Connor Ingram and the Utah defence held strong in the pre-season finale victory Saturday night.
Andre Tourigny was concerned if his team was looking past the Colorado Avalanche and too focused on Tuesday's historic game.
Another stout defensive performance proved that the Utah Hockey Club was not only locked in, but they're ready to make some noise.
Buoyed by another perfect night on the penalty kill, with Nick Schmaltz scoring the tie-breaking goal early in the third period, Utah closed their pre-season with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Colorado at the Maverik Center.
"We're playing with a lot of pace defensively," Tourigny said. "That's a really good team on the other side. It was good for us to go through it and to be able to hold the lead like that."
Utah certainly was made to suffer for the victory after two questionable penalty calls late, but goaltender Connor Ingram's 31 saves made sure they didn't squander the advantage.
And against a team that loves creating chances on the counter-attack, it was Schmaltz, on the power-play, who snapped a shot high-glove on Alex Georgiev, that proved to be the winning goal.
Dylan Guenther opened the scoring early for Utah on a wrist shot that beat Georgiev through a screen, before Colorado tied it less than three minutes later on a rebound goal by Ivan Ivan.
Now the focus shifts in earnest to Tuesday's historic game against Chicago (8:00 p.m. MT, ESPN/ESPN+), where fans will be packed into Salt Lake City to partake of festivities leading up to face-off.
"I've been nervous and excited before," Tourigny said. "It's not the first time I had the opportunity to coach."
More on Tuesday's historic game/other news from training camp: