The Hat Trick: Utah Hockey Club Douse Flames As Crouse Scores Two Big Goals

Jan 2, 2025 , 10:56 PM | Updated: Jan 3, 2025, 9:17 am

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COLE BAGLEY


Utah Hockey Club Insider

SALT LAKE CITY – Despite a letdown in the second period, the Utah Hockey Club rallied in the third to end their losing streak and get back in the win column over the Calgary Flames. In addition to sustained energy from the third line, Lawson Crouse had his best game of the season with two key goals that led Utah to a 5-3 victory.

Here are the key takeaways from Utah’s big win in Calgary

Utah punished themselves with poor defense and bad penalties through the first two periods

Despite grinding out a big comeback win on the road against the Calgary Flames, Utah was their own worst enemy for most of the night.

Through the first 60 minutes, poor defense and a collection of bad penalties presented Calgary with golden scoring opportunities, and they made Utah pay.

Following an early one-goal lead for the visitors, Utah committed an unnecessary penalty with too many men on the ice and the Flames punished them with a late first period goal.

While the club was able to kill off four other penalties throughout the night, that particular violation not only cost them a goal, but it was easily the most frustrating as the team simply lacked focus in that moment.

Defensively, consistent turnovers in the second period provided Calgary with multiple rushes and the Flames cashed in with two deflating goals.

Luckily, the Utah Hockey Club was able to claw their way back into the game and emerge from Calgary with two big points.

However, they made it much harder on themselves with lazy mistakes that quickly erased their early efforts.

Crouse had his best game of the season, and O’Brien was extra Spicy against the Flames

For the first time since November 29, Associate Captain Lawson Crouse was finally able to light the lamp as he scored twice against Calgary.

While Crouse was able to get the monkey off his back and find the back of the net, as he pointed out in an interview during the first intermission, his first goal would not have happened without an aggressive forecheck from Liam O’Brien.

Making his second-straight appearance and fifth overall this season, O’Brien yet again brought a plethora of energy that juiced his line.

When he was on the ice, ‘Spicy Tuna’ was incredibly aggressive, finished checks, battled in the dirty areas and provided a much-needed spark to the third line as they mirrored his efforts.

“They played with pace,” Andre Tourigny said about the third line. “They had no hesitation in their game. They were skating. They were hard on the forecheck. They made plays with the puck and put pucks at the net. Big man came up with two big goals. Happy for him.”

Despite a small sample size, O’Brien’s back-to-back performances should have him in consideration for more minutes moving forward as he elevated the third line’s energy, and they played their best hockey of the season against Calgary.

As for Crouse, it was incredibly important for him to see not just one, but two go in as goals have been few and far between this season.

“It felt good. Feels better to get a win. That’s a big win. We needed that and something to build off going into Dallas,” Crouse said.

In addition to finding the back of the net twice, Crouse played with a different energy against Calgary.

He was buzzing all night, aggressive, made the most of his opportunities and demonstrated just how good he can be.

If Crouse and the rest of the third line can build on what they did against the Flames, Utah can continue their winning ways and push for the playoffs with consistent production from top to bottom.

A gritty third period led by the captains helped Utah secure a big win against the Flames

From the moment the puck dropped in the third period, Utah was a different team with relentless effort and suffocating pressure.

Shift after shift, Utah dominated the puck and played with an unmatchable determination as they refused to lose their sixth straight.

Led by their Captain, Clayton Keller opened the scoring in the third with a well-timed redirect off of a shot from Olli Maatta.

Just moments later, Crouse was a man on a mission as he scored his second of the night and secured the go-ahead goal on a wicked top-shelf snipe.

Related: Utah Hockey Clubs Stuns Flames With Two Quick Goals

“It was a huge win. We haven’t played our best lately…I think we did a great job right from the start of the third just being simple and getting to the net. Sometimes you’ve got to grind those out and that was a huge win for us,” Keller said.

For a team that has struggled to respond and even surrendered quick response goals as of late, their performance in the third was a massive boost of confidence.

It was also a defining moment for the leadership group as both the captain and associate captain led their team to a much-needed victory,

“That’s part of our identity. I think all season we’ve done a good job of not quitting and tonight’s another example of that. We’ve got a lot of character in our locker room, no quit, and go right to the end of the game,” Crouse said.

Utah’s season has been centered around growth and learning from their mistakes.

So, to get a response like that in the third could potentially be a huge steppingstone for this team, especially considering the performance they received from Crouse.

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Utah Hockey Schedule

The Utah Hockey Club will travel to Dallas to face the Stars on Saturday night. 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. 

Cole Bagley is the Utah Hockey Club insider for KSL Sports. Keep up with him on X here. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.

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