Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Dylan Guenther's late goal secured Utah's 2-1 victory over Vancouver, narrowing their playoff gap to 4 points.
- Logan Cooley returned from injury, scoring an equalizer, while Utah's roster nears full strength.
- Coach Tourigny emphasizes the importance of each game as Utah contends for a playoff spot.
SALT LAKE CITY — Dylan Guenther hardly saw the puck, and he still ended up scoring.
With 5:53 remaining, Guenther tipped in a pass from Nick Schmaltz to lift Utah to a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks Sunday at the Delta Center.
"I didn't even really see it, to be honest, but I was just kind of posted up there," Guenther said. "He made a nice pass."
And with it came a nice win. In fact, the victory over the Canucks is on the shortlist of best of the season for Utah — and it might just be at the top.
Utah is now just 4 points back of the Canucks for the final playoff spot in the West with 24 games left. But it is a crowded field with five teams separated by 5 points for the second wild-card spot.
"Now you're 4 points — that can go fast; 8 points, you'd need to look at the entire schedule in the NHL to see this and that," head coach André Tourigny said. "There are a lot of teams hunting for that spot, but we've given ourselves a chance."
Guenther scored his team-leading 21st goal of the season and his sixth game-winner, and Logan Cooley returned after missing seven games to get an equalizer in the second period.
Cooley's goal came when he deflected in a John Marino blast from the point after Clayton Keller teed up a shot. That goal served as some redemption for the 20-year-old standout, too. Cooley was in the penalty box when Vancouver scored the game-opening tally.
"Overall, probably pretty decent," Cooley said of his first game back. "Wasn't the best, that's for sure, but it's good to be back out there."
With Cooley back, Utah is mostly at full strength after dealing with numerous injuries throughout the season. Defenseman Sean Durzi played in his first game at the Delta Center since opening night on Sunday and Marino also recently made his season debut.
Utah was even forced to waive defenseman Juuso Valimaki, who played in 43 games, on Sunday after Cooley returned from the injured reserve. That was a new problem.
And with Sunday's win, the team has a new challenge: officially being in the playoff race.
Tourigny knows there will be a time when players like Cooley or Guenther, or even Keller, who had two assists on Sunday, will laugh at the notion of a "playoff-like" contest with 25 games left in a season.
But that time hasn't come yet.
"For us, where we are in our development, they are playoff games," he said. "They are must-win games."
So, no, it wasn't lost on the team how crucial Sunday's win was.
"I mean 8 to 4 (points down) is a big difference," Guenther said. "So it's a big game. We're happy with it."
Guenther admitted that he checks the standings daily and looks to see how the teams around Utah are playing. He said that as much as the team would like to just focus on itself, that's not exactly the reality of the situation, especially with so many teams in striking distance.
And it gives the team a chance to grow up a bit.
Tourigny joked that Sergachev, 26, and Marino, 27, are talked about like "grandfathers." But that highlights how young Utah really is — Sunday's win gave them a chance to show they are ahead of schedule.
"This is why you work hard to play in moments like this," Guenther said. "So I think it'll help us, not just this year, but as we continue to get a little bit older as a team, just gaining that exposure is huge."
