ST. LOUIS — Dylan Guenther scored the go-ahead goal with 3:21 remaining in the third period, and the Utah Hockey Club defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-2 at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Guenther gave Utah a 3-2 lead at 16:39 after intercepting Jordan Kyrou’s pass in the offensive zone and scoring when his centering pass deflected off Blues defenseman Colton Parayko on a 2-on-1. Guenther was looking to pass the puck to Logan Cooley.
“Kind of a lucky bounce,” said Guenther, who also had an assist. “[Parayko] made a good defensive read and sometimes you get rewarded like that.”
Kyrou had gained the offensive zone going from left to right and tried to drop a pass back to Ryan Suter, but Guenther picked it off to create the 2-on-1.
“As a team, we have to recognize that we haven’t played well for 55 minutes of the game, and we’re in a 2-2 game and we just have to push that to overtime,” St. Louis coach Drew Bannister said. “… It’s just a bad bounce, but it shouldn’t be in there at that point.”
UTA@STL: Guenther gives Utah Hockey Club a 3-2 lead
Jack McBain scored into an empty net with four seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.
Michael Kesselring and Matias Maccelli also scored for Utah (6-5-3), which had lost six of seven (1-4-2) and five straight on the road (0-3-2). Connor Ingram made 13 saves.
“We had a few good games in the past few, but we didn’t get the points,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “It was important tonight to find a way to get the two points, especially when they tied it in the third. I think we bounced back.”
Kyrou scored for the third straight game, Parayko also scored, and Pavel Buchnevich had two assists for the Blues (7-7-0), who had won two in a row. Joel Hofer made 27 saves.
“We were just a little sloppy with the puck,” St. Louis forward Brandon Saad said. “They do a good job of clogging up the neutral zone, they’ve got a lot of speed and skill going the other way. I think we just got stubborn with it, didn’t get pucks in deep.”
Kesselring gave Utah a 1-0 lead 18 seconds into the first period when his breakaway attempt slid through Hofer’s legs.
“[Clayton Keller] likes to make plays, that line likes to make plays,” Kesselring said. “I kind of saw that he saw me, so I got on my horse a bit and he made a great pass. A little alley-oop and luckily it went in.”
UTA@STL: Kesselring scores just 18 seconds into the game
Parayko tied it 1-1 at 18:41 on a wrist shot from the slot over Ingram’s glove.
Maccelli put Utah back ahead 2-1 at 18:09 of the second period with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
Kyrou tied it 2-2 at 13:29 of the third period on a one-timer from the left circle after Buchevich stick-handled into the slot.
“He made a great play there, dangled two guys and set me up,” Kyrou said of Buchnevich. “(But) I’ve just got to be more direct there (on the go-ahead goal in the third). Time of the game there, just got to put that deep.”
NOTES: Blues forward Dylan Holloway played two days after being stretchered off in the first period of a 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning when he was hit with a puck on the right side of the neck. … Kesselring scored the fastest game-opening goal in the NHL this season. … Suter played in his 1,458th regular-season game, passing Glen Wesley for 27th in NHL history.
