Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Utah defeated Winnipeg 4-1, showcasing potential playoff intensity and skill.
- Clayton Keller reached 500 points; Barrett Hayton nears 20-goal milestone.
- Utah's playoff hopes remain slim, but victory hints at future possibilities.
SALT LAKE CITY — The chants slowly crescendoed as the clock ticked down.
"Let's go Utah!" … "Let's go Utah!" … "Let's go Utah!"
The rhythmic chants slowly built to a near-deafening point as the Utah Hockey Club closed out a 4-1 win over the league-leading Winnipeg Jets at the Delta Center Saturday night.
Clayton Keller notched his 500th point, Barrett Hayton moved one goal from reaching his first 20-goal season, and Karel Vejmelka, once again, proved to be just about impenetrable in the crease.
Utah outskated Winnipeg for much of the night, building a 3-0 lead in the second period before withstanding a Winnipeg push in the third.
"When you play the best teams, that's when you want to play your best," Keller said.
Added head coach André Tourigny: "I like the fact we're not scared."
But, by besting Winnipeg for the second time this season, Utah might have left its fans with some lingering what-ifs. See, the Jets are the prize Utah has been chasing for the better part of two months.
Whichever team ends up in the final wild-card spot will almost certainly land a date with Winnipeg, the squad that has sat at the top of the NHL since the beginning of the season.
Utah almost certainly won't be that squad — even with the win, its chances are still under 1% of making a miracle run to the postseason — but Saturday provided a tantalizing taste of what it may have been like had the team been included in the playoff.
It's a youthful team that uses its speed to get opportunistic strikes; a power-play led by a still-young captain taking advantage of chances; a team that looked like it could stand toe-to-toe with the league's best.
Throw in the electrifying crowd, and it wasn't too hard to imagine what a playoff game would feel like … in time.
Keller wasted little time taking advantage of a power play early in the first period. The Utah captain scored seven seconds into the team's man-advantage of the evening to give Utah a 1-0 lead 4:24 into the game.
Utah struck again on the man-advantage in the second period when Hayton backhanded the puck past Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck to give Utah a 2-0 lead. The goal was Hayton's 19th of the season (Keller got an assist on the play, which gave him his 500th NHL point).
Then Kevin Stenlund did something not many players do: He beat Hellebuyck clean. Mikhail Sergachev found Stenlund with a blue-line-to-blue-line pass, and then Stenlund sniped one past the world's best goalie.
That was his 13th goal of the season, continuing his career year, and extended Utah's lead to 3-0 late in the second period.
Utah jumped out on the best team in the league and then withstood a third-period push.
"We believe in ourselves," Tourigny said about playing the top teams. "We have no complex against those teams."
Utah has beaten the Jets twice this season and smoked Las Vegas. It beat Colorado on the road and swept Vancouver and Calgary. But there have been other setbacks and bad bounces that have left Utah in its current position: on the doorstep of Game 83, but likely not being able to go through the door.
(Yes, there is a narrow path: If Utah wins out and Minnesota only wins one more game, the Club could still jump into the final spot. And, hey, it's sports; crazy things happen.)
"We're still learning every single game just how hard it is to win," Keller said. "You have to do it every night. It's the best league in the world little mistakes can be the difference in a win or a loss."
The lessons just may have come too late for this season. But that didn't stop the team from giving its fans — and even itself — a small sample of what a first-round would have (may still?) looked like.
