The Utah Mammoth survived a late barrage to top the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.
The Mammoth came out on top in a six-goal second period before the Maple Leafs found the back of the net twice in the third. Dylan Guenther and Mikhail Sergachev had a goal and an assist for Utah. Auston Matthews and John Tavares had multi-point games as the visitors scored twice on the power play.
Karel Vejmelka made 22 saves in his fourth win of the season, including a series of key stops on a late Toronto man advantage.
Six-foot-six Daniil But opened the scoring on a highlight-reel play with a strikingly soft set of hands, slipping the puck under the stick of defenseman Morgan Rielly to enter the zone and rifling it over the shoulder of Anthony Stolarz (23 saves) at 14:55 of the first period.
Goals came raining down in a frenetic second period. Logan Cooley fed Vincent Trocheck on a two-on-one to make it 2-0 one minute in.
Barrett Hayton ushered the puck up the ice on a penalty kill and slid the puck halfheartedly at Stolarz. Tailing the play, Sergachev arrived on the scene to throw in the rebound and extend the Mammoth lead to three with a short-handed goal.
Matthews extended his point streak to five games on the same power play off a swift Tavares dish from the sideboards.
Guenther restored the home team’s lead with a weak wrist shot from the edge of the faceoff circle that found a way through Stolarz.
Jack Roslovic made it 4-2, retrieving the puck in the slot and snapping it past Vejmelka. Kirill Marchenko spun 180 degrees in-tight to propel the puck in Roslovic’s direction. MacKenzie Weegar nabbed the final goal of the middle frame, handling a no-look pass from Clayton Keller and wristing it through Stolarz five-hole.
Back in the lineup after the birth of his fourth child, Tavares received a long pass up the boards from his goaltender, carried the puck into the zone himself and fired it into the roof of the net to make it 5-3 in the third.
Gavin McKenna brought the Maple Leafs within one four minutes later. William Nylander sold a shot from the faceoff circle before sliding it to the first overall pick, who was left to fire it into an open cage.
Rielly and Roslovic both had chances to tie the game late. Guenther took a tripping penalty with 1:46 remaining but Toronto couldn’t capitalize.