Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Mikhail Sergachev scored the game-winning goal in Utah's 3-2 overtime victory.
- Despite an injured arm, Sergachev returned to play and secured the win.
- The victory ended Utah's losing streak at home, thrilling fans and players.
SALT LAKE CITY — Mikhail Sergachev's arm hung to his side as he returned to the Utah Hockey Club bench.
The veteran defenseman had just slid to the ice to block a shot with 1:32 remaining in a 2-2 game. The block potentially saved a goal, but it also looked like it knocked him out of the game as things went to overtime.
"My arm was dead," Sergachev said. "I decided to stay on the bench. I thought I was just going to be a cheerleader. Then, at some point in OT, I felt like it was good enough. And then they just put me in."
Good thing they did, too.
With 11 seconds remaining in the extra session, Sergachev sent the Delta Center into a frenzy.
The fog machines blasted and the goal horn was barely audible over the sound of the crowd as Sergachev backhanded in the game-winning goal to give Utah a 3-2 overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks. It was Sergachev's second game-winning goal of the season.
It was a gritty finish to what ended up being a gritty win. Utah was down 2-0 in the third period before storming back in front of a crowd that hadn't seen the home team win in over a month.
Clayton Keller gave Utah life when he rebounded a Nick Schmaltz shot with just under 11 minutes remaining and quickly flicked it past Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko. Then, Utah got a little bit of luck on Dylan Guenther's power-play equalizer with 4:30 left.
Guenther's shot popped off a Canuck defender and floated over Demko for the tying goal. After losing five straight at the Delta Center, the team was fine taking any lucky bounce it could get.
"It's not like at home we're not trying — we're trying a little more and gripping the sticks sometimes trying to get a win," Sergachev said. "But just proud of the group for coming from behind."
It took a gutsy moment for Utah to get over the top, and the team has Sergachev to thank for that.
Sergachev is a jack of all trades for the Hockey Club. He runs the power play, leads the penalty kill and has a lethal shot to boot. In short, he's someone you want on the ice when the game goes to three-on-three in overtime.
After he had skated off, heavily favoring his arm, the team wasn't sure if he'd be able to return.
"He was banged up a little bit," head coach André Tourigny said. "We didn't know if he could play in overtime. We knew he could not start, but we told him as soon you think you can give us a shift, you tell us."
That moment came with just over a minute left in the OT session.
Sergachev joined Schmaltz and Logan Cooley on the ice and they battled through a long shift stuck in the defensive zone. For nearly 50 seconds, the trio battled — Sergachev even went down and blocked another puck — as it looked like Vancouver would either find the winner or run out the clock to send it to a shootout.
But Utah ended up getting one last chance.
Vancouver's Conor Garland whiffed at a puck in front of the net and it bounced off the boards where Cooley was waiting. The young speedster quickly raced down the ice with Sergachev trailing him.
"I just saw that we had an opportunity to go over two-on-one," Sergachev said. "Cools got the puck, so I'll always drive the net."
Cooley sent the centering pass in and Sergachev backhanded it in to give Utah the win with little time to spare.
"Heck of a finish by Sergy there," Keller said. "It's not easy on the backhand to control that."
Though, Sergachev admitted it wasn't all him.
"I kind of got lucky there — I think it hit defenseman stick and went in the five-hole," he said. "But I don't care."
Neither did the thousands who celebrated right along with him. The arena was fully packed after team owner Ryan Smith gave away all the single-goal tickets earlier on Wednesday. A few new diehard hockey fans were probably born after that finish.
"The atmosphere and the reaction of the fans tonight, from the first period, from the moment to when Keller scored, to when we came back in the game, the overtime — don't tell me that you didn't have goosebumps," Tourigny said. "Come on, that was cool."
Indeed, it was. As for Sergachev's arm?
"Yeah, it's all right," he said.
A game-winner certainly made everything feel better.
