Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Dylan Guenther did it once, and then did it twice as nice as the Utah Hockey Club celebrated its franchise opener Tuesday night with a win.
Just like he did in a preseason road win over Colorado, Guenther scored two goals, including the first goal in franchise history, as the Utah Hockey Club held off the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 in the inaugural season opener Tuesday night at the Delta Center.
New city. New state. New ... franchise goal-scoring record?
Everything was going right for Guenther — except that he missed his ride to the arena, so he didn't get to participate in the team's inaugural "blue carpet" special with a few thousand of his closest friends in the Hockey Club's new home.
Still ...
"It's pretty cool," said Guenther, the 21-year-old winger who spent most of last season with the then-Arizona AHL affiliate in Tucson. "It's always nice to start off well and for us to continue to build and to try to make the playoffs. It's important for us to have a good start to the season."
With the win, the Hockey Club (1-0) became the eighth team in the NHL's expansion era (since 1967-68) to win their inaugural game, but only the second in the past 30 years after the Vegas Golden Knights won Game 1 to start the 2017-18 season.
Less than five minutes into the opener, Guenther made history for Utah — officially an expansion franchise that inherited the hockey assets of the presently defunct Arizona Coyotes during a whirlwind offseason.
"I've said it from Day 1, he's a special player," said Clayton Keller, Utah's first team captain. "He works super hard, he's so talented, and a guy that I've loved playing with the last year and a half or so. He's going to be a huge part of our team, and he's a stud, for sure."
The former No. 9 overall draft pick in 2021 from Edmonton, Alberta, took a pass from Michael Kesselring and one-timed the biscuit past Chicago goalkeeper Petr Mrazek that set off wild celebrations among the standing room-only crowd of 16,020 fans that included 11,131 unobstructed seats at the Delta Center — and thousands more watching outside the arena at a Smith Entertainment Group-hosted watch party.
The beginning of Guenther's eight-year contract worth a reported $7 million annually with a spot in the record books, netting the third-fastest goal to start a franchise's inaugural season since 1967-68, and the fastest since Tampa's Chris Kontos scored in 4:43 in 1992.
Money well spent.
"I've always had a soft spot for 'Gunner,'" Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. "He can score goals, but that's almost what I don't like; people see him just as a goal scorer and he's way more than that. He can defend, he works hard, he has a great stick, he's great on the power play. It's not a bad thing to have that skill to shoot the puck that way.
"But he's way more than just a shooter."
Keller doubled the advantage about 10 minutes later, converting a turnover near center ice into a backhanded shot from Nick Schmaltz down the middle of the chute as the Hockey Club out-shot the Blackhawks 6-1 en route to a 2-0 first-period lead.
Barrett Hayton pinged the net with a tipped shot from Mikahil Sergachev midway through the second period.
Buoyed by a sensational performance by Connor Ingram in goal, Utah held the Blackhawks (0-1) scoreless until Teuvo Teravainen finished off a backhand shot with a man-up from Connor Bedard with just over six minutes left in the second period en route to a 3-1 advantage before the third period.
The Hawks were 2-1-1 in franchise openers since 1979 for a reason.
"I felt like we got better and better throughout the game," Teravainen said. "But just got a little short today."
One of the NHL's "Original Six" franchises came to play, not just to observe when Alex Vlasic pulled another back 4:46 into the final period, tipping home Seth Jones' attempt from the close to the blue line to finish off Bedard's second assist of the night.
But Ingram made 26 saves, and Guenther scored his second on an empty net with 44 seconds remaining to help the Hockey Club hold on before Lawson Crouse finished off the scoring in the final seconds.
"We were out there for a long time when it happened," Guenther said. "So you know, you can kind of take a breath when that happens (the fourth goal went in).
"We kept our pedal to the medal, and got another one there, too."
