Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Utah Hockey Club aims for 18-20 wins in their final 26 games for playoff contention.
- Key players like Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley have emerged, boosting the team's prospects.
- Coach Tourigny emphasizes health improvements and the importance of upcoming high-pressure games.
SALT LAKE CITY — Mikhail Sergachev got pretty specific when asked what he would consider a successful final 26 games of the Utah Hockey Club's inaugural season.
"18 wins, 17 wins — that would be very nice. That would probably get us in the playoffs," the Utah defenseman said. "Maybe 20 wins. We'll see."
Entering the season, Utah was mostly seen as a dark horse contender for a playoff spot. The prevailing thought was that if things went right and a few young guys emerged, then the team could be in the race.
Well, some young guys have popped — namely, Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley — and Utah enters the stretch run within striking distance of the playoff field. Utah trails Vancouver by 6 points for the final wild-card spot.
"We are a team who's turning the corner," head coach André Tourigny said. "If you look at the age of our team, you look at the injuries we've had, and you look at the numbers we have, the underlying numbers, then we're right there in the hunt. I think it's, it's really positive."
Defenseman Sean Durzi is expected to return Saturday in Los Angeles after missing most of the inaugural campaign. Durzi was part of Utah's top defensive pair to start the year before injuring his shoulder in the third game of the season.
Cooley, the 20-year-old forward who is second on the team in points, is now considered day-to-day after missing the final six games heading into the 4 Nations Face-off break.
"That's as close as we've ever been to being healthy," Tourigny said. "So that's really exciting."
This weekend might just show how exciting the rest of the season will be. Both Vancouver and Utah play on the road against a top team from the Pacific Division on Saturday before meeting up on Sunday at the Delta Center
"So in the span of 24 hours, the picture can change," Tourigny said. "So it's exciting; really, really happy to be part of that."
A dream weekend could see Utah just 2 points shy of the Canucks; a nightmare one could end with an awfully steep hill to climb. But these are the types of games Utah was hoping to be a part of at this juncture of the calendar.
At this time last season, the former Coyotes were already well out of the picture, so Tourigny sees having these high-pressure games this late as a sign of progress — especially considering the production of some of the team's forwards.
Matias Maccelli is on pace to score around 27 points this season, down from 57 a season ago; and Lawson Crouse is on track to score 18 points down from the 45 he had in his final year in Arizona. Alex Kerfoot and Nick Bjugstad are also averaging around half the points they scored last season.
Yet, Utah is still in the mix. But for how long?
"We've got to get hot," Sergachev said. "It's kind of a cliche right now, but when everything is clicking it's such a different game, you feel like you're a dominant team. You've got to capitalize."
Capitalizing, though, is something Utah has often struggled to do this season.
Utah went 8-12-4 in the final 24 games before the 4 Nations break, but according to Money Puck's "Deserve to Win O'Meter," Utah "deserved" to win 13 games.
The Club got 20 points in that stretch, leaving at least 6 on the table — the same amount that they are trailing Vancouver for the West's final playoff spot. The good news for Utah fans? The Club has mostly played good hockey. The bad? The results haven't always shown it.
So while winning 17 or 18, or even 20, of the final 26 games might seem like a tall task, the team sees no reason not to shoot for some lofty goals to finish the season.
"When you make a step back and look at where we are and the age of our team and the injuries we had, all in all, I think it's really, really positive," Tourigny said. "But then you go back to work, you get back in the trenches, because all of that doesn't matter. What matters is the next game and how can we be at our best and put our best foot forward and play our best game? Like I said, we're right there."
Now he's hoping his team can stay there.
