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MONTREAL — In the midst of a four game road stretch, the Utah Hockey Club closed its weeklong bout in Montreal with a win over the Canadiens.
Mikhail Sergachev's goal with 27 seconds left in overtime propelled the Hockey Club over the Canadiens 3-2 as Utah picked up the ninth win of its inaugural season.
In the first period, Utah was granted three power play opportunities, with the first coming at the 7:40 mark and the last at the 2:28 mark. Over the last 7:40, Montreal had just over a minute of time on the ice with a full squad. Utah was unable to take advantage of six minutes of one-sided play and both teams went into the second period scoreless.
After the first period, Utah had 13 shots to Montreal's five, failing to take advantage of an obvious shot differential.
With 13:37 left in the period, captain Clayton Keller rebounded a loose puck and found an attacking Dylan Guenther who found the net, taking a 1-0 lead early in the second period. No less than two minutes later, Montreal's Jayden Struble weaved past the Utah defense and quickly tied the game up.
The Canadiens scored again just 45 seconds into the third period with Alex Newhook getting past the Utah defense to take a crucial 2-1 lead.
But the Utah Hockey Club didn't go away easy. Logan Cooley and Jack McBain worked a two-on-one offense for McBain to get a shot at the net and send it through for a 2-2 tie with just under 16 minutes to play.
Neither team scored again in regulation, so the teams went into overtime, where Nick Schmaltz set up a crashing Sergachev to find the net with 27 seconds left in the period.
Utah — whose last two losses have come within a goal — continued to go with Karel Vejmelka in the net. While Vejmelka is 2-6-0 on the scorecard, he ranks ninth in goals per game average at 2.30, a noticeable difference from Connor Ingram's 3.6, which ranks 51st.
"Keep building," Utah Hockey Club head coach Andre Tourigny said before the game. "In the last two weeks, we have put a lot of building blocks together so now we need to translate that moving forward."
Vejmelka finished with 11 saves on two goals allowed, while Schmaltz's two assists led the offensive end.
