Pittsburgh Penguins center Syd Crosby (87) and Utah Hockey Club’s left wing Michael Carcone (53) battle for the puck in second period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wed Jan 29, 2025 (AP News photo)

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–Utah inched closer to a new team name on Wednesday, but Sid Crosby’s overtime goal delivers another home ice loss.

The Utah Hockey Club announced on Wednesday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had rejected various proposed names and logos that the team had sought as possibilities for the 2025-2026 season and beyond, including what had been the odds-on fan favorite “Yetis,” which turns out to be heavily trademark protected by Yeti Coolers LLC. As a result, the team announced that fan voting would take place at Delta Center during the next four home games where attendees would be able to choose between the current Utah Hockey Club name, the Utah Mammoth, or the Utah Wasatch, which is the name of the mountain range flanking Salt Lake City and the surrounding region.

The announcement was enthusiastically received by two particular fans, Richard Latimer and Nick Finlayson, who have actively campaigned for the Mammoth name from the beginning and who have been seen at many games and on television news programs sporting their now familiar Mammoth attire. Though not technically permitted to advocate at the arena’s polling booths where fans lined up for the opportunity to weigh in on the new name, Latimer and Finlayson nevertheless hung out near one of the voting sites prior to Wednesday night’s tilt against the Pittsburgh Penguins to draw attention and occasionally break into a “Let’s Go Mammoths” chant. Finlayson said, “When they announced the names that you could vote for, Mammoth stuck out immediately.” Latimer added, “We knew it was Mammoth from the beginning. As soon as it was announced we got a hockey club we knew we had to be the Mammoth. … We came to game one, opening night, dressed as mammoths.” The two friends have even taken their costumes on the road to a game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Spencer Joseph of the local Fox 13 affiliate surveyed a number of fans about their preferences, and Utah Mammoth was the clear fan favorite thus far.

Out on the ice, Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev returned to the lineup from injury after a five-game absence and gave his squad a 1-0 lead at 14:51 of the first with his 9th goal of the season, a snap shot on the power play, assisted Nick Schmaltz and Logan Cooley. Utah goaltender Connor Ingram turned away all four Pittsburgh shots in the period, while Penguins netminder Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 11 of 12.

Pittsburgh defenseman Marcus Pettersson evened things up at 6:40 of the second period with his 3rd goal of the season, assisted by Sidney Crosby and Matt Grzelcyk. Utah would respond two minutes later and regain the lead as Michael Carcone netted his 4th of the season, assisted by John Marino and Nick Bjugstad.

At 6:17 of the third period, Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson took advantage of a misdirected pass in the Utah defensive zone and blasted a shot past Ingram to ties things up again with his 5th goal of the season, unassisted, and the two teams ended regulation play knotted up 2-2.

With a little more than a minute remaining in the overtime period, Penguins star Sid Crosby gave Utah fans a glimpse of his Hall of Fame credentials with the game winner for Pittsburgh, his 16th of the season, assisted by Cody Glass and Rickard Rakell. Crosby commented after the game about playing for the first time in Salt Lake City. “It was great. The atmosphere was great, it was a lot of fun to play here. I can tell that the people are excited here to have a team and can support them.”

In the Utah locker room, Mikhail Sergachev was asked what it will take to learn from the losses. “Time. Tough loss, tougher than the ones that we had before. Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know what it’s going to take. I think the leadership group and the coaches are doing everything we can to try to turn it around. And we can’t be too negative about it, but we can’t be just ‘whatever next one.’ Can’t be like that. So we’re going to talk about it tomorrow, for sure.”

Head coach André Tourigny praised Sergachev’s growth as a leader. “He has a lot of character. He takes ownership, and he doesn’t shy away from responsibility. He’s a winner, he won before so he knows what it takes, and he believes in (the) group and he wants to win.”

Utah HC returns to home ice on Friday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7:00pm.