Make it back-to-back wins in overtime for the Utah Hockey Club as the team began its three-game road trip with a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Utah is now on a two-game winning streak, hoping to rack up more wins as we get close to the 4-Nations Face-Off break. Here are three takeaways from Thursday night’s game.
Lawson Crouse Gets On the Board After Being Healthy Scratch
This season, Lawson Crouse has been an extremely disappointing player. In the past three seasons, he has scored 20-plus goals. In the past two seasons, he’s had 40-plus point seasons. This season, Crouse only has eight goals and 12 points. His questionable play built up to the point where he was healthy scratched during Utah’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
However, Crouse was mature and honest about the whole situation. He accepted it and knew he had to get better. Fortunately for him, the time to step back into the lineup came quickly as another struggling forward, Matias Maccelli, was scratched in place of Crouse.
It wasn’t long before Crouse made an impact in his return to the lineup. Just a couple of minutes into the second period, the second power-play unit was still buzzing right after the Blue Jackets killed their penalty. Josh Doan showed some great determination and patience by finessing the puck from the Blue Jackets’ defense and also waiting to allow the rest of the unit to set up. Once Doan saw Crouse and slid the puck over for a one-timer, it made its way into the back of the net.
It was Crouse’s eighth goal of the season. While it was his only shot on goal and he only played 11:12, the forward looked better. He played a great two-way game and head coach André Tourigny was pleased with what he saw from Crouse.
Related: 3 Utah HC Players Who Could Be Traded at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline
“He played hard, he was focused, he was intense,” Tourigny said. “I really liked his game.”
Tourigny was also pleased with what he saw from Doan during Crouse’s goal. It showed brilliant hockey IQ and it was the reason why the goal was even set up in the first place.
“What’s underrated on that play is he wanted to shoot first and when he saw the play close, he was capable of changing his mind, looking for the next option and made the right decision,” Tourigny said.
Scratching Crouse was the right move and idea by Tourigny and the coaching staff. While he certainly isn’t the only disappointing player on Utah, he is the biggest name, especially in the locker room. By scratching Crouse, the coaches sent a message to the rest of the team: no one is safe, no matter how big of a role you play. It’s created pressure for everyone to play their best, which is exactly what Utah needs right now.
“It is nice to have that internal competition and have a little bit of a feeling that you have to play well no matter what,” Doan said. “I think it’s driving us a little bit right now.”
For Crouse, Utah is hoping him being healthy scratched on Tuesday gave him a jolt and that his goal on Thursday wasn’t a fluke. Utah needs him to play well again. Otherwise, it will be more nights up in the press box for him.
Dylan Guenther Is the Hero Once Again
Who else would be the hero in overtime? Dylan Guenther once again scored the overtime winner with less than a minute remaining to win the game for Utah. The young forward has been nothing short of explosive since returning from injury and his back-to-back games with overtime winners just prove it.
It all started in Utah’s zone, however. The Blue Jackets were about to escape with an incredible opportunity, with all three of their players being ahead of the nearest Utah defender. Two of those players clipped into each other knocking them out of position while the other Blue Jackets player lost control of the puck. It bounced right into Connor Ingram, and he quickly saw Guenther up ice. Ingram made a long-range pass to Guenther, who was all alone. After his initial shot, he was able to put home the rebound, ending the game in favor of Utah.
Guenther’s goal was his fourth point in the past two games and his third goal as well. He’s been impressive ever since coming back. What’s equally as impressive was Ingram’s pass which helped Guenther score the game-winner. The forward didn’t even see the puck until it landed on his stick.
“I saw they were offside, so once I saw (that) Ingy got it, I kind of figured he was going to shoot it,” Guenther said. “I didn’t really even see it. I just started skating and it landed on my stick.”
It doesn’t surprise anyone the level Guenther is playing on this season. For a guy like Doan, he’s seen this in the NHL for the past two seasons and the American Hockey League for a couple of years now as well. He’s not surprised by what he’s seen from his teammate.
“He’s awesome to watch,” Doan said. “I’ve gotten the opportunity to watch him now for three, four years being in the organization and it’s not something that really surprises me that he’s doing what he’s doing right now.”
We’ll see if Guenther can continue his tear when Utah plays back-to-back morning games on Saturday and Sunday. However, he’s been the savior for Utah recently and it’s helped them out tremendously.
Utah Is Finally Finding Ways to Win
With the multiple overtime points and the past two wins, Utah has started to make up ground in the wild card hunt. They are four points back of the Calgary Flames and six points back of the Vancouver Canucks for the second wild-card spot. How Utah is still in the playoff conversation despite losing multiple games straight is a great question but here they are, still fighting to play some playoff hockey.
What Utah has done differently in the past two games is finding ways to win. The team has had numerous one-goal losses in the past couple of weeks. The passion and urge to win have been questionable in each of those losses, but not on Thursday. Utah played with composure but also played like they really wanted to win the game. They didn’t play their best hockey but they stuck with it and in the end, it paid off.
“I think we controlled our emotions much better and we were able to come back playing with a lot of passion, a lot of pace which I really liked,” Tourigny said. “I think we found a way to push through.”
Utah also outshot the Blue Jackets 33-22, which has been another department that the team has remained inconsistent in. If Utah can continue a composed, patient, and passionate game as they did on Thursday, it could be a massive turning point in the season. However, we’ve seen this team collapse after good spells like these.
Look at the three-game winning streak Utah was on to begin the season and how they proceeded to lose six of their next seven games. How about the stretch of games in late November to late December where they were able to get points in 12 out of 13 games and then followed it up by losing 10 of their next 12? There is no sort of winning consistency with this team and it’s more than okay to be skeptical during any point in time where they’ve strung together wins. However, if they can keep finding ways to win like they did on Thursday, consistency should come. Guenther agrees and thinks the team can hang around in more games if they stick to that formula.
“I don’t think that we played our best today and we found a way to win,” Guenther said. “When you’re in those situations more often I think you get more comfortable and more confident. We’re going to be in a lot of those moving forward.”
We’ll see if Guenther’s claim can be backed up as Utah will play their final two games on Saturday and Sunday before a nearly two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. They’ll play the Carolina Hurricanes first on Saturday. The Hurricanes are 32-19-4 this season and are coming off a 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild. These two teams met back in November where Utah pulled off a memorable 4-1 win thanks to a 49-save night from Karel Vejmelka.
