'We'll never quit': Utah Hockey Club is still believing after 3-1 win over Calgary

SALT LAKE CITY — The St. Louis Blues ruined what would have been a perfectly good playoff-like game at the Delta Center on Tuesday.

But don't tell that to the Utah Hockey Club.

The Blues' long winning streak — which now stands at 10 — took some of the steam out of Utah's game against Calgary.

Dust-ups, retaliation penalties, and sliding block saves showed at least something: Utah hasn't heard the bell. The Hockey Club kept their (albeit slight) playoff hopes alive for a bit longer with a 3-1 win over the Flames.

Utah is 8 points down from the playoff line with seven games remaining, which means they need a lot of winning and plenty of help elsewhere.

Which begs the question: Does the team actually think it's still alive?

"One hundred percent," forward Barrett Hayton said. "We're just worried about our own business at the end of the day; that's all we can control. Each and every night is a war for us, so that's all we're focused on."

Kevin Stenlund gave Utah a first-period lead with a one-timer from the slot after getting teed up by a nifty backhand pass by Alexander Kerfoot. The backhands kept coming in the second when Hayton beat Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf with a backhander to double Utah's lead.

And with how Karel Vejmelka was playing, two goals were good enough (Clayton Keller, though, did add an empty-netter in the third period for his 80th point of the season).

Vejmelka made 33 saves in one of his finest performances of the season. He stopped a shot right at the goal line and made 12 saves alone in the third period as Calgary was pressing for the equalizer.

Oh, and he did that in his 18th straight start.

"It's actually fun to play those kinds of games," he said. "I like to play under pressure, so it's part of it, and I really enjoy it."

He said he's been focusing on recovery and staying mentally ready for "another game, another shift, and another shot," and he tries not to think about having the most consecutive starts by a goalie since 2019.

That said, it hasn't been hard to fight off fatigue.

"(I want to) get us into the playoffs," he said. "It's easy."

There's that playoff word again.

While most everyone has written off Utah's hopes (the team has a 0.7% chance of making the tournament, according to MoneyPuck), the Club itself wants to go down swinging.

"We'll never quit," head coach André Tourigny said. "That's what you want to raise, that's what you want to be as a team — a team that will never quit. There's no quitting in that room. There's no quitting in those players. We won't quit until they pull the plug."

So, is there actually hope?

If Utah can win every game the rest of the year, it will finish with 94 points. That means neither Minnesota (which has seven games left) and St. Louis (which has six) can win anymore than two times for the Club to have a chance to catch them.

Likely? Definitely not. Possible? Well, it will take a lot of scoreboard watching and a season-long winning streak, but, yes, in theory.

Right now, that's good enough for Utah.

"We need to keep winning," Tourigny said. "Whatever the math is, whatever the percentage is, we're like, 'let's keep fighting.'"

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