Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Dylan Guenther led Utah HC to a 3-2 overtime win against the Flyers.
- Guenther scored twice, including the game-winner, and assisted on another goal.
- Liam O'Brien impressed with five shots but remains goalless this season.
SALT LAKE CITY — Maybe it's the proximity; after all, their stalls are near each other's in the Utah Hockey Club's locker room.
On Tuesday night, no two players pelted Philadelphia goaltender Samuel Ersson with more rubber than Utah's Dylan Guenther and Liam O'Brien.
Together, they tallied 11 of Utah's 42 shots on goal — six from Guenther, who scored twice, and five from O'Brien, still searching for his first goal of the season.
For Guenther, widely considered the team's most dangerous shooter, firing off a high volume of shots — and converting them — was nothing out of the ordinary.
Back from a 12-game absence due to injury, Guenther scored Utah's game-tying goal in the third and then sealed the deal with an electric game-winner in overtime just before the clock expired. Guenther also assisted on Mikhail Sergachev's goal in the second period.
So no, putting pucks on net isn't out of the norm for "Gunner." O'Brien's blistering shot volume was far more surprising in this one.
O'Brien bested his previous season-high shot total of two by forcing Ersson to make five saves (His seven penalty minutes in the 3-2 win? That wasn't anything out of the ordinary.)
What went right for O'Brien? How did he find himself in the middle of so many scoring chances? As he put it after the game, it came down to the game's most basic ability.
"I was just skating," said O'Brien, who took a break from skating to fight Flyers winger Nicolas Deslauriers in the first period. "My linemates were great tonight. They won a ton of puck battles, they gave me the puck, our D was moving the puck really well, so I was just moving my feet and got all these chances."
Typically known for his high-energy, sometimes glove-dropping style, O'Brien earned high praise from head coach André Tourigny, who called it "maybe his best game of the year."
"It's his energy, his physicality, his emotion, but he really is more of a structure guy," Tourigny said of O'Brien, who has scored 11 goals in 216 NHL appearances. "At the end of the day, that's part of his tools. If you look at 'OB' four years ago, what we asked him to improve is his skills, making plays, being able to make the next play and he did tonight."
O'Brien's positioning, Guenther echoed, was noticeable.
"When you get chances like that, you're doing something right," Guenther said of O'Brien. "He was buzzing tonight."
A fitting term considering O'Brien made himself an instant fan favorite by screaming, "I cannot wait to get this place buzzing," on stage at the team's Delta Center welcome party in April.
Still, "Spicy Tuna" remains looking for his first goal of the season, a moment sure to blow the roof off the building if it happens at home.
"I'm just trying to get the first one out of the way," O'Brien said with a laugh, and a cut on his nose from his scrap with Deslauriers. "I'm excited to score whether it's on the road or at home."
So what advice does Guenther, whose 18 goals tie him for the team lead with Clayton Keller, have for his locker mate?
"Keep going, baby."
