The Carolina Hurricanes (11-4-0) traveled to Salt Lake City for the first time to play against the newly formed Utah Hockey Club (7-6-3) and lost 4-1.
The Canes recorded over double the amount of shots as Utah, but couldn’t get enough pucks past netminder Karel Vejmelka, who had a career-high 49 saves.
The game-winning goal came early on in the third period from center Jack McBain. Defenseman Michael Kesselring received the puck after center Jesperi Kotkaniemi tried to clear it but did not put enough power behind it. Kesselring skated the puck into the Canes’ defensive zone and sent a pass to McBain who slid it past goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov.
Utah center Nick Bjugstad opened the scoring for the night. He was in the right position at the right time to bury a fortunate bounce off the boards. Left wing Eric Robinson did what he could to clear the puck but was just out of reach for it to be effective.
The game started slowly with most of the action happening in the third. After the first two periods, the score was 1-1, with the Canes having 32 shots on goal and Utah having 13. Vejmelka’s all-star performance kept Utah in the game and helped them earn the win.
A little over 20 seconds after McBain’s game-winning goal, what was thought to be another Utah goal was ultimately called back after the referees concluded that the puck did not fully cross the goal line.
Utah kept fighting to get that goal back and did about two minutes later. Right wing Andrei Svechnikov lost a blade in his skate at the wrong time, giving the puck to his opponent. Utah counterattacked with a three-on-two and snapped it into the back of netting giving itself a two-goal lead.
Utah ended up scoring a total of three goals in two minutes and 19 seconds.
After the second Utah goal, Kochetkov appeared to be hurt but rallied back to stay in the game for a little longer. Coaches and staff noticed his game was off so they substituted in goalie Spencer Martin.
Immediately after Martin was thrown in the game, he made two big saves in a row but couldn’t reposition himself to save the third shot coming from Bjudstad who tallied his second of the night.
After a big hit on center Sebastian Aho, center Jack Drury had a few words for left wing Michael Carcone. Carcone had no interest in listening to Drury and instead instigated a fight, immediately getting himself a 10-minute misconduct and kicked from the game.
Bjugstad was sent to the box to serve the penalties his teammate drew: a five-minute major for fighting and a two-minute minor for instigating. The Canes could not find the strength to score on this seven-minute penalty.
Defensemen Ian Cole was sent to the box soon after for hooking center Jordan Staal, giving the Canes yet another chance on the powerplay that was wasted away.
The lone goal of the night for Carolina came from center Martin Necas on the powerplay, extending his point streak to 11 games. He and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere faked out the defense to give Necas just enough room to let off a slapshot past Vejmelka.
The Carolina Hurricanes come home to take on the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, Nov. 16th at 7 p.m. at the Lenovo Center.
