The Vancouver Canucks fell short against the Utah Hockey Club in the franchise’s first regular season game in Salt Lake City and almost got away with it.

This up and coming Utah team is truly impressive. It is young, skilful and masters the game skillfully in the five-on-five system.

On home ice Wednesday night against a team fighting for a playoff spot, Utah came out flying in the first half, dominating possession while regularly executing its trademark rush attack against Vancouver’s defense.

If speed is the advantage of youth in the NHL, inexperience is the other side of that coin.

Even though Utah seemed to be moving into the top scoring areas at will in the early stages of Wednesday’s game, it struggled to capitalize on its opportunities. There was a certain reserve and reticence among Utah’s shooters. Utah’s shooters repeatedly wasted their looks in the first half of the game.

That’s never going to happen against this low-key Canucks team, and that wasn’t the case on Wednesday. Until it happened.

SERGY. IS. THE. GUY. COOLS. IS. THE. GUY. UTAH WINS!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Uog7IRxlKb

— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) December 19, 2024

As Vancouver got deeper into the game, it found its footing. Utah’s five-on-five play and high speed still played a role, but there was a sense that the Canucks were more comfortable with the game plan than their younger, less battle-tested opponents.

In the second period, shortly after giving up a three-on-one with the man advantage that Utah couldn’t convert into a quality look, Danton Heinen took a puck that bounced off the boards from a tough Quinn for a Hughes point blast. He turned his body abruptly and powerfully and shot a perfect shot over Karel Vejmelka’s blocker and into the net to make it 1-0. Then Dakota Joshua extended Vancouver’s lead with a goal, a miracle of effort and skill from the Canucks winger.

However, this Utah team is not one to be trifled with or written off. It fought hard and was willing to pay the price necessary to generate chances against Vancouver’s defense. It found a rebound to get on the board and then used the power play to force overtime.

This overtime was electrifying. The Utah crowd was fantastic and enthusiastic and seemed remarkably loud. The action was absolutely riveting from the moment Utah equalized to the moment Mikhail Sergachev scored the game-winning goal – despite the negative result from the Canucks’ perspective.

With a hard-fought 3-2 overtime win, Utah showed why it is a real threat in the Western Conference.

Here are three takeaways from the Canucks’ overtime loss.

Thatcher Demko continues to look like himself

With the exception of Saturday’s fourth goal against the Boston Bruins, where Demko appeared to be in the hunt and which was negated by a poor rebound, the Canucks’ starter has been excellent in his four games since returning from a knee injury.

More importantly, everything seemed normal around the Vancouver goaltender.

Demko’s playing style is unchanged. He did not have any unexpected maintenance days, be unavailable, or show signs of being able to handle the stress of his first week again. Since his return he has competed in four out of five competitions and looks a lot like his old self. On Wednesday, Demko made a desperate save on Michael Carcone late in the third period that was absolutely vintage and reminiscent of his power and athleticism in the blue paint.

Demko was used with a frequency and intensity that he wasn’t in his near-complete performance against the Colorado Avalanche earlier this week. In this game, Utah was playing big, and it took a quality deke off a rebound, a one-timer from Dylan Guenther and a rush chance in three-on-three overtime to beat him.

Despite the two goals in the third period, Utah’s offense was worth far more than three expected goals in the contest. With Vancouver’s defensive play sloppy, Demko’s efforts were crucial in helping Vancouver build a lead and maintain it to secure a point on the road.

It’s still early days in his return, but Demko looks like a star goalkeeper who, if not quite at his previous level, is very close to it. This is a very good thing for the Canucks.

Dakota Joshua’s breakthrough

It wasn’t Joshua’s first goal since returning to the Canucks’ lineup after missing six weeks early in the season after undergoing surgery for a testicular cancer diagnosis, but it was easily his best game.

With his size, unique profile and ability to disrupt opponents’ breakouts on the forecheck, Joshua is a real X-factor for the Canucks when he’s in action. And after missing all of training camp and the first few weeks of the season, it understandably took him some time to regain the level that made him a productive, impactful and valuable top-six player in the spring postseason.

What stood out about Joshua, even before he finished a breakaway in the third period, was the way his forechecking worked throughout the contest. By applying the pressure on the ice, he forced Utah’s defensemen to make difficult decisions with the puck on several occasions – including a sequence in which Joshua’s pressure pulled Vejmelka out of his net and put Utah under significant pressure.

The return of Joshua’s power as an “F1” forechecker seemed to boost his overall game, and he scored a goal after skating the length of the ice in what felt like a heartbeat, beating every Utah defender on the ice and Vejmelka with one Slick had hit Deke while trying to escape.

It was a goal that gave Vancouver the two-goal lead it needed to retain a point.

Why we need to take Utah seriously

Beating the Canucks narrowly at home in overtime as a more rested team – Utah hadn’t played since Saturday – is meaningful given the stakes for Utah, but not quite as impressive.

What’s even more impressive, and a testament to why this team needs to be taken seriously as a potential playoff team this season, is that Utah is pretty much a nutcase at even strength.

That was evident Wednesday night as Utah overtook the Canucks at the top of the lineup. With JT Miller and Hughes on the ice, Utah edged Vancouver 5-4, scoring more than two-thirds of its expected goals in those minutes.

Vancouver’s edge at the top of their lineup is one of the main reasons this team is so dangerous. Now, Filip Hronek was sidelined on Wednesday and will be out for at least another month, so some qualifiers apply, but Utah getting those minutes is a testament to their true quality as a team.

We very rarely see Vancouver lose the duel at the top of the lineup. That this happened on Wednesday night is another sign that we need to take this Utah team very seriously.

(Photo of Dakota Joshua meeting Karel Vejmelka: Chris Nicoll / Imagn Images)