Utah Hockey Club makes history, wins inaugural game

SALT LAKE CITY -- Lauri Markkanen skated out at Delta Center on Tuesday almost as if he were a player for the Utah Hockey Club instead of the NBA’s Utah Jazz. The 7-footer from Finland wore a No. 23 Utah hockey jersey and carried the puck to center ice for Ryan and Ashley Smith, the owners of both teams.

“How we doin’, Utah?” Ryan Smith asked the sellout crowd, drawing cheers. “Thank you for being here. Thank you for packing the barn tonight. Let’s make this the loudest place to play in the NHL. Let’s go.”

With that, Ashley Smith dropped the puck between Utah captain Clayton Keller and Chicago Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno for the ceremonial face-off, and the NHL’s newest team opened its inaugural season with a 5-2 win.

“This is history,” Keller said. “It’s only going to happen once, so you just try to soak it all in. I think we all had nerves, and that’s a good thing. You want nerves before the first game of a season, especially in this scenario. So, it was super cool and something I’ll remember forever.”

There was so much to remember from beginning to end.

When Utah went through its morning skate at Delta Center, the players couldn’t help but notice workers laying inaugural game T-shirts and rally towels on the seats. Ryan Smith was watching with other top executives. So were a lot of reporters.

“I think this is probably the most excited I’ve ever been to play a hockey game,” Utah forward Logan Cooley said. “Coming to the rink today, even though it’s morning skate, you still feel like you’re getting chills.”

Cooley said the buzz around the city was so exciting that “it feels like you’re just in the best moment of your life with these people.”

“It’s a super cool moment,” coach Andre Tourigny said. “You cannot manufacture that. It will probably never happen to me ever again and [to] all of those guys in that room as well. We need to embrace the opportunity and enjoy it, realize how fortunate we are.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Smiths held a press conference in the sun outside Delta Center afterward, with Bettman declaring that the Smith Entertainment Group had exceeded the League’s high expectations on an unprecedented timeline.

The NHL established the new franchise in Utah on April 18. In less than six months, SEG handled so many challenges -- team, arena, practice facility, uniforms and more. This was the result, the reward.

“I always believed the NHL belonged here,” Bettman said. “This just validates it. It’s all been great.”

When Utah arrived for the game, the players walked down a Mountain Blue carpet in suits flanked by cheerleaders and fans. The Smiths took in the scene with former NBA star Dwyane Wade, who wore a Utah Hockey Club hat as a minority owner of the Utah Hockey Club and the Jazz. A few players stopped to hug and shake hands.

In a No. 24 Utah hockey jersey, country artist Shaboozey performed a pregame concert outside Delta Center as people grabbed dinner from food trucks and participated in hockey activities like Hardest Shot and Accuracy Shooting. Three fighter jets banked left over the mountains, soared over the Utah State Capitol and flew over the arena.

The doors opened, and the stands filled. Markkanen wasn’t the only member of the Jazz who showed up. The Utah hockey and basketball teams are bonding, playing for the same owners in the same arena in the same season.

“We want it to be kind of a weird, blended family,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “We’re going to support them, they’re going to support us, but we have a little family competition. It’ll be a race to the rafters to see who can put a banner up there first.”

The official attendance was 11,131, but that counted only the unobstructed seats in an arena that still needs more renovations for hockey over the next two or three years. The thousands of obstructed seats were full too, and this was a hockey crowd.

The fans cheered when they were supposed to cheer and booed when they were supposed to boo. Often, they chanted, “Let’s go, Utah!” Sometimes, they chanted simply, “Utah!” They also chanted “Spicy Tuna,” the nickname of forward Liam O’Brien.

They roared after forward Dylan Guenther scored the first goal in Utah Hockey Club history at 4:56 of the first period.

“That building was special,” Guenther said. “That was a ton a fun, a lot of fun to play in front of that crowd. … If the building stays like that all year, it’s a huge advantage for us.”

There were tense moments after Utah let a 3-0 lead dwindle to 3-2. Goalie Connor Ingram had to make big saves in the third period, including one on a breakaway by forward Taylor Hall. But Guenther scored into an empty net at 19:16 to make it 4-2, and forward Lawson Crouse scored on a redirection at 19:38 for the 5-2 final.

“We scored that fourth one, that building erupted, and you see the towels go,” Ingram said. “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.”

And this was only the beginning.

“Just super fun game to be a part of,” Keller said. “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.”