Dylan Guenther scored his second goal of the game at 2:18 of overtime Thursday night for the Utah Hockey Club, who edged the New York Islanders 5-4 in Elmont, N.Y.
The contest was the season opener for New York.
Guenther took a pass from Sean Durzi in the slot and sent a shot past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov, who was screened by teammate Noah Dobson. It was Guenther’s second straight two-goal game, leading to a second straight win to start Utah’s inaugural season.
Josh Doan scored with 1:54 left in regulation to force overtime for Utah, which relocated from Arizona in the offseason. Lawson Crouse had a goal and an assist and Barrett Hayton also scored for the visitors, while Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley and Mikhail Sergachev had two assists apiece.
Utah goalie Connor Ingram made 21 saves.
Anthony Duclair, Bo Horvat, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Maxim Tsyplakov scored for the Islanders. Varlamov recorded 21 saves, and Duclair added an assist.
Tsyplakov, signed out of Russia’s KHL in May, scored with 2:07 left in regulation for a 4-3 New York lead. But Utah tied it just 13 seconds later when Doan — the son of Shane Doan, who played his entire career for the Winnipeg Jets/Arizona Coyotes franchise — bore in on Varlamov and beat him with a backhander.
Duclair, who signed a four-year deal with the Islanders in July, opened the scoring with a power-play goal 11:10 into the first period. As Duclair glided past Utah center Nick Schmaltz, Dobson’s shot from the high slot glanced off his skate.
Utah tied the score on a power-play goal with 58.4 seconds left in the opening period. Crouse took a pass from Matias Maccelli, went to one knee and sent a shot past Varlamov’s glove.
Utah went ahead at 13:07 of the second when Hayton, battling for position with Pageau for position in front of Varlamov, redirected Sergachev’s shot.
Duclair, stationed at the goal line, fed Horvat for a point-blank goal 1:03 into a back-and-forth third to tie the game 2-2.
Pageau gave the Islanders a short-lived lead when he scored a short-handed goal by putting back the rebound of Simon Holmstrom’s shot into a wide-open net at 6:51 of the third.
Guenther tied the score just 1:44 later after taking a cross-ice pass from Keller and firing a shot past the stick of a sprawling Varlamov.
–Field Level Media