How One Missed Pass Snowballed into Utah HC's Worst Loss of Inaugural Season

Mar 18, 2025; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; The Edmonton Oilers celebrate a goal scored by forward Zach Hyman (18), his second of the game during the second period against the Utah Hockey Club at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images

Riding the highs of its 3-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks, Utah HC couldn't have anticipated that it was about to experience its worst loss of the season- a 7-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

After trading goal shot streaks, with the Oilers registering the first four and then Utah responding with four of its own, more than halfway through the first period, the game was still scoreless.

But when Edmonton's Darnell Nurse was assessed a cross-checking penalty against Kevin Stenlund, Utah had a man advantage and an opportunity to capitalize on the Oilers mistake by scoring the first goal of the game.

However, just 26 seconds into the power play, it was the Oilers who were celebrating after capitalizing on a Utah mistake:

Shorthanded, backhanded brilliance 🤩 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/GPnlNNNVp7
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 19, 2025

With Utah's Mikhail Sergachev stumbling forward after trying to collect a Dylan Guenther pass, it was Edmonton's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who took the puck off the boards and got a breakaway. With Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz too far away, Nugent-Hopkins scored the first goal of the game

What came next was reminiscent of the common saying, "When it rains, it pours."

First, Utah was assessed a holding penalty after Jack McBain was caught holding Nugent-Hopkins.

While a penalty doesn’t always spell doom, this one was especially ill-timed, as it wiped out Utah’s remaining power play time, denying Utah a chance to retaliate Edmonton's shorthanded goal. Plus, it allowed the Oilers to keep all the momentum it gained after their first goal.

The penalty also proved costly, as the Oilers scored their second goal just as McBain was getting out of the penalty box.

ZMH PPG 😤 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/goS4yYuxcV
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 19, 2025

There were several issues with Utah's defense on this play.

First, Nugent-Hopkins, who scored the game’s first goal, was left wide open on the right side of the net. In response, Utah’s Olli Määttä was forced to leave Edmonton’s Zach Hyman to contest him.

However, that decision proved to be a costly mistake, as it left Hyman wide open right next to the net. With Hayton too late on his rotation, no one was close enough to prevent Hyman from scoring an easy goal.

Utah Hockey Club Files Trademark Hinting At Possible Team NameAccording to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Uyte LLC—the same company that filed previous trademarks for the Utah Hockey Club—has now filed a trademark for the nickname "Mammoth."

But placing the blame solely on Hayton and Määttä wouldn’t make sense, as the play seemed to be a team-wide issue with executing proper rotations.

But the defensive mistakes wouldn't end there, as Utah suffered another breakdown, this time with only less than 10 seconds remaining in the period.

Now Utah see him, now Utah don't 😅 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/Uj0gYTVGVD
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 19, 2025

The fact that Utah not only allowed the Oilers' Connor McDavid to race past its entire defense to score the third goal of the period, but that it happened with so little time left, was a huge mental mistake by the team.

Utah simply allowed McDavid too much space to work with and didn’t alter his path in the slightest.

Even still, with Utah down 3-0, recent games against the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs had to still be fresh in their minds, as Utah had shown it could come back from two, even three-goal deficits to force overtime.

But while Utah's backup goalie Jaxson Stauber—who Tourigny subbed in to replace starting goalie Karel Vejmelka with the intent to rest him after 11 consecutive starts and hopefully give the team a spark—started off with five saves, the Edmonton Oilers couldn’t be stopped, scoring two more goals in each period

Tourigny on pulling #UtahHC Karel Vejmelka:

"I think at that point, it was an opportunity to give him a little bit of rest and get Stauber some work. Obviously you never know that can spark something."
— Belle Fraser (@bellefraser1) March 19, 2025

The seven goals Utah gave up matched its season high for most goals allowed, as it also gave up seven goals to the Carolina Hurricanes back in February.

But unlike that game, Utah would suffer its worst scoring differential, as Utah scored three times in its game against the Hurricanes but only managed to score once in this game time, thanks to Sean Durzi's second goal of the season.

Durzi gets us on the board. pic.twitter.com/GFJZ3NQmba
— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) March 19, 2025

Utah HC may have avoided its first shutout since losing 1-0 to the Boston Bruins back in November, but that was about the only redeeming quality of Utah's 7-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

There simply wasn’t much resistance on defense from Utah, as it allowed too many breakaways, man-advantages, high-danger shots and even shorthanded goal attempts.

It’s also never a good sign when you give up two unassisted goals to the other team, as Utah did tonight.

To make matters worse, Utah was the only team to lose out of the four teams vying for a playoff spot, with St. Louis, Vancouver, and Calgary all coming away with wins.

#UtahHC Tourigny:

"Too bad we let Veggie down. I think Veggie has been good for us for a long long time."

"I think it’s everybody – it’s not one guy more than the other. At the end of the day it’s on me. It’s my job to make sure we are better than that."
— Belle Fraser (@bellefraser1) March 19, 2025

Before tonight's loss, Utah had been playing well, going 6-3-2 in its previous 11 games and losing by no more than two goals in any of its losses.

So while experiencing the worst loss of the season is sure to leave everyone in Utah unhappy, it will be important for the team to move past the defeat and address all of its defensive miscues, rather than develop bad habits.

But with the game against Edmonton being the last of its three-game road trip, Utah will get a chance to redeem itself in front of its fans against the Buffalo Sabres, who are last in the Eastern Conference.

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