'In life you win or you learn': What Utah Hockey Club needs to learn after loss to Devils

SALT LAKE CITY — Before fans had fully settled into their seats in the third period, the New Jersey Devils struck.

The Devils broke free after stealing the puck at Utah's blue line, and Timo Meier buried a long range snipe 14 seconds into the period. That served as the game-winning goal in the Devils' 3-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday, snapping Utah's three-game winning streak.

"They transitioned so well," Utah forward Liam O'Brien said. "So I think we could have managed the puck a little bit better and made some better decisions."

His head coach agreed — though, he put things a little more strongly.

It wasn't the actual shot that stood out to André Tourigny after the game — goaltender Karel Vejmelka was quite good in the contest — but what led to it. If there was one thing he wanted his team to be ready for on Saturday, it was New Jersey's pressure on the blue line and its speed in transition.

Both of those things showed up on that game-winning goal.

"The team on the other side is second best (defensive) gap in the league, what does that tell you? You won't enter (the offensive zone) with the puck," Tourigny said.

Yet, that's exactly what Utah tried to do to start the third. They won the puck and tried to make a play at the blue line. The Devils forced a turnover and soon were out on the break.

Utah did the same thing in the first period, which led to Vejmelka having to make multiple one-on-one saves as the Devils pushed in transition. The Utah netminder gave up one early goal, but he kept Utah in striking distance for much of the game due to some big saves.

"We tried to enter during the entire first period. How did that go for us? Not really good," Tourigny said. "We started the third period exactly the same way. We tried to make a play at the blue line, get cut and boom, puck in the back of our net before the end of the first shift."

For Tourigny, the game provided a sobering lesson on how to prepare for an individual opponent. Sure, the Hockey Club came in hot — winners of three straight and six of its last eight — but that didn't mean the team could suddenly abandon game plans.

Tourigny wanted his team to send the puck behind the net and then go to work, but Utah wasn't strong on the forecheck. Whether it was fatigue, minor injuries, or something else, the team looked a step slow, which made life tough against one of the best transition teams in the NHL.

"When you are in those kinds of a game, you need to rise to the occasion," Tourigny said. "I think our level of focus and details on what we knew they would do were not high enough. I think we went in that game wanting to play our game, which is fine, but you need to know, as well, exactly the detail of how you need to play against each opponent in there."

Mikhail Sergachev scored his career-high 11th goal of the season in the second period to level the score off a nice feed from O'Brien. The goal came after Nick Bjugstad and Kevin Stenlund had both dumped the puck into the zone (Utah needed more of that type of action), leading to O'Brien zipping a centering pass to Sergachev in the slot.

"Obviously, I want to score as many as possible, but it's all about winning for me. If I can contribute scoring goals, great; if not, I'll play defense. I'm not chasing goals," Sergachev said.

So Saturday was a disappointment for him even with the career accomplishment.

But Utah doesn't think Saturday's loss will linger.

The team has four days off before its next game in Detroit on Thursday, and Touringy is hopeful the extended break will be good for a team that is now fully in the mix of the playoff push.

"It'll be a welcome break for our group to regroup and recover, but at the same time in life you win or you learn," Tourigny said. "We had a few learning lessons in that game, and we cannot let it pass by."

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