Utah Hockey Club Mikhail Sergachev (98) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Vegas Golden Knights at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Fri Nov 15, 2024 (AP News photo)

Tomas Hertl and William Karlsson each score twice in Vegas victory over Utah

SALT LAKE CITY–Coming off of a heart-stopping 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night, the Utah Hockey Club faced another stiff challenge on Friday squaring off against the Pacific Division leading Vegas Golden Knights.  The two teams had already faced each other in Las Vegas two weeks earlier where Utah found itself losing 4-3 in overtime.

Utah forward Logan Cooley drew first blood at 11:16 of the first period with his third goal of the season, assisted by Matias Maccelli and Dylan Guenther. Utah finished the period besting Vegas 16-9 in shots on goal and winning 86% of faceoffs.

Moving on to the second period, Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev notched his 4th goal of the season at 6:59 on the power play to make it 2-0, assisted by captain Clayton Keller and Alexander Kerfoot. With the goal, Sergachev extended his home goal-scoring streak to four consecutive games. 

Later in the period, with Utah defenseman Michael Kesselring in the penalty box for hooking against Keegan Kolesar, Tomas Hertl brought the Golden Knights back to within one on a power play goal assisted by Nicolas Roy and Jack Eichel.

Unfortunately for Utah, the third period was all Vegas. At 8:23 Tomas Hertl evened things up with his second power play goal of the game, assisted by William Karlsson and Jack Eichel.  With a minute and eighteen seconds left in regulation, Karlsson gave the Golden Knights their first lead of the game which also turned out to be the game-winner, assisted by Kaedan Korczak and Cole Schwindt.  With Utah netminder 

Karel Vejmelka on the bench to give his squad an extra attacker, Karlsson struck again unassisted into the empty net with 29 seconds left to send fans to the parking lots as Vegas came away with a 4-2 victory. 

Utah Hockey Club Head Coach André Tourigny addressed the media following the game. “Well, I don’t think we played as good with the puck, but I think it started in the second. I think in the second we were not as urgent defensively giving a few men rush…It’s not like they generate the few man rush we give them, so that started there. I think in the third we…it’s not like we collapsed, and we still had a few chances, but I don’t think we connected really well on our power play, and that cost us momentum.” 

Tourigny, commenting on the difference between the first and third periods, said, “There (was) two teams on the ice, in the first there (was) only one. When they showed up, there started to be a game. I think from there it was 50/50. I don’t think it’s for them or us. I think it was 50/50. It’s a good team, Stanley Cup champion contender. And you know what? One thing you can learn from them in that game is, even when we dominate, they just hang there. They just hang there and hang there. We could not get the big goal. It’s the killer goal, (would) have probably changed everything, but we could not separate ourselves, like you mentioned, after the first period, you know, we had (a) 1-0 lead instead 2-0 or 3-0 lead. And that (would) have separated us. Instead of that, they stayed in it and scored a goal in their power play and scored another goal in their power play, and then they get a tip at the end of the game.”

One highlight for the home team was finishing with a season-high 34 shots after averaging 25.9 shots per game over the previous 16 matches.

Utah still has a chance to wrap up its three game homestand on a winning note on Monday as Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals make their first NHL visit to Salt Lake City for a 7:00pm (MST) matchup.