The Utah Hockey Club has finally played its first-ever game of hockey.
The new NHL franchise took over the hockey assets from the Arizona Coyotes earlier this year and is set to play their first-ever season in just a couple of weeks.
They played their first-ever exhibition game on Sunday, and it couldn’t have started worse than it did. The St. Louis Blues led 1-0 early in the second period when the Utah Hockey Club scored its first-ever goal – but, unfortunately, it was in their own net.
The referees had raised their hands to send Blues defenseman Anton Malmstrom to the penalty box on a holding call, and Utah pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Utah controlled possession in the Blues zone during the delayed call, but a pass hopped over Dylan Guenther’s stick at the blue line, and Guenther didn’t catch up to stop it until it was too late.
It was a blooper reel for sure, and not at all what Utah had hoped for in their first game. The St. Louis Blues even trolled them on X, as they congratulated Utah HC for its ’first goal as a franchise,’ in a post that got over 10k likes on the social media platform.
Six minutes after the own goal, Michael Carcone scored Utah’s first real unofficial goal, and three minutes after that, Kevin Connauton tied the game. Dylan Guenther, the unfortunate player during the own goal, scored Utah’s third goal in the third period, and they eventually won 4-3 to get a 1-0 record in the pre-season.
