The Utah Hockey Club’s center Clayton Keller (9) takes a shot on net against the St Louis Blues left winger Pavel Buchnevich (89) in the first period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Sat Jan 18, 2025 (AP News photo)
By Tom Walker
SALT LAKE CITY–Liam O’Brien’s bloody fight sparks Utah’s 3-goal outburst in the first as teammates go on to win 4-2.
The Utah Hockey Club welcomed the St. Louis Blues to Delta Center on Saturday night for the sixth of seven games in the longest homestand of the season. Utah previously defeated their division rival 4-2 in St. Louis in November and entered the game trailing the Blues by five points in the Central Division standings.
Two minutes into the first period, Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker ripped a snap shot from near the faceoff circle for his second goal of the season, assisted by Oskar Sundqvist, to give St. Louis an early 1-0 lead. On the ensuing draw, Tucker dropped the gloves with Utah’s Liam O’Brien in a brutal exchange of fisticuffs which ultimately sent O’Brien to the locker room with blood streaming down his face as fans roared their approval.
At 5:15 of the frame, Zack Bolduc went to the sin bin for tripping against John Marino, giving Utah its first power play of the evening. Less than a minute later, defenseman Michael Kesselring netted his 5th of the season, assisted by Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller.
At 8:25, Utah grabbed the lead on Nick Schmaltz’s 9th goal of the season, assisted by Clayton and Marino. Just past the halfway point of the period, St. Louis was whistled for tripping Cooley at the net, but captain Clayton Keller lunged for a rebound and found the back of the net for his 15th of the season to nullify the penalty and give Utah a 3-1 lead heading into the locker room.
St. Louis opened the second period on the power play due to a holding penalty against Barrett Hayton near the end of the first. At 1:32 forward Jake Neighbours made it 3-2 with a power play goal, his 12th of the season, assisted by Dylan Holloway and Brayden Schenn. At 10:42, Logan Cooley recaptured the 2-goal lead with his 14th of the season and Keller picking up his third assist and fourth point of the night.
In the third, Utah exorcized the demons of previous late period collapses and goaltender Connor Ingram turned away the final nine shots from the Blues as Utah gained a rare home victory 4-2.
After the game, Utah captain Clayton Keller talked about his chemistry with Logan Cooley with whom he combined for seven points on the night. “I think we’re playing with a lot of speed. We’re starting to read off each other. I’ve said before, chemistry takes time and to get to know one another’s tendencies. We like to hang out. We’re chatting a lot. I’m doing everything I can to help him with how I like to play the game and how he likes to play the game. You know Schmaltzy [Nick Schmaltz] as well, I played with him for a long time as well. So it’s been good. We’ve had some success lately.” Asked about the team’s response to the early St. Louis goal, Keller said, “I think just our mindset. We’re positive. We have better body language from everyone. Coaches and all the way down. We had confidence and Ingy (Connor Ingram) made some unbelievable saves. OB (Liam O’Brien) had a great fight there. Kind of pumps us up after this and they score one. A lot of credit goes to him.”
Logan Cooley talked about how great it was to get the win. “Yeah, it’s awesome. There’s no better feeling than winning, and especially on home ice. These fans deserve it, and obviously it’s felt like it’s been a year since we had a win at home so it’s nice. I thought it was a great effort by everyone in here, a full 60 minutes. That’s how we need to play, especially against a team like that. It’s an important game. It’s basically a playoff game. So it’s unbelievable to get those two points.” With regard to Utah’s 3 goals in a 4:25 span in the first, Cooley said, “Yeah, it’s big. It allows you to feel good early on in the game. I feel like us as a line, we had a lot of touches early and that allows you to feel the puck more, and it kind of gives you more confidence to make plays. I thought our line was extremely good on both sides of the puck. We didn’t give them anything defensively, and I thought we were pretty good offensively, too, and generated a lot.”
Head coach André Tourigny was asked about the impact of O’Brien’s fight. “Every time he’s in the lineup, his energy, drive, physicality, predictability, and how he played makes me like his presence.” Tourigny also addressed the competitiveness of Cooley and Clayton Keller. “I said it many times about how competitive those two guys are. They’re never satisfied.” The coach continued, “Tonight, I liked a lot of guys on our team. I liked the fight. I liked Bjugy’s (Nick Bjugstad) line. I think they played big-boy hockey tonight. They were physical, and they had pace. They were the other huge presences in the game. I think our kill in the third period was elite as well. There’s a lot of guys who contributed to that game. I think Kesselring had a really good game. Johnny was maybe a little bit tired at the end of the game, but he was really good for us and made key plays at the end of the game. If you look throughout the lineup, there are a lot of positives. Ingy (Connor Ingram) making big saves was a key moment as well.”
Utah has a chance to earn a third victory on the homestand on Monday against the Winnipeg Jets, after which they will hit the road for a trio of games against Minnesota, Winnipeg, and Ottawa.
