Cooley Hat Trick, Sergachev OT Winner Sink Pittsburgh 4-3

Logan Cooley scored three goals — including a tip-in with 24 seconds left in regulation to force overtime — and Utah walked out of Pittsburgh with a 4-3 win on October 29. Mikhail Sergachev ended it 3:27 into overtime, capping one of the wilder finishes of the young NHL season.

Utah looked in complete control early. Cooley opened the scoring at 4:40 of the first period with an unassisted wrist shot, then did it again at 14:11 — this time with Lawson Crouse and Andrew Peeke picking up assists — to put Utah up 2-0 after one. That two-goal cushion is where the turning point lives: the moment Cooley broke the tie at 4:40, the margin shifted from zero to one, and Utah never trailed until the third period. Sebastian Cossa was solid behind them, finishing with 31 saves on 34 shots.

Pittsburgh chipped away. Erik Karlsson cut it to 2-1 at 8:38 of the second, with Ben Kindel and Evgeni Malkin assisting. Then the third period turned into something else entirely. Rickard Rakell tied it at 10:59 with an unassisted wrist shot, and with 25 seconds left on the clock, Kindel — set up by Malkin and Egor Chinakhov — put Pittsburgh ahead 3-2 at 19:35. Malkin finished the night with two assists. Arturs Silovs made 30 saves for Pittsburgh, and it looked like he had done enough.

He hadn't. Twenty-four seconds after Kindel's go-ahead goal, Cooley tipped home his third of the night at 19:59, assisted by Vincent Trocheck and Clayton Keller, to knot it at 3-3 and send the game to overtime. The story of the night was Cooley's refusal to let Utah lose — three goals, each one a wrist shot or a tip, each one at a moment that mattered. Sergachev closed it out in OT at 3:27, wiring a wrist shot past Silovs off a feed from Barrett Hayton. Utah wins 4-3. Pittsburgh, to its credit, clawed back from two down and nearly held on, but this one belongs entirely to Cooley and a Utah team that appears to have the composure to win ugly when it has to.