The Utah Hockey Club (33–29–12) ruined the NHL debuts of forward Oliver Moore and defenseman Sam Rinzel of the Chicago Blackhawks (21–44–9) on home ice 5–2 on Sunday afternoon. Rinzel had four shots in 20:15 minutes of ice time.
“It felt good, honorable,” said Rinzel. “It was so fun. Guys were great. Like ‘Ollie’ said, as a hockey player, you want to win, so that stings. But overall, it was an unbelievable first game.”
First period
Chicago spent most of the first period turning the puck over and were lucky enough to get away with the 0–0 tied game after 20 minutes of action. Moore and Rinzel enjoyed their pregame skates and looked like both were as pumped as ever to be on the ice. Rinzel looked very comfortable with his decision-making skills and trusted his skating ability to get the puck out of his own zone or jump into a play offensively without hurting the team defensive dynamic.
Second period
Nick DeSimone scored his first goal of the season beating Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom at the 8:21 mark of the middle frame.
Utah goal!
Scored by Nick DeSimone with 11:39 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Alexander Kerfoot and Kevin Stenlund.
Chicago: 0
Utah: 1#UTAvsCHI #Blackhawks #UtahHC pic.twitter.com/Q2zhyTc0im— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 30, 2025
Chicago would answer back with the equalizer at the 11:02 mark when Joe Veleno buried home his seventh goal of the season on a shot past Utah goaltender Karel Vejmalka. Veleno took a nice feed from defenseman Artyom Levshunov to finish off the 3-on-2 rush.
Chicago goal!
Scored by Joe Veleno with 08:58 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Artyom Levshunov and Nick Foligno.
Chicago: 1
Utah: 1#UTAvsCHI #Blackhawks #UtahHC pic.twitter.com/53T6gSR13s— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 30, 2025
Chicago would take the only lead of the night at the 14:55 mark when forward Ryan Donato scored his 29th goal of the season with an assist from Connor Bedard, his 38th helper on the season.
Chicago goal!
Scored by Ryan Donato with 05:05 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Connor Bedard.
Chicago: 2
Utah: 1#UTAvsCHI #Blackhawks #UtahHC pic.twitter.com/8dSFX6UO6S— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 30, 2025
The Chicago lead would not last long as defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and forward Alexander Kerfoot would beat Soderblom before the end of the period to give Utah the 3–2 lead after two periods of play.
Third period
Kailer Yamamoto scored his first goal of the season at the 10:57 mark before Logan Cooley would send most of the fans to their cars at the 12:54 mark to finish off the overmatched Blackhawks 5–2.
The Blackhawks host the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday for an 8:30 p.m. CDT puck drop. The Wednesday game will be part of the TNT broadcast.
Analysis
Rinzel looked very good in his first NHL game action. He showed the comfort level of a veteran with the puck on his stick in his own zone and used his skating ability to skate the puck out of his own zone and gave himself three nice scoring chances on the other end of the ice. His play could have been confused with a five-year veteran the way he looked compared to other young Blackhawk defensemen.
Moore showed his excellent skating skills and made a few nice plays, driving some offense through the neutral zone and into his offensive zone.
Soderblom’s run as “The Dominator” for that three-game span earlier in the season is all but over. The netminder has trouble finding pucks in traffic and spent most of the game hoping shots went wide. Soderblom also did not get much help from most of his defensemen in front of clearing traffic. Quite the bad combination.
