Mikhail Sergachev’s heroics and 2 other reasons why Utah Hockey Club keeps winning

The Delta Center crowd leapt to its feet, roars filled the arena and the goal horn blasted as Utah Hockey Club flooded the ice.

The team mounted a third-period comeback after trailing the Vancouver Canucks 2-0 on Wednesday night. Mikhail Sergachev won it 3-2 in overtime, marking Utah’s first victory on home ice since Nov. 13.

Utah has now won five of its last six games and is one point out of playoff positioning in the Western Conference.

How has the team found consistency and strung together this streak?

Sergachev continues to be an MVP-caliber player

With the game tied 2-2, Sergachev threw himself in front of a rocketed Vancouver shot and blocked it with his arm in the last two minutes of the third period.

“My arm was dead,” the defenseman said.

Sergachev remained on the bench as regulation time expired and overtime commenced. He would usually start the five-minute, 3-on-3 period, but Sergachev was working to get feeling back in his arm.

“He’s banged up a little bit so we didn’t know if he could play in overtime,” head coach André Tourigny said. “We knew he could not start. We told him, ‘As soon as you think you can give us a shift you tell us.’ He went at the end of overtime and that was worth it.”

Sergachev, as he has done all season, mustered all the strength and stamina he had to help the team earn two points.

After being trapped in the defensive zone with Logan Cooley and Nick Schmaltz, Sergachev and Utah got their break. Cooley picked up the puck along the left boards and dashed the other way. Sergachev joined him on the 2-on-1 and backhanded the cross-crease pass in for the 3-2 victory with 12 seconds left on the clock.

“Cooley got the puck so always drive the net,” Sergachev said. “He made a sick saucer. I kind of got lucky there — it kind of hit the defenseman’s stick and went five-hole, but I don’t care.”

Sergachev’s game-winner was also his eighth goal and 23rd point of the season after logging a team-high 27:02 of ice time against Vancouver.

He could’ve sat for the rest of the game, but he didn’t. Utah won because of it.

“That was desperation, that was urgency,” Tourigny said.

Sergachev wore an “A” on Wednesday and played to the responsibility. His leadership on and off the ice has quickly been recognized by both teammates and fans since getting traded to Utah this summer.

Sergachev is one of Utah’s biggest difference-makers.

“Sergy makes an unbelievable block on the one-timer there that maybe saves a goal for us,” Utah captain Clayton Keller said. “That’s a huge play by him and it’s great to see him get rewarded with the game-winner as well.”

Finding different ways to win, especially in the third period

Utah Hockey Club did not play a perfect game against the Canucks.

But good teams find ways to win and that is what Utah has done as of late.

Utah unraveled during stretches of the second. Danton Heinen scored on the power play to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead while Utah went 0-for-2 on its own man advantage. The Canucks were quick to extend their lead with a goal from Dakota Joshua 2:45 into the third.

If Wednesday’s matchup was in late October, Utah would’ve likely let the game slip away. When things went wrong, they went really wrong and the team could not regroup — physically or mentally — to give itself a chance to win.

That narrative has drastically changed. Utah has matured. It has gained resilience.

“I think it shows that we are learning from our mistakes prior,” Keller said. “If you stick with it, keep doing the little things, eventually the tide will turn. I’m happy with how we battled through some adversity tonight and got the two points.”

Keller was the one who got Utah back in the fight with his 11th goal of the season and fourth in four games. The captain dropped the puck to Schmaltz and dashed to the net to bury the rebound of his linemate’s shot from the high slot for the 2-1 scoreline at 9:02.

Dylan Guenther potted the 2-2 equalizer from his regular left-circle position on the first unit. Keller hit Guenther with a cross-zone pass for the 21-year-old to one-time home at 15:30 for his team-leading 14th goal of the season and fourth in four three games.

“Adversity will happen, it’s how you react to adversity,” Tourigny said. “The way that they reacted to adversity — it was a great comeback.”

Utah had to play shut down defensively in the final 4:30 of regulation but still push for offense itself. The team has recently found the right balance of not giving its opponents too much respect in key moments of the game, but also skating responsibly in all three zones.

Those third-period efforts and heightened believability got Utah to overtime where Sergachev sealed it.

“It’s saying we are growing as a group,” Sergachev said. “We are a young group but we can make playoffs, we can play in the playoffs, we can play against playoff teams. We show it on a nightly basis.”

Good, consistent goaltending

Utah Hockey Club had not yet taken the ice for warmups and “VEG-GIE” chants broke out in the crowd when the goaltender was briefly shown on the jumbotron.

Fans’ fond reception of Vejmelka has a direct link to how he has played for them — very well. The netminder posted 26 saves on 28 shots against Vancouver, adding to his 2.37 goals against average and .915 save percentage.

It sounds redundant at this point, but Vejmelka’s steadiness has given Utah the chance to win in every game it has played the last month.

“He’s been awesome. He’s been kicking ever since he stepped in there,” Keller said. “He’s got his swagger, his confidence back. He’s such a good goalie. He’s tough to score on in practice.”

Ian Cole was called for high-sticking 13 seconds after Keller’s tally which made it 2-1, forcing Utah into a make-or-break penalty kill. It ate all two minutes of it and Vejmelka was a big part of stopping Vancouver’s power play which ranks ninth-best in the league.

His calm, direct and precise showing kept things close until Utah could find its scoring touch later on in the night. Without Vejmelka, this team does not win five out of six.

“He does the little things and he cares a lot,” Keller said. “It’s good to see him have this much success for sure and he’s going to keep it going.”

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