Utah HC Loses 4-1 To Florida Panthers In First Home Game Of 2025

The score may not indicate it, but this was a defensive battle all the way until the end.

In the first series matchup between Utah HC (17-16-7) and the Florida Panthers (25-15-2), the reigning champs came away with a 4-1 victory in a game that ended rather hostile.

With a .963 save percentage and 26 saves, goalie Sergei Bobrovosky served as the anchor for the Panthers and its strong defensive play. On the night, the Panthers forced 15 Utah giveaways, had 5 takeaways and hardly provided Utah any space to get effective shots on goal.

While Utah HC made things interesting late, cutting the lead down to 2-1 with a goal from Logan Cooley — one of the few opportunities it got space in the offensive zone — the Florida Panthers continued to fend off Utah's offense behind the strong play of goalie Sergei Bobrovosky.

With time running down, Utah elected to pull goalie Karel Vejmelka as it tried to tie the game and force the game into overtime.

Despite getting a shot on the goal, Utah would lose possession of the puck and in just a few seconds, Florida's Jesper Boqvist would get his second goal of the night and extend the Panthers lead to 3-1.

Soon after, the Panthers would score on Utah's empty net again to go up 4-1 and win the game.

Despite a great performance from goalie Vejmelka, who had 31 saves and a save percentage of .935, the Panthers were able to take advantage of the few moments Utah was shorthanded.

The first would be on the one and only power play opportunity the Panthers would get.

With a perfect pass from teammate Matthew Tkachuk slicing through Utah's defense, Florida's Sam Reinhart hit it faster than Vejmelka could react to it.

It would be Reinhart's only goal of the night and it proved to be crucial because of Utah's smothering defense and its ability to prevent goals all night when it collapsed the defense near the goal. After all, Utah did have 24 blocked shots on the night.

Not only did Florida score on its only power play, but it would have three penalty kills as well before allowing Cooley to score Utah's only goal on its fourth power play of the night. Despite Utah getting more power plays, the defense from the Panthers wouldn't allow Utah to get more than a few shots on the goal during these moments.

Though Utah wouldn't allow the Panthers to have another power play, it essentially gave the Panthers a 6-on-5 advantage early in the third period.

With Utah defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok losing his stick in Utah's defensive zone, the Panthers took advantage and scored quickly after.

With Kolyachonok unable to block shots with anything more than his body, he would be unable to provide Utah proper defense. His positioning also proved to be an issue as he not only was unable to block Boqvist's second goal of the night, but he also disrupted Vejmelka's vision as he skated in front of his goalie right as the puck hit the net.

Though Utah was playing good defense for a majority of the game, it was unable to keep up offensively and it proved to be the reason it lost the game.

Coming into this game, Utah and Florida were both top three in penalty minutes, with Florida clocking 428 minutes and Utah not far behind with 418. Despite that, it was looking like it was going to be relatively a clean game as there was only six penalty minutes combined between both teams... that was until 10:09 of game time ran off.

After Florida's Niko Mikkola was called for a Kneeing penalty against Kevin Stenlund, the temper of both teams boiled over as a various players began to fight. Both Stenlund and Panthers player A.J. Greer were both given roughing penalties as a result.

That wouldn't be the last of the chippy plays between both teams as there would be two more penalties would happen on the night.

Related: Can Utah HC Take Advantage Of Its Upcoming 7 Game Home Stand?

The first would come from the Panthers again as a Sam Bennett slashing penalty would spark more fighting between Utah's Jack McBain and Florida's Tkachuk.

The other penalty would come at the end of regulation as Utah's Dylan O'Brien decided to shove Florida's Greer as he skated by him. With the officials quick to stop the fight, both teams would elect to go back to its locker room instead of escalating the situation.

There was a total of 16 penalty minutes in the game and ten of them happened in the final ten minutes. Florida had ten total penalty minutes while Utah had six.

With its matchup against the Panthers concluded, Utah will look to stop its home losing streak against the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 10.