Mammoth hold off late surge in third by Maple Leafs

Dylan Guenther and Mikhail Sergachev each had a goal and an assist for the Utah Mammoth, who staved off a late surge to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 at the Delta Center on Tuesday.

“We were resilient out there, but obviously we didn’t play the way we wanted to play in the third period,” Sergachev said. “We were backing off a little bit, not attacking as much as we should have been, but it’s only game seven of the season, so I think it’s going to be a quick turn around, we’re going to learn from it.”

Vincent Trocheck, Daniil But and MacKenzie Weegar each scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 22 saves for the Mammoth (5-2-0), who are 3-1-0 in their past four games and were playing their first game at home after a five-game road trip.

“After a long road trip like we had, it’s always tough to find your emotions and your second gear, but I thought our guys did a really good job,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “We knew it was a challenge, but we made sure we showed up with that emotion. That was not a problem and we found a way to get two points against a really good team, so I’m proud of that.”

Auston Matthews and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist, Gavin McKenna scored and Anthony Stolarz made 23 saves for the Maple Leafs (3-3-1), who were 2-0-1 in their past three games. 

“It’s a tough one,” Toronto coach Jim Hiller said. “I didn’t think we played great. I actually thought we started really well. The second period, no good. So that’s three second periods on this trip that were no good. Fought hard at the end, had our opportunities to tie it, but shouldn’t have put ourselves in that spot.”

Tavares cut it to 5-3 at 7:12 of the third period when he took a lead pass from Stolarz, skated into the Mammoth zone and shot over Vejmelka’s glove from the left dot for the power-play goal. 

The Maple Leafs made it 5-4 at 11:01. On a delayed penalty with Stolarz pulled for a 6-on-5 advantage, McKenna extended his point streak to four games (two goals, three assists) when he took a pass from William Nylander and shot past a sprawling Vejmelka’s glove from below the left dot. 

Toronto went 2-for-5 on the power play, but could not deliver when Utah killed off the final 1:46 with Guenther in the penalty box for tripping and Stolarz pulled for a 6-on-4 advantage.

“The power play I thought was pretty good,” Hiller said. “We scored different types of goals but the big one at the end, the 6-on-4, was the one we really needed to bury.”

The Mammoth went up 1-0 at 14:55 of the first period when But stepped around Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly at the blue line and shot short side on Stolarz from below the right face-off dot.

Trocheck pushed it to 2-0 at 1:00 of the second period. He dropped a backhand no-look pass to Logan Cooley, who returned the pass to Trocheck past a sprawling Darren Raddysh for a tap in at the top of the goal crease.

Sergachev made it 3-0 at 4:01 when he scored short-handed, putting a loose puck past Stolarz at the side of the net after Barrett Hayton’s initial shot was blocked by Toronto defenseman Nick Blankenburg. 

“I thought even-keeled throughout the game,” Trocheck said. “These games after coming back from a long road trip are always tough, but I thought we came out hot and then we rode the waves and stayed even-keeled.”

Matthews scored 1:15 later on the power play to cut it to 3-1. When all four Mammoth penalty killers got caught on the same side of the ice, Tavares slid a pass to Matthews, who was alone in front of the net, and he deked to the backhand to put it past Vejmelka. 

“That was a very inconsistent performance by us,” Sergachev said. “We gave up some tough goals on the penalty kill that we shouldn’t have given up. We have to clean that up.”

The Mammoth made it 4-1 at 14:17 when Guenther snapped a shot past Stolarz’s blocker from the top of the right face-off circle. 

“I think we can clean up our puck play,” Rielly said. “If you look at their goals, they’re off the rush, so there is something going on there that we have to fix. You do a good job at the end of the game to get back in it, but ultimately that’s a tough position to be in.”

Jack Roslovic pulled the Maple Leafs to within two goals at 16:29. Matthews centered a pass to Kirill Marchenko in the slot from behind the net. Marchenko then spun and put a no-look backhand pass across to Roslovic, whose shot went off the goal post and in to cut it to 4-2. 

Weegar made it 5-2 at 19:20 when he took a drop pass from Clayton Keller and shot between Stolarz's blocker and chest protector from the left face-off dot.

“I put us in a tough situation,” Stolarz said. “I probably want two or three of those goals back. Not the way you want to go and end the road trip. … I know I’ve got better and will be better in the future.”

NOTES: Hayton extended his point streak to four games (zero goals, five assists). … Matthews extended his point streak to five games (five goals, seven assists). … Tavares played his first game after returning to the team following the birth of his fourth child, a son named Tucker. He missed a 6-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. … McKenna became the fourth Maple Leafs player in the expansion era (since 1967-68) to record a point in each of his first three career road games. The only other players to do so are Daniel Marois (seven games in 1988-89), Matthews (four in 2016-17) and Alex Steen (three in 2005-06). … Sergachev scored the last of three straight Mammoth goals, and did so short-handed. He became the franchise’s first defenseman with multiple short-handed goals; John Marino is the only other with one.