Sidney Crosby broke Utah's hearts when he scored the game-winning goal in overtime as Utah fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 in Delta Center.
The game got off to an intense start when Liam O'Brien and Boko Imama fought. However, the fight didn't last long.
Mikhail Sergachev scored on a power play goal at 5:09 to put Utah on the board. What a way to make his return to the lineup. Utah used excellent puck movement in that possession for the goal.
After the goal, Utah had many opportunities to score in the first period, but Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic kept making impressive stops.
In the second period, Marcus Patterson scored a long-distance goal to the game for the Penguins. However, two minutes later, Michael Carcone responded by regaining the lead for Utah. He tapped the puck three times to put it in the net.
Carcone's goal was huge and well-needed at that point in the game. Utah's momentum is back on its side.
In the third period, Utah's momentum dwindled. Erik Karlsson tied the game at 2-2. The Penguins seized the opportunity to score after Utah committed a costly turnover.
In overtime, Crosby hit the game-winner. It's his 23rd career overtime goal.
It's Utah's 11th overtime game, and their record is 5-6 in overtime. It's Deja Vu for this group.
"It's a tough one," Sergachev said. "I feel like it happened before multiple times. We haven't learned from it."
It's one of the toughest losses of the Utah season. Overtime and not closing out games in the third period are recurring issues at this time.
"I don't know if I had the answer, but it probably wouldn't be happening," Carcone said. "I don't know. I really don't know."
Utah did a good job in the offensive zone, but the same cannot be said for their performance in the defensive zone.
"Our best third period, we were not generating offense," Coach Andre Tourigny said. In that period, we generate good offense. We had a great chance starting from the first shift and generated good offense. We need to be more opportunistic. If there's something, I might have no problem with how we play defense, and the offense would generate. I did not like their possession in our zone. We could have been better in our zone to kill plays and break out more cleaner."
Utah's next game will be against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night, ending the month of January.