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Utah Hockey Club loses first game (preseason) with a 5-2 defeat against Vegas
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Utah Hockey Club loses first game (preseason) with a 5-2 defeat against Vegas

LAS VEGAS – Utah Hockey Club head coach Andre Tourigny has issued a warning about his team’s preseason success on the power play.

“We are not playing against NHL PK yet,” he said during the Friday morning skate. “So we’ll see how good we are as we go along.”

As luck would have it, they got a better taste on Friday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Golden Knights played most of their NHL regulars in the preseason debut in Vegas.

First the good news: Utah still scored a power play goal (although their coach was unhappy with the unit overall).

Now the bad: The Knights won the preseason game 5-2, overpowering a much less experienced Utah squad. So much for Utah never losing a game. The Hockey Club dropped to 2-1 in the preseason.

“I think we’re taking risks in the wrong place, and we paid for it, and we’re feeding their offense a little bit,” Tourigny said. “We didn’t have our execution. We had a hard time making plays, but I think turnovers and probably puck management is probably the most important thing.”

The last 30 minutes of the match were a Las Vegas onslaught. The Knights scored four unanswered goals, including three in the third period, to turn a close game into a rout.

In the second period, Utah’s Michael Carcone scored the game’s opening goal on the power play. After a Vegas equalizer, Ryan McGregor scored on a centering pass from Aku Raty to put Utah ahead again.

After that it was all Vegas.

Knights star Jack Eichel tied things up later in the second period, and Vegas’ experience won out in the third. Utah was without Clayton Keller, Mikhail Sergachev, Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Guenther and many others in their top three.

The hockey club struggled to find good scoring opportunities and was outshot 26-16.

“We tried to play through them too much, instead of playing around them, and that leads to a lot of turnover, lost momentum and frustration, and then you force it even more,” Tourigny said. “So I think it’s a good lesson to learn.”

A bright spot was goalkeeper Matthew Villalta. The 25-year-old started in the crease and played the first 30 minutes of the evening. He stopped all nine shots he faced. It wasn’t until he went to the bench that the Vegas flurry started.

“I just tried to enjoy the moment,” he said. “It’s my first time playing here at T-Mobile, so obviously it’s pretty cool. So I just tried to have fun and keep the puck out of the net.”