Clayton Keller scores game-winner in OT to give Utah Hockey Club 6-5 win over Rangers

NEW YORK — It was an explosion of offense at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

The Utah Hockey Club and New York Rangers combined for seven goals in the second period in what was an offensive showcase for an upstart team looking to be in the playoffs at the end of the season, and another team that's consistently in the Stanley Cup hunt.

But when it was all said and done, it was Hockey Club captain Clayton Keller who came out on top to secure a 6-5 Utah road victory with a game-winner in overtime. Utah now sits at 3-0 on the season.

"They kind of all backed off on me," Keller said, describing his game-winner. "My first look was (Mikhail Sergachev), and they kind of went towards him. So I just started taking it to the net and do something I'm comfortable with."

The Hockey Club built up a 5-3 lead in the second period before the Rangers' Braden Schneider got a wrist shot goal 18 minutes into the period to narrow the deficit. Will Cuylle then evened up the score with a game-tying goal 13 minutes into the third period to force a five-minute overtime period.

The Rangers proved to be the aggressor in the third period (and really all night as New York out-shot Utah 34-25), spending a bulk of the period in front of Utah's goal. But Connor Ingram remained firm in front of the goal for much of the final frame until the Cuylle goal.

But it was Keller who came out as the hero with a backhand goal four minutes into overtime to seal another Hockey Club victory.

"They're one of the best teams in the league for a reason," head coach André Tourigny said. "So I think we digged deep to defend against them, and we had a good balance, keep attacking and defending with pride."

"As a group, we all kind of just stayed patient, stayed in the moment, and were able to fight through and get the win," Keller added.

In all, Utah had six different players score a goal Saturday night, including Dylan Guenther, who scored his league-leading fifth goal of the season in the second period to give the Hockey Club its 5-3 lead.

And though a strong start to Utah's inaugural season, Keller was quick to point out that it remains a long season — but it's never a bad thing to start with a 3-0 record.

"It's a good step in the right direction," Keller said. "This is a long season; we're only three games in, so we've got a lot of work to do. We're just gonna continue to get better every day. For sure, this is a big win. That's a great team; they've had a lot of success. They're hard to play against, so I thought we did a good job staying with it the full 60."

The Hockey Club struck first on the night on a Barrett Hayton snap shot just 3:43 into the game, but the Rangers were quick to equalize on the early score. New York's Artemi Panarin scored on a wrist shot five minutes later to keep the game locked up.

And then the two teams unloaded in the second period, starting with a Jack McBain backhand goal just under two minutes into play. But much like the first period, Panarin answered back on a snap shot to tie up the game again.

Utah added to their total two minutes later with a Keller goal that was followed shortly after by a Kevin Stenlund wrist shot goal to give the Hockey Club a 4-2 lead.

"We scored a lot of goals, but we give up too much, and that's with great goaltending," Tourigny said. "So we're not getting — falling asleep — with our resume. We know, if we want to sustain that we have fun. It's fun winning; everybody has fun. You have fun, we have fun, everybody has fun. But we need to tighten it up defensively."

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