Barrett Hayton ends Utah Hockey Club's home struggles with late game-winning goal

SALT LAKE CITY — Maybe Friday will finally change Utah Hockey Club's home fortunes.

Coming into Friday's game, The Club hadn't won a regulation game at home in nearly two months. Yes, the team has celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, Boxing Day (hey, most of them are Canadian) and New Year's, but not a regulation victory at the Delta Center.

That changed against the San Jose Sharks.

Barrett Hayton scored with 1:32 remaining in the game to lift Utah to a 2-1 win on home ice. The Hockley Club had won just once (an overtime win over Vancouver) in its previous 10 home games.

The team now has six wins total at the Delta Center, which is the fewest home victories in the NHL. Coincidentally enough (or maybe not so coincidentally?), the Utah Jazz, who have won just twice at home this season, also have the worst home record in the NBA.

So much for the Delta Center's alleged home court/ice advantage.

And, yes, the Utah Hockey Club has felt a little extra burden to perform in front of their home fans as the losses have piled up.

"The narrative around the team and our home stretch and everything, we put undue pressure on ourselves," head coach André Tourigny said "And it showed a little bit — not a little bit — it showed in our execution."

Especially early when San Jose got on the board before many fans had even sat down after the National Anthem.

Fabian Zetterlund scored less than a minute into the game, putting Utah into an early hole. If there wasn't pressure before the game, there certainly was then.

The Club has been able to point to close losses to Stanley Cup contenders — against Florida, Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota — as a silver lining to its home struggles. But the Sharks are far from a Cup contender; heck, they are far from a playoff contender.

That, Tourigny believed, only added to the weight of getting a positive result.

"We put a tremendous amount of pressure on ourselves," he said. "We were gripping, like wanting to make too good (of a play). And when you play against the Stanley Cup champion, you don't think of those things; you just play with urgency."

So it was far from a clean game, but Utah demonstrated enough resilience to break through.

Nick Schmaltz scored his seventh goal of the season in the second period to tie the game, setting the stage for Hayton's late-game winner.

"I think we've been in a lot of one-goal games where we just haven't been able to get that last one to capitalize or just execute on a couple scoring plays," Hayton said. "So, yeah, that's a huge one. Obviously, this is a big home stand for us; we've got to take advantage of it."

But even after Hayton's goal, Utah couldn't quite breathe a sigh of relief.

Kevin Stenlund was called for a four-minute high-sticking double-minor with 55.6 seconds remaining, giving the Sharks a power play (and the potential of a second power play if they scored). Oh, and Stendlund, one of Utah's best penalty killers, was in the box.

Gulp.

Alex Kerfoot, though, made a great play with his stick to get the puck out of the San Jose zone, essentially clinching the win.

"Hey, we're in the entertainment business," Tourigny joked as he walked into his postgame press conference.

More seriously, though, he thought the game was part of his team's growth.

"We want to create that relationship with our fans. We want to win. We want to get in the race, want to climb in the standings and all those things," he said. "So that comes with a ton of pressure internally and externally; and for all those reasons, I think that's a good learning experience and a good building block."

The team has five more homes games as part of a season-long seven-game home stand — a stretch that may just make or break the season. So has the pressure alleviated following the win?

"We'll have the answer in about 20 hours," Tourigny said.

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