Mavric Lamoureux made his much-anticipated NHL debut for the Utah Hockey Club in a 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche Thursday night. The 20-year-old defenseman was a first-round selection, pick number 29, by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2022 NHL Draft. “I really liked my game. I feel like it just went uphill as the game went on. It started alright, and as the game went on, I got more comfortable. I liked how I played tonight.” Lamoureux said following his performance.
Nothing like a rookie lap. #UtahHC | @mavelamoureux pic.twitter.com/rdgjJXp22b
— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) October 25, 2024
Utah found itself in an early 2-0 deficit in the first period, bringing back memories of Tuesday night’s first period woes, before giving up two more goals in the second period and one more in the third. The defensive struggles along the blue line continue to be a major factor in the early season for the club. Colorado had four total power play opportunities, scoring on two of them. That added even more pressure to the already beat up and shorthanded Utah defensive zone. The Avalanche took those opportunities and ran scoring five total goals Thursday at the Delta Center.
#UtahHC HC André Tourigny:
“Like I said against Ottawa, it wasn’t our game at all. We worked hard, and we had a lot of good opportunities but we lacked execution… I did not like our effort, our emotion, our physicality, and our battle level. It’s disappointing.”
— Brice Larson (@LarsonSports) October 25, 2024
Utah would eventually find the back of the net after applying pressure on a rush. Lawson Crouse made it a 4-1 game 15 minutes into the third period, assisted by Matias Maccelli and Ian Cole. Colorado’s Joel Kiviranta would respond less than a minute later to put the Avalanche back up by four late in the game. Crouse expanded on what needed to happen for the team to get back to its winning ways after the game.
“We just have to get back to it…I think today was an example of us getting frustrated and trying to make up for it.” Crouse said. “We just have to get back to simple hockey, playing the right way, covering for each other. The goals will come. Obviously, we’ve got to keep them out of our net and that’s the biggest thing right now. You can’t win hockey games when we keep going down three, four nothing. It’s a tough league to come back in. Like I said, when that happens you feel like you have to make up for a play and it goes sideways quick. Obviously, we’ve got to stop it here, stop it tonight, learn from it, move on and get back to winning hockey.”
Utah will now prepare to take on the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday before returning home for a two game homestand against the Sharks and Flames.
