3 Takeaways From Utah’s 3-1 Win Over Canucks

Sunday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks should be one the Utah Hockey Club looks back on for a long time as an example of the type of hockey they should always play. Despite coming off of an extremely disappointing loss to the Seattle Kraken, Utah rebounded and played a great game against the Canucks, winning 3-1. Here are some takeaways from Sunday’s game.

Logan Cooley Bounces Back

Logan Cooley has struggled a bit in the past couple of games. He hadn’t scored a single point in the past six games, which isn’t normal at all. With that in mind, head coach André Tourigny made a decision that would pay dividends almost immediately. He switched Cooley from centering the second line to playing on the wing.

The move worked. In the third period, Cooley was able to grab a rebound and put it into the back of the net to give his team the first lead of the game. You could tell a huge weight came off his shoulders. A little shakeup is exactly what he needed.

“It definitely feels like the weight of the world is off my shoulders now,” Cooley said.

Cooley is part of the young core that general manager Bill Armstrong has assembled over the past four years alongside Dylan Guenther and Michael Kesselring. He will be a vital part of this team when they eventually get to the point where they’re competing for the Stanley Cup. It’s okay to struggle now to learn you can fix your play if you continue to work hard which is something Cooley does every night.

The good thing about Cooley is that he’s not a lazy player. He’s a player that wants to make a difference. While everyone knows that he’s only going to get better and better, he’s a player that strives for greatness now. Tourigny knows that and is helping Cooley try to grow but also be his best self right now.

“When you talk to him about being patient, he looks (at) you like you look at your grandfather when he tells you stories about ‘in the old days,’” Tourigny said, “He has no time for that. He wants right here, right now. He wants to make a difference.”

Cooley is up to 18 goals and 48 assists this season in 60 games. That is four more points than his totals last season where he played the full 82-game season. As only a 20-year-old, the fact he’s almost a point-per-game player is quite impressive.

Cooley will have tough growing moments in the future as well because he’s only 20. However, his maturity and his passion for winning and always improving will help him get through that. It’s what makes him special and reliable. That is the exact kind of culture Armstrong wants to build in Salt Lake City, which is exactly why Cooley is a player they’ll look to build off of.

Resilient Against Questionable Decisions

Players can’t control every aspect of the game. What a referee calls or does is sometimes out of the team’s control. Bad calls can fly either way. It’s because the refs are human, so they make mistakes. It’s hard doing that job, especially doing it at the highest level with the best athletes from any sport. However, Sunday’s game had some questionable decisions made by the officials, and it wasn’t just one call.

It started when Guenther scored early in the second period. However, the refs quickly waived it off due to goaltender interference. Michael Carcone indeed made contact with Kevin Lankinen, but it was because a Canucks player shoved him into the goaltender. That would be considered a good goal in any other situation because it wasn’t Carcone’s fault that Lankinen was interfered with, and it wouldn’t have happened if he was never shoved.

The other questionable decision that could’ve heavily affected the outcome of the game was the double minor on Clayton Keller. Toward the end of the third period, Keller was shoved by Brock Boeser into the boards. While he was falling, Keller’s stick wacked Boeser in the face causing him to bleed and for the refs to award a double minor to Utah’s captain.

Yes, a high stick to the face is a penalty, but in this situation, it’s heavily questionable. Again, the only reason why that happened was because Boeser caused Keller to fall. There was nowhere else his stick was going to go.

In the end, it didn’t matter because Utah continued to play some good hockey. They ended up killing the double minor, which could’ve been a huge momentum swing for the Canucks. It speaks volumes about how the defense responded after a rough game on Friday against the Kraken.

It also is huge because despite getting a goal taken away from them and a double minor going against them, Utah stuck with it and won anyway. They didn’t let the questionable calls hang over them, rather they continued fighting, realizing how important this game is. It’s a true showing of resilience.