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ANAHEIM, Calif. — At this point, you should just expect late chaos from the Utah Hockey Club.
And maybe some bonus hockey, too.
The latest example? A 5-4 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center Wednesday.
It was the third overtime game for Utah HC in its first five games, but this time the Club was on the losing end. Anaheim's Leo Carlsson beat Connor Ingram in the first minute of overtime to secure a Ducks' win. Utah still earned a point in the standings for the OT loss.
"I really liked our battle, our competitiveness," André Tourigny said. "It's 5 points out of 8 on the trip, it's a comeback in the third. There's a lot of positives."
The quick overtime followed a frantic third period, which featured four goals that either tied the game or took the lead.
And all that drama started with a penalty kill.
Down a goal in the final frame, Utah had to go on a long penalty kill that featured over a minute of being down two men. But what looked to be a death knell ended up springing a game-tying goal.
As the Anaheim power play expired, Utah caught the Ducks in a change. Jack McBain sped up the ice and dropped the puck to Michael Kesselring, whose midrange shot tied the game at 3-3.
Soon after, another odd-man rush got Utah out in front.
Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz raced into the offensive zone together, Keller passed it to Schmaltz, who zipped it back to Keller in front of the net. Keller backhanded the puck up and over the left pad of the Anaheim goalie to give Utah the lead with under 10 minutes remaining in the contest.
"We found ways to create some good chances in the second part of the game," Tourigny said.
But some poor luck evened the game up again.
Utah netminder Connor Ingram, who finished with 29 saves, initially stopped a shot but couldn't locate the puck as it ended up sliding into the goal to tie the game.
It was an unlucky bounce, but the shot came via some loose defensive zone coverage that is becoming a norm for Utah. The Hockey Club struggled to match up or block passing lanes as the Ducks put pressure in the offensive zone. That led to multiple good, late chances for the home team.
"We gave up too much opportunity off the rush. We need to be better," Tourigny said. "It's not odd-men rush, it's even-man rush where we need to work on our coverage."
On that note, it didn't help that defenseman Sean Durzi missed the game due to an upper-body injury (Tourigny said he was still being evaluated and didn't know a timetable for when he could return). But even with Durzi, Utah has left Ingram to save them multiple times this season in the third period. It was more of the same on Wednesday, and the Club paid for it.
To make matters worse, defenseman Robert Bortuzzo, who was making his season debut due to Durzi's injury, left the game in the third period and didn't return. Tourigny said he didn't know his status.
A similar unlucky bounce almost ended the game in regulation, too. An Ingram save popped the puck high and over the Utah goalie, but HC defenseman Ian Cole swatted it out of the air with his stick to avoid another goal.
As we said, chaos.
That set up an OT session that lasted all of 54 seconds. Carlsson forced a turnover at the blue line and beat Ingram for the game-winner.
McBain and Barrett Hayton scored first-period goals for Utah, who moved to 3-1-1 on the season with 7 points.
Utah now returns home from a weeklong road trip that took the team from coast to coast.
"It was a long trip," Tourigny said. "I liked the energy we had, the fight we had, you can see a little bit of mental fatigue and some mistakes and keeping our emotion back, but in terms of character and fighting for the team, I think it's a plus."
