, Avs center Casey Mittelstadt put the puck past Vejmelka to make it 3-0, assisted by Sam Malinski and Nikolai Kovalenko, his second of the evening.

Late in the period, Makar drew a hooking penalty from Dylan Guenther which resulted in another Colorado power play goal by Ivan Ivan (yes, that’s his real name), the first goal of his NHL career, assisted by Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt, the third Avs player to record a second assist, to send Utah to the locker room facing a 4-0 deficit for the second time in two games.

With 4:32 remaining in the third period, Utah forward Lawson Crouse netted his 3rd goal of the season to put an end to his team’s scoring drought, assisted by Matias Maccelli and Ian Cole. Whatever hopes the hometown fans may have had for a late comeback, however, were dashed just 39 seconds later as Avs forward Joel Kiviranta put the game permanently out of reach with an unassisted shot which got past Vejmelka. Colorado goaltender Justus Annunen stopped 25 of 26 shots for the win.

Utah’s defense has struggled all season, surrendering four or more goals in five of their eight games thus far. Two key defensemen, John Marino and Sean Durzi, have undergone surgeries which will keep them out of the lineup until sometime next year.

Rookie defenseman Maveric Lamoureux, a 2022 first round draft pick by the then-Arizona Coyotes, made his NHL debut and was +1 for the night. In four games with the Tucson Roadrunners this season, Lamoureux notched two goals and one assist.

After the game, Lamoureux commented on making his NHL Debut: “Playing in my first NHL game is special. Even though we didn’t win, I’m always going to remember that game, that’s for sure.” On playing his first shift, Lamoureux said “I was kind of stressed.

I didn’t want to fall. But (it) was amazing going out there.” Making his NHL debut extra meaningful, his parents flew in for the game. “I had no idea. That was a big surprise. After morning skate, they were in Ryan Smith’s suite waiting for me. That was a surprise. They landed last night and I had no idea. I was really happy to see them.”

Speaking of the back-to back losses, Utah Hockey Club Head Coach André Tourigny commented, “They were just two different games. Like I said against Ottawa, it wasn’t our game at all. We worked hard, and we had a lot of good opportunities but we lacked execution. Tonight, the lack of execution kept going, but I did not like our effort, our emotion, our physicality, and our battle level. It’s disappointing.” Speaking of the team’s offensive, Tourigny added, “We tried to switch lines and do different things, but at the end of the day, we have to simplify…If you look at every game, our possession and offensive zones are great, but we don’t have enough volume. At some point, when we have an opportunity to take a shot, we cannot pass on it. We need to be more selfish in those situations and put more pucks on the net that create habits for the non-carrier to go the net…The way we’re playing right now, we’re doing the reverse. We build the habits of our non-carrier to look for the passing option, and then now you don’t have traffic.”

Lawson Crouse, when asked what the team needs to change in order to shift the momentum, responded “We just have to get back to it…I think today was an example of us getting frustrated and trying to make up for it. We just have to get back to simple hockey, playing the right way, covering for each other. The goals will come. Obviously, we’ve got to keep them out of our net and that’s the biggest thing right now. You can’t win hockey games when we keep going down three, four nothing. It’s a tough league to come back in. Like I said, when that happens you feel like you have to make up for a play and it goes sideways quick. Obviously, we’ve got to stop it here, stop it tonight, learn from it, move on and get back to winning hockey.”

Following practice on Friday, Utah HC will fly to Los Angeles for a road game against the Kings on Saturday before returning home again on Monday to face the San Jose Sharks.