The Utah Hockey Club officially started its own NHL history to great fanfare Tuesday, christening the Delta Center and their franchise’s birth with a 5-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Hawks had been anticipating a raucous crowd for Utah’s first-ever game since it was a familiar position for them — it was the fifth-straight season opening on the road.
“We just maybe have to get through that first 10 minutes,” Connor Bedard said before the game. “They’re going to be fired up, their crowd is going to be into it. … If we can match that energy I think we’ll be good.”
Utah didn’t even require five minutes to whip the crowd of 11,131 into a frenzy.
They sped through the Hawks’ neutral zone defense with numbers, and Dylan Guenther hung back by the blue line and scored on a slapper at the 4:56 mark.
Clayton Keller made it 2-0 about 9 minutes later.
The Hawks carried over their problem of slow starts from last season, getting outshot 6-1 in the first period.
In the second period, Hawks center Philipp Kurashev had an open far-side shot on Connor Ingram but drew iron. Bedard’s main wing last season, Kurashev played on the second line with Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi on Tuesday.
The Hawks turned up the pressure with 11 shots in the second, but Barrett Hayton padded Utah’s lead to 3-0.
The Hawks looked disjointed on their first power play. Bedard fell to his knees while spinning around in the corner and turned the puck over.
Later, Bedard couldn’t do anything with a slick backhanded pass from Tyler Bertuzzi, but Bedard set up Teuvo Teräväinen for the Hawks’ first goal of the season.
The intensity picked up in the third period after Nick Foligno tipped in Alex Vlasic’s shot from the high slot to bring the Hawks within one goal.
Bedard and Hall raised the tension in the building on breakaway chances, but Ingram stopped them both.
Guenther salted the game away with an empty-netter and Lawson Crouse added an insurance goal with 22 seconds remaining.
“We waded into the game a little bit. We knew it was going to be a hostile environment,” Nick Foligno said. “I thought we actually had a great first shift, but they just got to their game a little faster than we did in the first. And then honestly I thought we took over. The posts that we hit, the chances that we had — yeah, they’re going to get their opportunities, they’re a skilled team — but for the most part we carried the play and really deserved to equalize the game.
“That’s the disappointing part.”
