By: JAEQWON SUAREZ / MANAGING EDITOR
The Utah Hockey Club has kicked off its inaugural season with a night that both players and fans won’t forget for a long time. Their 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks has been the talk around Utah as the season begins to pick up.
The day of their game was filled with many activities for people to enjoy. The NHL established the Utah team back in April and since then, the Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) has tackled so many challenges just to see this day.
From the team and the arena to practices and uniforms for the players, they made sure to kick off the inaugural season in the best possible way. The team winning is proof of all their hard work, with forward Dylan Guenther scoring the first point at 4:56 of the first period.
“That building was special. That was a ton of fun, a lot of fun to play in front of that crowd,” Guenther expressed in a quote by NHL. “If the building stays like that all year, it’s a huge advantage for us.”
The crowd roared into screams when the first point by Guenther was made. The Delta Center held around 11,000 people, however, this is only the count for the unobstructed seats. The total count of people was around 16,500 people in the arena. There are still renovations that need to be done to the arena in the next two to three years, bringing the seat count to 17,000.
The crowd had plenty of pregame entertainment to enjoy before the big event such as a performance by country artist Shaboozey in front of the Delta Center. Food trucks were also lined up outside for people along with drinks. The people could participate in hockey activities, such as “Hardest Shot” or “Accuracy Shooting”.
If the crowd looked up, they could also see three fighter jets flying over the arena and the mountains. Although there are no jerseys for sale yet for the Utah Hockey Club, the team was still able to make a huge profit through merchandise sales as seen in their preseason game with the Los Angeles Kings.
The place roared into chants ten minutes after Guenther scored the first point when his teammate Clayton Keller put one past Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek. The chants varied from “Let’s Go Utah!” to some simply saying “Utah!”.
Another chant the crowd shouted was “Spicy Tuna!” which refers to fan-favorite forward Liam O’Brien. After some tense moments, the Utah Hockey Club let their lead of 3-0 become 3-2 towards the later half of the game. By the third period, the Utah Hockey Club’s goalie Connor Ingram made some tremendous saves for the team, with one of them being a breakaway by forward Taylor from the Blackhawks.
The fourth point was made by Guenther again at 19:16 when he scored into an empty net. The match ended with another one of Utah Hockey Club’s forwards Lawson Crouse locking in the fifth and last point for the team at 19:38.
This is only the beginning of what is yet to come for the Utah Hockey Club. Both Ingram and Keller both expressed their gratitude for the crowd and fans who watched the game that night.
“I think that’s why any of us got into the game of hockey is that moment right there, that noise, that feeling. That’s what gets you out of bed in the morning,” Ingram told NHL.
Keller also expressed a similar opinion in his statement for NHL, noting, “The fans were awesome since warmups all the way to the last shift there. We couldn’t be more excited to play in front of them for the rest of the year.”
The young team still has the rest of the season going for them to shock fans across the country but currently sit at second in the Western Conference with a record of 4-1-1.
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