New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck (16) takes the puck against the Utah Hockey Club’s center Clayton Keller (9) in the first period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Thu Jan 18, 2025 (AP News photo)

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–Utah loses 5-3 in back-to-back games as home struggles persist.

The Utah Hockey Club welcomed the New York Rangers to Delta Center on Thursday night for their second matchup of the season. Utah previously defeated the Rangers in New York 6-5 in overtime last October.

Mattias Maccelli lit the lamp just 61 seconds into the game for his 6th of the season, assisted by Barrett Hayton and Ian Cole, to give Utah the early lead. Artemi Panarin netted his 18th of the season just a couple of minutes later to tie things up for the Rangers, assisted by Alexis Lafreniere. At 8:12 of the first it was Maccelli again, crashing the net to knock in a rebound for his 7th goal, assisted by Barrett Hayton and Mikhail Sergachev, to put Utah up 2-1. With just a few minutes remaining in the opening frame, New York forward Arthur Kaliyev evened things up again at 2-2 with his first goal in a Rangers uniform since coming to the Empire State from the Kings.

Utah opened the second period on the power play, courtesy of a high-sticking penalty to Arthur Kaliyev late in the first. Less than a minute into the period, Logan Cooley one-timed a perfect pass from captain Clayton Keller for his 13th goal of the season with the additional assist going to Nick Schmaltz, giving Utah its third one-goal lead of the game. New York threatened to even things up once again during a 74-second 5-on-3 power play, but goatender Karel Vejmelka and his defense held the Rangers off and finished the period holding on to a 3-2 edge.

A cross-checking penalty to Alexis Lafrenière at the end of the second period gave Utah another opportunity to begin a new period on the power play. This time, however, it was New York converting a short-handed goal by Reilly Smith to tie things up once again at 3-3. Midway through the frame, the Rangers gave Utah fans another case of déjà vu all over again when Chris Kreider put New York up 4-3 with his 14th goal of the season, assisted by Sam Carrick. With Vejmelka pulled for an extra attacker, Artemi Panarin scored his 19th of the season into an empty net to put the game away 5-3.

The loss is Utah’s 7th of their last 8 at home where they have won just 6 out of 21 games this season.

After the game, Utah Hockey Club head coach André Tourigny said, “I think that we did a lot of good things, to be honest. I’m disappointed; it’s another loss by one shot. I think that we played really good again in the first half of the game. I didn’t mind the way we played in the second half–don’t get me wrong. Against Montreal, I didn’t like some stuff…Same thing against the Islanders. Not tonight. I think we played hard. The way they scored their two goals in the third period–those things will happen, but I think we deserved better tonight.” When asked about not letting frustration boil over, Tourigny responded, “It does boil. That’s why I’m proud of the guys today–because we approached that game with an unbelievable mindset. They were tuned in, their body language was good, they were positive, they were picking up each other, we worked hard. I said before (that) the other team is a factor in the game. That’s a good team. At some point, whatever or how good you play, they will make good plays. The puck will bounce over your stick…something will happen. They will have good times on the other side. Even in those moments, we battled hard (and) we played well. A broken stick in our zone; there was no panic, we defended well, we kept them on the outside (and) they could not get anything going. I loved the approach. I loved the resilience of the guys. I loved the fight. I’m so disappointed for the players first, for everybody, for the team. But it’s frustrating to see not getting (rewarded) for playing well.”

Utah returns to the ice for their sixth game of the homestand on Saturday at 7:00pm against the St. Louis Blues. Utah won their previous matchup 4-2 in St. Louis in November.