Utah Hockey Club can score in a hurry, but is that enough to be a winner?

Utah Hockey Club has wasted no time making a distinct first impression in its inaugural season.

What does the rest of the National Hockey League know so far? Utah can score, and a lot.

The team is currently second in the NHL with 16 goals scored.

Utah’s highest-scoring game of the young season came Saturday night in the 6-5 overtime win against the New York Rangers. Clayton Keller’s game-winning tally pushed Utah over the edge and marked his third goal and sixth point in three games. The captain swerved his way into the crease and got a sharp shot off with little space.

“It’s something I kind of like to do in tight,” Keller said. “My first look was [defenseman Mikhail Sergachev], and they kind of went towards him, so I just tried to take it to the net and do something I’m comfortable with.”

That type of play is not only a strength of Keller’s but his team’s.

While Utah has yet to play a truly cohesive 60 minutes, it has put its opponents on their heels early with its speed and tenacity to earn inside ice. The Hockey Club refuses to stay to the perimeter in the offensive zone and always has someone stationed in front to screen the goalie and jump on second-chance opportunities.

“We have a team with talent, but for us the battle is to get inside, get in dirty areas, get those greasy goals,” head coach André Tourigny said. “I think we’re a threat at passing the puck, but we’re a bigger threat right now going to the net and getting those in-tight goals.”

Barrett Hayton is a forward who has thrived off of that type of play. The first-line center has three goals — two of which were net-front tip-ins — thanks to his ability to fight for space around the crease and crash toward the goaltender off the rush.

It’s early in the season, but Hayton looks like he has found a consistency that he was missing last year. The 24-year-old skated in just 33 games for the team in 2023-24 due to a lower-body injury; he had 10 points (three goals, seven assists). Hayton has opened this season with five points in three games.

“You’re watching a lot of games and learning a lot of stuff so you just get a different perspective,” Hayton said of being injured. “I took some of that into the offseason and also into the start of this season. Some of it has paid off.”

Hayton’s top line with Keller and Nick Schmaltz has combined for 15 points thus far; the top six as a whole has combined for 26 points.

But the team’s forward depth has been a strength and allowed Utah to have a goal-scoring threat no matter who is on the ice. That’s especially true now that Matias Maccelli is skating on the fourth line with Alex Kerfoot moved up to the third line to center Lawson Crouse and Josh Doan.

Dylan Guenther — who occupies the right wing on the second line with Jack McBain and Logan Cooley — has been a main contributor to Utah’s start-of-season offensive burst. The 21-year-old forward leads the NHL in scoring with five goals, including a timely power-play snapshot at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

“Whenever I try to shoot it I try to just get it off as quick as possible,” Guenther said. “The goalies are so good. So I think quickness beats accuracy.”

Utah signed Guenther to an eight-year, $57.14 million contract extension in September and he has met the moment and his new-found responsibility with star power.

“When you’re on the ice and you have his talent, you have an opportunity to shoot the puck really well,” Tourigny said. “He does so many good things on the ice, that’s the difference.”

The Hockey Club’s 16 goals to open the year have drawn attention and are an obvious positive.

How sustainable it is, though, is another matter.

The team went scoreless in a loss to the New Jersey Devils on Monday. The Devils’ three goals brought Utah up to 14 goals allowed this year — the sixth most in the NHL

And while the team’s two overtime victories might have been thrilling, Utah cannot expect to score 5-plus goals a night to bail it out of defensive mistakes — it was a pattern that caught up to the Arizona Coyotes last season.

“We stay focused on getting better every day. We score a lot of goals, but we give up too much, and that’s with great goaltending. … We need to tighten up defensively,” Tourigny said.

The addition of John Marino will help shore up the blue-line support. The experienced defenseman — who Utah acquired during the offseason — is starting the year on injured reserve and is listed as week to week.

It is clear the team wants, and is capable of, taking a turn in the rebuild this season. Supplementing top-ranked goal-scoring with stable, shutdown defense will be key to winning tightly contested battles down the stretch.

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