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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Hockey Club coach André Tourigny's frustration was palpable.
His team had just coughed up a three-goal second-period lead and fell 5-4 in a shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks Sunday at the Delta Center.
What went wrong?
"I'll miss the game tomorrow (if I mentioned everything)," Tourigny said. "We didn't do anything well."
That was a probably a little hyperbolic — you don't have a 4-1 lead in the second period without at least some things going right — but there was truth to that, too.
The Club didn't outshoot the Ducks in any period, it took six penalties and gave away the puck 17 times. But due to some Clayton Keller brilliance — two goals and two assists — Utah was in a clear position for a win.
Keller scored in the second minute of the game when he crashed the net and got enough of the puck for it to trickle past the goal line. That started a career night for the Utah captain, who tied his career-high with 4 points.
Keller assisted on a Barrett Hayton goal (his first since Oct. 30) later in the first, and teed up Logan Cooley for an absolute top-shelf blast in the second on a power play. Then, at the 5:57 mark of the second, he put Utah up three goals with a mid-range snipe.
In 26 minutes of action, Keller had 4 points, which meant there was plenty of time for him to add to it. It also meant the Ducks had plenty of time to salvage the game.
It turned out to be the latter.
So did Utah let up with the three-goal advantage?
"I don't think so," Tourigny said, "because I don't think we were good from the beginning. I don't think we think it changed when we took the lead."
To him, the 4-1 lead wasn't indicative of how the game was being played. Exhibit A: Anaheim's first goal in the first period. The Ducks got a 2-on-1 breakaway after a poor turnover from Utah in the attacking zone. Reserve goalie Jaxson Stauber barely stood a chance.
"I think it happened a little bit at the start of the game and then it crept back in," Hayton said of the Ducks' comeback. "I think just getting too loose, giving up too much. When you give a team that many power plays, it's tough. There were a lot of things throughout the entire game. Obviously, we fell a part in the third and it wasn't good enough."
One of those power plays loomed large. Late in the third period, Cooley was called for slashing after getting into a scuffle during the run of play. It was an immature penalty made by a young player and it cost Utah with the Ducks scoring the game-tying goal on the ensuing power play.
Cooley, meanwhile, didn't see the ice again — not in the final five minutes of regulation, not in the five minutes of overtime, not in the shootout. That was a massive decision. The 20-year-old forward has had a point in 12 of the last 14 games (including Sunday's contest) and half of those have been multi-point efforts.
Tourigny apparently deemed that late penalty to be so bad — and, to be fair, it was quite bad — that he benched one of his most productive players for the most critical portions of the contest.
When asked what went into the process to not bring him back out following the slashing call, Touringy said, "I will let you think about it."
So let's think about it:
The coach saw it as a teaching moment for a player that's expected to be one of the faces of the franchise for a long time ("He's a special player … and he's just getting started," Keller said of Cooley after the game). That's all fine and good, but reasonable minds can disagree with the timing, because there's no doubt Cooley's absence made a difference late.
His game is almost tailor-made to play in three-on-three hockey, and just last week he made the game-winning assist in the closing minutes of overtime. When Utah struggled to create dangerous chances in the extra session, it was easy to wonder about the impact Cooley could have had.
Maybe the move was needed for future growth, but on Sunday it seemed to lessen the chances that Utah skated off the Delta Center ice with a win.
As for the shootout, well, Utah is still looking for its first shootout goal. The Club went 0-for-3 for the second time this season after Nick Schmaltz, Keller and Nick Bjugsted all missed. Stauber stopped the first two Anaheim shots but the third one bested him to give the Ducks the win.
"It doesn't feel like we walked away the point with the way we ended that second half and giving up that lead," Hayton said. "Yeah, that can't happen; it's disappointing."
