History made as Utah Hockey Club get its first win of inaugural season

Utah Hockey Club already made history by playing the first ever NHL game in Salt Lake City and it continued to do so with their season-opener win Tuesday.

The club took down the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 with many key contributors throughout the game. One of them was forward Dylan Guenther, who scored two goals including the first ever goal scored in the club’s history.

Another contributor outside of Guenther include goaltender Connor Ingram. He was the key cog in preventing a last ditch comeback effort from the Blackhawks with 24 saves including 11 in the final period to maintain the lead.

There were three goal scorers on the night were captain forward Clayton Keller, forward Barrett Hayton and forward Lawson Crouse.

Forward Liam “Spicy Tuna” O’Brien provided brute force for the squad with six hits on the night.

The real meat and potatoes from this game was the hype going into the game and the atmosphere during the game. BYU alum Ryan Smith, owner of the club, and executive chairman of Qualtrics, described the atmosphere outside of the Delta Center.

“It’s a hockey town now, baby,” Smith said with minority owner and NBA Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade by his side.

Smith made a bold challenge between the Hockey Club and Jazz. “It's a race to the rafters on who's hanging the first banner!” he said.

Ever since the arrival of the team, fans have embraced the players with open arms. New star defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and forward Lawson Crouse were surprised and well pleased with the hospitality their friendly Utah neighbors provided them.

“They saw a lot of boxes in my garage, and they’re like, ‘We’ll unpack it for you,’” Sergachev told NHL columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika. “I’m like, ‘No, come on. Relax.’ It feels like they’re too nice. Whatever I need, they’re here to help. I’ve never had neighbors that are that into it. Everything here and everybody is super nice.”

“My neighbors are all fired up, everyone you talk to,” Crouse told Cotsonika. “I think word travels pretty quick that hockey players are in town, and everyone’s so excited, so it’s cool to be a part of that, the buzz.”

Photo by Reese Strickland

Forward Logan Cooley, who scored two points by dishing out two assists on the night, described the atmosphere to reporters after the game as “the loudest building [he’s] ever played in.”

One reason for this can be attributed to the expanded capacity of the stadium from roughly 12,000 seats originally to 16,200 seats which still only makes it the third highest seating capacity out of all NHL arenas. With many arenas that can seat more people, the fans can take a lot of the credit to make up the difference and then some.

As wonderful and historical as this is, what does this entail for BYU? Should it get its hockey team back? Ever since its hockey program got disbanded at the end of the 2021-2022 season, people have wondered when hockey will come back to the school. With the Utah Hockey Club trending in the right direction, will the Cougars follow suit? Only time will tell.

The club will look to its next matchup at UBS Arena Thursday against the New York Islanders at 5:30 p.m. The game is broadcasted on KUPX-TV Channel 16 and can be streamed on ESPN+.