Utah Hockey Club center Nick Schmaltz (8) controls the puck against the Calgary Flames center Justin Kirkland (58) in the first period at Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wed Oct 30, 2024 (AP News photo)

Utah HC Bounces Back Big From Monday Loss With Commanding Win Over Calgary

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–In the aftermath of Utah Hockey Club’s third period collapse and overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Monday, the team dealt a 2025 third-round draft pick to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday to acquire veteran defenseman Olli Määttä. The Finnish 30-year-old brings much-needed depth to a defense reeling from long-term injuries to John Marino and Sean Durzi.

Määttä joined the lineup on Wednesday night as Utah HC played host to the Calgary Flames. Määttä is reunited with former teammate Ian Cole, both of whom won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017. He entered tonight’s game with 177 points (40g, 137a) in 691 career NHL contests with PIT, CHI, LAK and DET.

Alex Kerfoot gave Utah an early lead at 4:41 of the first period with his first goal of the season, assisted by Michael Kesselring and Mikhail Sergachev. With 61 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Martin Pospisil and Mikhail Sergachev both went to the box for roughing penalties. Utah controlled the puck for much of the final minute, but seemed as if they would run out the clock in their own defensive zone.

As the final seconds counted down on the scoreboard, Utah rushed up the ice and Barrett Hayton found the back of the net with slightly less than two seconds remaining, his fifth of the season, assisted by Nick Schmaltz and Ian Cole. This was the latest goal Utah has scored in any period so far this season.

Calgary cut their deficit in half at 3:53 of the second period on a goal by Anthony Mantha, assisted by Justin Kirkland and MacKenzie Weegar. Utah answered just 17 seconds later when rookie Maveric Lamoureux scored his first NHL goal from near the blue line in his fourth game since being called up from Tucson, assisted by Kevin Stenlund and Jack McBain.

Late in the period, Utah went on the power play as Calgary’s Anthony Mantha went to the box for roughing. He was joined forty seconds later in the sin bin by Blake Coleman who committed a boarding penalty against Clayton Keller, giving Utah a 5-on-3 advantage.

With five seconds remaining on the first penalty, defenseman Mikhail Sergachev netted his second goal of the season, assisted by Dylan Guenther and Nick Schmaltz, giving the home team a 4-1 lead heading into the locker room.

Utah also had a 4-1 lead entering the third period on Monday night, only to squander it in the final five minutes of the game, so nothing would be taken for granted. Dylan Guenther gave the Flames a chance to get back into the game, committing a holding penalty against Andrei Kuzmenko which Utah was able to kill. At 4:53 of the third, Calgary’s Nazem Kadri gave Utah another power play opportunity, going to the box for cross-checking against Juuso Valimaki.

That was all captain Clayton Keller needed to increase Utah’s lead to 5-1 on his sixth goal of the season, assisted by Dylan Guenther and Mikhail Sergachev. This time the defense held on to deny Calgary a comeback, with goaltender Connor Ingram stopping 30 of 31 shots for the win.

Following the game, Utah HC head coach André Tourigny commented on the team’s response to Monday’s game. “Really (satisfying). I was confident that would happen. There’s a lot of factors that can happen in the game. (If) they get a great scoring chance and score right away at the beginning or whatever, it can shake you a little bit. But I was confident we’d play solid.”

Tourigny had praise for 20-year-old defenseman Maveric Lamoureux who scored his first career NHL goal and point. “Great for Mav; I’m really happy for him. That was great–but the timing of it, it could have been anybody. I was really happy (with the timing). But I’m really happy for Mav. That was great. But the timing of it; (Calgary) got close at 2-1 and we scored on the next shift. That was solid…All of the shift was solid. I liked the reaction after (we gave up) that goal. You needed a solid shift and we had one.”

Lamoureux weighed in on his first goal after the game. “It was amazing. It just felt like it was going in slowly. Then I saw the light go on. I was really happy when I saw it go in.” When asked how many texts he received after his first goal, he responded, “No idea. It’s probably going to be blowing up like it was when I got called up to play my first game. So it’s probably going to take me a few days to answer everyone.”

Newly acquired defenseman Olli Määttä spoke in the locker room about the last 24 hours since being traded from Detroit. “I don’t think you ever get used to it. It was quite the night and quite the morning. But I think the moment I came in here, guys welcomed me really good. I can see this organization is a great one. There’s a great thing going on here, a great group of guys we got. It just feels right.” With regard to his expectations going into Wednesday night’s game, and his first impressions of Salt Lake City and the Delta Center, Määttä commented, “I didn’t know what to expect, to be honest. I just wanted to go out there and play. It wasn’t really a routine game day. But it was fun. … I played here in (the Frozen Fury exhibition) with the Kings against Vegas. But I liked it. The rink’s awesome. The city’s awesome. When you land, you see the mountains and everything. It looks so cool.”

Speaking of the win, captain Clayton Keller said, “It feels good. Obviously, we had a good first two periods. We wanted to learn from our last couple games and our mistakes. I thought we did a good job.” What changed over the last few games? “I thought we were simple. We kept the pucks going North. Before, we kind of backed off and gave (opponents) some space. Tonight, I thought we did a good job staying above (Calgary), not giving them much space and letting them get in the game. I’m proud of the way we responded. … This is the best league in the world. It’s hard to do it consistently and every single night. That’s something that we’re striving for. Even nights when you don’t have your best (night), there’s still ways you can find a way to win or get a point or two.”

Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund commented afterward about playing in his 1000th career game, all in a Flames jersey. “That was great. It was an awesome feeling skating out and doing a solo lap. It’s been a long time since I did that last, that was a special feeling for sure. It sucks that it didn’t carry over into the game.”

According to NHL Stats, Backlund is the second player to skate in 1,000 NHL contests with the Flames, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Jarome Iginla having been the first. Jarome’s son, Tij Iginla, was selected sixth overall by Utah in the 2024 NHL Draft and is currently playing for the Kelowna Rockets in the WHL.

Utah now hits the road for a 4-game swing beginning on Saturday in Las Vegas and continuing to Winnipeg, St. Louis, and Nashville before returning home on November 13 to face the Carolina Hurricanes.