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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – The Utah Hockey Club are having a difficult time during its longest homestand of the season.
The New York Rangers scored three goals in the third period to defeat the Utah Hockey Club 5-3 at Delta Center on Thursday.
Utah is now 1-4 on the homestand, and in its last three games, all losses, Utah has been outscored in the third period, 7-1.
“It’s pretty frustrating,” said defenseman Ian Cole. “It’s a game that the feel of it, I thought we played a pretty good game for the most part. But I’ve said it before, there are no moral victories in this in this job. You’re judging the wins and losses and that’s it.”
Artemi Panarin scored twice for the Rangers (21-20-3), who extended their point streak to six games (4-0-2). Igor Shesterkin made 28 saves.
Mattias Maccelli scored twice for Utah (18-19-7), which has lost three in a row and is 1-4-0 on a seven-game homestand. Karel Vejmelka made 20 saves.
Reilly Smith tied it 3-3 with a short-handed goal 28 seconds into the third period. He took a stretch pass from Braden Schneider and scored with a shot from the top of the left circle that went over the blocker of Vejmelka and in under the crossbar.
“You obviously don’t want to give up goals in the third,” Cole said. “Obviously, we’d like to shut the door, but I don’t think we deviated from the mindset we wanted to have throughout the whole 60 minutes.”
Chris Krieder then gave the Rangers their first lead, 4-3, at 10:22. Sam Carrick won a face-off back to Kreider, who skated into the high slot and scored with a shot that deflected in off the stick of Ian Cole.
Panarin scored his second goal of the game into an empty net at 19:22 for the 5-3 final.
Maccelli gave Utah a 1-0 lead at 1:01 of the first period, getting to the rebound of Barrett Hayton’s shot below the left circle and scoring from a sharp angle.
Panarin responded at 3:42 to tie it 1-1. He beat Vejmelka glove side from the left circle off a pass from Alexis Lafreniere, who intercepted a pass from Mikhail Sergachev below the goal line.
Maccelli scored his second of the period to make it 2-1 at 8:12. He lifted the stick of Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren and jammed in another rebound off a shot from Hayton.
Arthur Kaliyev tied it 2-2 at 16:25 of the first, knocking in a rebound that trickled behind Vejmelka. It was his first goal in four games with New York since being claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 6.
Logan Cooley scored a power-play goal 57 seconds into the second period to put Utah back in front 3-2. He buried a shot five-hole from the right circle off a no-look pass from Clayton Keller.
“It’s tough,” Cooley said. “I think we are all trying to do the right things. We’re trying to be selfless, do what’s best for the team. But the day it comes down to the result and it’s another loss at home, so it’s frustrating. But, we got to find a way out of this.”
Utah nexts hosts St. Louis Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.