SALT LAKE CITY- The Utah Hockey Club took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission thanks to a power play goal from Mikhail Sergachev in his return to the ice following injury.
The second period got underway and the Penguins looked dangerous as they sought the game-tying goal. Their efforts paid off just seven minutes into the period when Marcus Pettersson took a shot from the point that took an unfortunate bounce off of Alexander Kerfoot and into the back of the net, tying the contest at one goal a piece.
It seemed it was the Penguins’ turn with the momentum, but not even two minutes after the equalizer, the Hockey Club regained their lead.
Pittsburgh once again had the puck in their offensive zone, but a deflected shot squirted into the corner and John Marino was the first to it. At the same moment, Marino found the puck, Michael Carcone was streaking down the other side of the ice. Marino lifted a pass over the mess of players in the middle of the ice that fell perfectly on Carcone’s stick.
Michael controlled the puck with nobody between him and the Pittsburgh goaltender. When he got right between the dots, he sent a wrist shot at Nedeljokovic that was saved, but the rebound died right in front of the blue crease and Carcone was able to chip it up and over the reaching goaltender to give Utah the 2-1 lead.
Perfect example of always following your shot and crashing the net.
Great second effort from Carcone to retake the lead. https://t.co/rgfWnpavwC
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) January 30, 2025
Over the next four Utah Hockey Club home games, fans in attendance will have an opportunity to vote on three names and logos.
iPad stations will be placed throughout the arena for fans to get an exclusive look at the potential names, logos and merchandise while submitting their votes.
In order to protect the imagery and new potential branding, fans will only be able to vote at Delta Center during these next four home games and will not be permitted to record or take any photos of the survey.
Once the data is collected, the Utah Hockey Club will analyze the results and determine whether or not they will have another round of voting.
Regardless, the Utah Hockey Club is on track to have all of their new branding completed by next season and will announce the new name at some point during the upcoming offseason.
As arguably the most popular name since the franchise’s inception, the Utah Hockey Club worked vigorously with Yeti Coolers to come to an agreement. Yeti ultimately decided they did not want to enter in a coexistence agreement with the Utah Hockey Club.
“You’ll of course notice the absence of Yeti which has been popular amongst many fans and has been one of the leaders,” Smith Entertainment Group executive, Mike Maughan said.
“There’s nothing that came from the trademark office over the last week or so that was surprising to us in anyway…We have engaged with Yeti Coolers extensively. The NHL has also helped engage with us with them. At the end of the day, they have a trademark that allows them to print Yeti or Yeti’s on clothing…Without a coexistence agreement, we would not be able to print that.”
While the team has officially moved on from Yeti, Wasatch will serve as a replacement to appease fans that would prefer a mythical snow creature option as part of the logo.
The new potential Utah Hockey Club logo also features a similar mythical snow creature while Mammoth has its own.
“We’ve replaced the name Yeti with Wasatch. It still allows us to honor the mythical snow creature idea from that with a distinctly Utah appeal,” Maughan added.
Ultimately, the NHL’s newest franchise is going to heavily on their fanbase to determine the team’s new name.
While some have warned them of the risks of such an endeavor, SEG is embracing the challenge.
“Hockey is a community asset,” Maughan said. “They [Ryan and Ashley Smith] wanted to do something that’s never been done in the history of professional sports, which is invite fans to be part of this incredibly iterative and exciting process to help pick a name.”
“We have such faith in the fanbase here and the people of Utah.”