Dylan Guenther scored both of the Mammoth’s goals tonight
In a hard-fought game, the Utah Mammoth fell 3-2 in overtime to the Vegas Golden Knights. Dylan Guenther had both of Utah’s goals on Thursday while Jack Eichel (x2) and Shea Theodore scored for the Golden Knights.
“We played a really good game,” Mammoth head coach André Tourigny shared postgame. “We were relentless, we had pace, we were in their face, we were more in sync, I really liked the way we played.”
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In the final five minutes of the first period, Utah opened the scoring with Guenther’s first goal. Peterka gained possession in the neutral zone, entered the offensive zone, passed to Guenther and his linemate took it from there. Guenther snuck it under Vegas goaltender Adin Hill and scored. The Mammoth held on to their 1-0 lead in the final minutes of the first and entered the second period ahead of the home team.
66 seconds into the second period, Dylan Guenther doubled Utah’s lead to 2-0 with his second goal of the night. Peterka won his battle at the blue line, Hayton gathered the puck, passed to Guenther, and the forward quickly shot and scored. Hayton and Simashev picked up assists on the goal. Minutes later, Guenther was stopped by Hill on the doorstep as the forward was inches away from a hat trick.
Halfway through the third period, Vegas cut Utah’s lead in half with a goal from Jack Eichel. Mitch Marner and Ivan Barbashev picked up assists. Tensions rose in the final minutes of regulation, and a fight broke out between Gabe Smith and Cole Reinhardt with 3:56 left in the third period. This was Utah’s eighth fighting major through four preseason games.
Smith was also assessed a roughing call which gave Vegas its third power play opportunity of the game. 12 seconds later, Eichel scored his second of the night to tie the game, 2-2. Barbashev picked up his second assist of the night while Shea Theodore also recorded a helper on the goal. Seconds later, Utah’s penalty kill went to work again; however, the Mammoth killed off their fourth penalty and the game returned to even strength.
Neither team was able to score in the final minutes of the third period, and the game went to overtime. Sean Durzi, Nick Schmaltz, and Barrett Hayton started the overtime period and had several looks. Minutes later, Kevin Stenlund had a key offensive zone faceoff win to keep possession off the draw. Peterka, Guenther, Simashev, Yamamoto, Schmidt, and Carcone all played in the overtime period.
With just under two minutes left in overtime, Shea Theodore capitalized on a turnover and scored the game winning goal. With the loss, Utah is 0-4 to start its preseason. The Mammoth will have four days of practice before their next game on Sept. 30 against the Los Angeles Kings. Tuesday’s contest is in Boise, Idaho and game time is 7:00 p.m. MT.
Part of preseason is developing chemistry with lines and defensive pairings. The growing chemistry between Peterka, Guenther, and Hayton was on display. The three players contributed four points against the Golden Knights.
“I liked the speed, I liked the skill, I liked the compete as well,” Tourigny said on the Peterka, Hayton, Guenther line. “We talk about detail and playing both sides of the puck and this line did it perfectly. Really liked their effort.”
The Mammoth’s defensive effort stood out against the Golden Knights. Utah was connected and applied multiple layers of pressure against Vegas. The Mammoth held the Golden Knights to a total of 20 shots on goal (1st period: 3, 2nd period: 7, 3rd period: 9, Overtime: 1). Utah kept Vegas from recording more than 9 shots a period throughout the game.
“We were really good at applying pressure, and having good reload, and being five (players) connected all the time, so I really liked that part of our game,” Tourigny explained. “Defensively, I really liked our pace.”
Utah continues to be a suffocating force while shorthanded. The Mammoth have killed off 12 of their 14 penalties over the preseason. Olli Määttä, Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Guenther, Brandon Tanev, Dmitri Simashev, Barrett Hayton, Ian Cole, Sean Durzi, Kailer Yamamoto, Nick DeSimone, Kevin Stenlund, and Nate Schmidt all logged time on the penalty kill tonight.
On the other side of special teams, the Mammoth only had one power play opportunity against the Golden Knights. Schmaltz, Durzi, Peterka, Hayton, and Guenther made up the top power play unit while Daniil But, Michael Carcone, Simashev, Yamamoto, and Schmidt made up the second power play unit.
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