Barrett Hayton’s Late Goal Leads Utah to 2-1 Win Over the Sharks – The Hockey Writers Utah Hockey Club Latest News, Analysis & More

Friday night, we got a matchup between two of the coldest teams in the NHL. The Utah Hockey Club, who has lost six of their last seven games, hosted the San Jose Sharks, losers in nine of their previous 11 games.

Game Recap

The Sharks wasted no time opening the scoring on Friday night, with Fabian Zetterlund scoring his 12th of the season on the first shot of the game just 58 seconds into the first period. However, that would be the period’s only goal, and the Sharks would take a 1-0 lead in the first period. Fun fact: This is only the second time this season that Alexandar Georgiev’s teams (Sharks / Colorado Avalanche) have won the first period in his 26 starts.

Utah would then tie the game at one six minutes into the second period. Utah had the Sharks hemmed into their defensive zone, and the extended pressure allowed Nick Schmaltz to bring the puck from the perimeter to the slot and fire home his 12th goal of the season.

Nick Schmaltz! All tied up at the Delta Center!!! pic.twitter.com/be0EIVm29j

— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) January 11, 2025

Schmaltz’s goal would be the only one scored in the second period. As you would expect, with a 1-1 score going into the final period, the first 40 minutes of this game were relatively slow. Utah and the Sharks combined for only 28 shots and 29 scoring chances, and less than three expected goals in the first two periods.

The third period was much of the same until a minute and a half remained in the game when Barrett Hayton found the back of the net, beating Georgiev’s glove side to give Utah the 2-1 lead. Despite taking a four-minute high-sticking penalty with a minute remaining in the game, Utah killed off the minute of 6-on-4 play after the Sharks pulled their goalie to walk away with the one-goal victory.

Barrett Hayton scores in the final two minutes on route to a @utahhockeyclub victory! pic.twitter.com/ZtRToZylpP

— NHL (@NHL) January 11, 2025

This game marks the end of the season series between these two teams. All three games were decided by one goal, with Utah winning two of the three. All three games had plenty of emotion and physicality; it will be interesting to see if this head-to-head matchup turns into a rivalry in the coming seasons, with both teams attempting to come out of rebuilds.