How Kesselring's fight helped Utah HC overcome 3-goal deficit to salvage point against Toronto

SALT LAKE CITY — Simon Benoit jumped up and cocked his fist.

The Toronto defenseman had just scored a goal to put the Maple Leafs up 3-0, and it looked like he wanted to deliver the knockout punch — literally.

Moments after his goal, he dropped gloves with Utah's Michael Kesselring and went for a Superman punch. Instead of knocking Utah out, though, the fight sparked the Hockey Club.

Before the period was over, Utah had tied the game before eventually salvaging a point from a poor start with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Maple Leafs.

"For me today, we didn't lose; that's the way I think," head coach André Tourigny said. "We didn't lose a hockey game; we lost a skill competition."

Toronto won that skill contest 2-1, with goals from Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Clayton Keller had a beauty of a goal for Utah, but it wasn't enough.

Just getting to that point can be considered a win, though. Utah looked done — and still found a result. For that, Tourigny credits Kesselring's willingness to jump into the fray when things looked the most bleak.

Benoit's goal was upheld after a lengthy review to see if the puck had been deflected by a high stick. Utah thought it definitely had, but the officials ruled there wasn't enough conclusive evidence to overturn it. No matter how much Utah disagreed, it still found itself in a three-goal hole early in the second.

"I wasn't too happy after I thought it was a high stick," Kesselring said. "We thought it was a high stick. … It's a huge game. We've got to try to get some momentum."

So he dropped the gloves. He just didn't expect Benoit to go flying toward him.

"That was a little interesting," Kesselring said of the WWE-like punch. "But whatever, it's a fight, right? So you sign up for it. You know something's coming, so it's all good."

He wasn't the only one a little surprised.

"Something I never did, I'm taking notes," Toronto coach Craig Berube said. "Yeah, I haven't seen that. I don't know if I've ever seen that. Maybe years ago, at some point somebody did it, but we actually got a great picture of it; it's pretty cool."

After the jumping punch, Kesselring got some blows in himself before the players tumbled down. Benoit appeared to pop his thumb back in place in the penalty box. Kesselring, meanwhile, went back to the training room after the back of his head hit the ice at the end of the scuffle.

That meant he missed what his fight had started.

Michael Carcone scored off a nice feed from Josh Doan. And less than a minute later, Nick Schmaltz put in a pass from Olli Maatta. Barrett Hayton then tied things up by deflecting Mikhail Sergachev's entry pass in over Toronto goalie Joseph Woll.

Utah scored three goals in just about four minutes to even things up. A game that was out of reach had been salvaged.

"Yeah, to be honest, I missed some of it, but, yeah, obviously we came out flying after that," Kesselring said. "I thought we took it to them honestly. The rest of the game we didn't give up too much, so really good effort. We need to build on it, we need to keep playing that way."

While Kesselring might not have been able to see it as he was being looked at (he returned later in the period), his team gave him credit for shifting the momentum.

"That was awesome for us and really elevated us," said Keller, who recorded his 50th assist of the season. "It sucks to not get the 2 points tonight, but I think everyone dug in tonight."

Kesselring hoped for that when he opted to drop the gloves. Since the return of John Marino and Sean Durzi, Kesselring has seen his role be more limited. So he is looking for different ways to impact the game.

"I'm playing a little less, so I've got to find ways to impact the game," he said. "So I thought it was a good opportunity. He's a tough kid, and respect to him for fighting. He doesn't have to when it's 3-0. But, yeah, just try to get the boys going a little bit. We need every point we can get."

That's why even a loss felt like a minor victory on Monday.

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