Utah Hockey Club rallies late, defeats Islanders in OT

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Dylan Guenther scored his second goal at 2:18 of overtime, and the Utah Hockey Club rallied for a 5-4 win against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Thursday.

Skating in on a 3-on-1 rush, Guenther took a pass in the slot from Sean Durzi and roofed a shot over the glove of Semyon Varlamov.

“That was a really nice play by [Logan] Cooley to grab that puck, and then I gave Durzi a bad pass, but he made a nice play, and I made a shot,” said Guenther, who has scored four goals in two games this season. “To go through a game like that this early in the season is huge. To battle back like that, I think it shows a lot about our team. That's a big one.”

Lawson Crouse had a goal and an assist, and Cooley, Mikhail Sergachev and Clayton Keller each had two assists for Utah (2-0-0), which was playing its first road game as a franchise. Connor Ingram made 21 saves.

“I think that we've been through a lot of different situations throughout the years, and those guys never quit,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “There's a no quit attitude, no doubt about it. We want to build our momentum. You want to start on the right foot.”

Anthony Duclair had a goal and an assist, Maxim Tsyplakov scored in his NHL debut, and Noah Dobson had two assists for the Islanders (0-0-1). Varlamov made 21 saves.

“They came out hard,” New York forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “And I think that answer took us a little bit of time. We didn't get that answer, and that's why we had to come back. Varlamov gave us a chance all the way. He was extremely solid for us.”

Tsyplakov gave the Islanders a 4-3 lead at 17:53 of the third period. He took a feed from Brock Nelson in the high slot on a 3-on-2 rush and beat Ingram blocker side.

Josh Doan responded just 13 seconds later to tie it 4-4. He skated in all alone behind Dobson, took a pass from Alex Kerfoot, and made a move before sneaking a shot under the blocker of Varlamov.

“When we have leads, we have to find a way to protect that lead,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “Twice we gave them a chance to come back in that game. There were parts of the game where I thought we were a little sloppy and we turned the pucks over, and they took advantage.”

Duclair scored a power-play goal to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 11:10 of the first period. Dobson’s wrist shot from the point deflected off Duclair’s skate and past Ingram’s left pad.

Utah challenged the play for goalie interference, but the call stood after a video review.

Crouse tied the game 1-1 with his own power-play goal at 19:01, beating Varlamov over his glove with a one-timer from the slot.

Barrett Hayton gave Utah a 2-1 lead at 13:07 of the second period. He deflected Sergachev's one-timer from the top of the left circle blocker side.

Bo Horvat tied it 2-2 at 1:03 of the third period, burying a one-timer in the low slot off a pass from Duclair from behind the net.

Pageau then gave the Islanders a 3-2 lead with a short-handed goal at 6:52. Simon Holmstrom's initial shot off the rush was stopped by Ingram, but Pageau knocked the rebound into the open net.

However, Guenther scored on the same power play to tie it 3-3 at 7:37. He beat Varlamov blocker side with a one-timer from the left face-off dot off a cross-ice feed from Keller.

“I think we have a deep team,” Guenther said. “Something we take pride in is having four lines that can roll over, keep going, and hem teams in. Throughout the game, we felt pretty confident getting opportunities, and it's one of those things where we got belief in each other in that room. So when you go down, it's pretty easy to come back.”