Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Utah Hockey Club struggles at home, losing 4-1 to Colorado, despite strong fan support.
- Coach Tourigny cites emotional play and lack of composure as contributing factors.
- Defensive miscommunication led to key goals, overshadowing goalie Vejmelka's strong performance.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Delta Center left a great first impression on the Utah Hockey Club.
"That was the loudest building I've ever played in," Logan Cooley said following Utah's 5-2 win its the team's inaugural game in October. "It was special."
It was special then … it's been something else ever since.
Utah Hockey Club has an active seven-game road winning streak — an NHL record for an inaugural season. At home, though, it's a whole different story.
With Colorado's 4-1 victory over Utah (the final two Avalanche goals were on empty netters) Friday at the Delta Center, the Hockey Club has now lost three straight games — all of which have come at home. Unfortunately for the team, that is not a new trend. Utah has dropped eight of its last nine games at the Delta Center.
Not exactly the friendliest of confines.
"I don't think there's a rhyme or reason to it," said forward Nick Schmaltz, who scored in the third period to tie the game up 1-1. "I mean, maybe we might play a little differently on the road — you simplify a little bit more and try to take the crowd out of it."
At the Delta Center, though, it's the opposite. The team has tried to feed off the energy of its home fans, which can sometimes be a detriment.
Utah has been eager to get into scuffles (Barret Hayton got into the first fight of his NHL career on Friday with Nathan MacKinnon, the league's reigning MVP no less). The team has taken emotional penalties, and has looked for perfect plays with extra passes that have ended chances.
"We want to do too much," head coach André Tourigny said. "We get emotional really quickly in the game. The frustration is easier to get under our skin, stuff like that.
"We would love to be at the level of energy of our fans all the time," he continued. "So I think the effort is there, the love is there. It's just now we need to find a way to stay a little bit more composed, a little bit more even keel and get the deal done."
Such composure was needed late in the third period with the game tied 1-1.
Colorado broke out on a quick break and Utah left Artturi Lehkonen uncovered in front of the net. He was able to get the puck past the outstretched pad of Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka for his second goal of the game to give the Avalanche the lead.
"We just gave up that unnecessary goal," said defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who had an assist on Friday. "I thought we had the game under our control. We were kind of rolling. But good players make good plays, and they did."
So what went wrong to leave Lehkonen — who ended up with the Delta Center's first hat trick with a late empty-net tally — all alone?
Sergachev had forechecked along Utah's attacking zone's boards before the rush, which left forward Dylan Guenther back to defend. That caused plenty of confusion with both players going to the same man during the Avalanche's game-winning rush.
"I don't know; it was weird," Sergachev said. "I came back and it was kind of a three-on-three, but not really. Nobody had their guy and he was alone in front and scored, so just miscommunication."
Added Tourigny: "I think there were four mistakes. Your system must allow one mistake, not four. You need a great save from your goalie to bail you out."
Vejmelka, who was, once again, phenomenal in goal, couldn't quite do that again. And that led to yet another loss at home.
"It's not like we're not trying to at home," Sergachev said. "I think fans see that we're not giving up ever. We're coming in hitting, going strong, skating well."
Everything, but ... well, winning.