SALT LAKE CITY – After a relentless battle for 55 minutes on Thursday night, the Utah Hockey Club found a way to secure two critical points after a greasy goal from Dylan Guenther found the back of Buffalo’s net. Despite a scrambled performance, Utah secured the win over the Sabres with a little luck to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Here are the key takeaways from Utah’s greasy win over Buffalo.
After missing a month due to a lower-body injury he sustained in late January, forward Logan Cooley appears to have finally regained his confidence following a tough individual stretch of hockey.
LOGAN COOLEY SCORES AND UTAH LEADS 1-0!!!!!!
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) March 21, 2025
In the first nine games since returning to the lineup, Cooley managed just two goals and two assists.
Notably, he also went six-straight games without registering a single point.
Not exactly up to par for a player of Cooley’s caliber and skill.
Now, in his defense, it didn’t appear like Cooley was exactly 100% after being cleared to play. While he may have been healthy enough to skate, Cooley wasn’t as assertive, aggressive, or impactful as he had been previously.
Unsurprisingly, that seemed to weigh on his confidence.
But over the last three games, Cooley seems to be back to his normal self as he’s averaged a point per night with two critical goals and one assist.
92’s confidence is back.
Bad news for opposing teams. Great timing for Utah.
Great setup. Perfect finish. https://t.co/0UuT0jM8aN
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) March 21, 2025
As a 20-year-old skater in the NHL, it’s inevitable to experience slumps throughout the entirety of your career.
However, the difference between elite players and the rest of the league is that top-tier skaters work relentlessly to find solutions, break through the slump and return to their productive habits.
“He’s a really good player. He’s going to produce a lot of points in the league for a long time,” Dylan Guenther said.
“Sometimes you don’t get points for a couple games. That’s just what happens. But he’s a big part of our team down the stretch.”
Dylan Guenther on Cooley’s confidence: “He’s a really good player. He’s going to produce a lot of points in the league for a long time.”
“Sometimes you don’t get points for a couple games. That’s just what happens. But he’s a big part of our team down the stretch.” pic.twitter.com/PmXvEndlnU
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) March 21, 2025
For Cooley, he appears to have weathered the storm, regained his confidence and rediscovered his ability to make a sizable impact.
That speaks volumes to both his work ethic and maturity despite being so young.
Anytime a team surrenders a shorthanded goal in the NHL, that’s generally a pretty good indicator that special teams were a problem.
Buffalo scores.
Shorthanded…that’s two in the last two games.
Unacceptable.
2-2
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) March 21, 2025
For the second straight night, the Utah Hockey Club surrendered a shorthanded goal despite having a man advantage on the power play.
He’s quick, this guy 😮💨#LetsGoBuffalo pic.twitter.com/w6NqZE2IlF
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) March 21, 2025
Yet again, a bad pass resulted in a neutral zone turnover which generated a breakaway, and the opposition cashed in.
That simply cannot happen. Not at this time of the year, especially when the team is desperately fighting for a playoff spot.
“Since March 1st, we’re not as stingy as we used to be defensively. We get away with murder here and there but that won’t last,” Head coach Andre Tourigny said.
“We need to tighten it up, win more battles, get on the right side of the puck on dirty puck, that kind of thing.”
Additionally, Utah continuously shot themselves in the foot with bad penalties and poorly executed power plays.
“Our power play isn’t clicking the way we want lately, I think there’s a lot of overpassing the puck and not enough battle,” Tourigny said.
“I think that’s a reflection of our game. When we win more loose puck battles, that’s where our game is at its best.”
Not only was Utah punished for the number of penalties they took, but they also committed a few at really bad times.
Twice, Utah had a power play negated due to a penalty after Clayton Keller was called for a hook and Logan Cooley was sent to the box for retaliating.
Again, it’s too late in the season to be drawing poor penalties, forfeiting power plays and struggling with a man advantage.
Luckily, Utah was able to overcome these mistakes on Thursday night but like Tourigny mentioned, that simply won’t last.
While the final score read 5-2 in favor of the Utah Hockey Club, that wasn’t exactly a fair representation of how the game played out.
For about 55 minutes of Thursday night’s matchup, Utah was battling for their lives against the Sabres in a tight game.
But regardless of all their struggles, Utah found a way to get the two points by continuing to fight no matter what went wrong.
This is how you keep fighting.
Digging deep, creating scoring chances, and getting greasy ones. https://t.co/mgfJykMRpQ
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) March 21, 2025
Despite several saves from Sabres goaltender James Reimer, Utah refused to give up until the puck found the back of the net.
They kept digging, pushing and battling until an opening surfaced, and Dylan Guenther registered his ninth game-winner of the season.
“That’s pretty cool, maybe a bit of a coincidence too, just getting lucky on some of them,” Dylan Guenther said.
“Those are the times of the game that you want to play in. Those are the fun times. So, it’s nice to be recognized.”
Sometimes, that’s what it takes at this point in the season.
Teams are either viciously battling for playoff spots or trying to play spoiler.
But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how a team gets two points. It simply matters that they get it done and find a way to stay in the race.
THE SABRES DREW A PENALTY BUT INSTEAD OF GIVING UTAH THE PUCK THEY SCORED AN OWN GOAL IN THE EMPTY NET 😭 pic.twitter.com/2odiB38cbO
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 21, 2025
Greasy or not, a win is a win and Utah’s playoff hopes are still very much alive.
“All season long we’re really demanding ourselves, we believe in ourselves, and we know we can achieve great things. We talk about the process of a young team to live with that expectation and that pressure and so on and so forth,” Tourigny said.
“It’s a lot of learning. It’s learning on steroids, and we need to keep going and keep doing our job at that point and stay in the hunt.”
The Utah Hockey Club will host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon at Delta Center. The game can be viewed on SEG+. Fans can also tune in on air on the KSL Sports APP or on 97.5 and 1280 The Zone. Click here for the full schedule.
