Utah Mammoth Lawson Crouse (67) takes the puck against the New York Islanders Alexander Romanov (28) at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Fri Nov 15, 2025 (nhl.com photo)

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–Utah surrendered its third period lead on a controversial kicked in goal by New York and fall to the Islanders in overtime 3-2.

The Utah Mammoth (10-7-0) laced up Friday night for the final game of the current homestand against the New York Islanders (9-6-2), and their 100th game as a new franchise. Utah snapped a 3-game losing streak on Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres, and entered Friday’s contest with a 5-1-0 home record.

New York captured the early lead on a snap shot by winger Emil Heineman at 7:13 of the first, his 8th of the season, assisted by Tony DeAngelo and Alexander Romanov. Just past the halfway mark of the period, the horn sounded for what appeared to be a goal by Utah forward Nick Schmaltz, but on video review it was ruled that the puck hadn’t crossed the line. The Mammoth quickly shook it off, however, as winger JJ Peterka hit the score sheet moments later with his second goal of the homestand, his 6th of the season, a tip-in from a shot by Lawson Crouse with the additional assist to John Marino. With less than two minutes remaining in the frame, the Islanders gifted Utah a lengthy 5-on-3 power play as Matthew Schaefer was called for interference against Clayton Keller, and then 7 seconds later Simon Holmstrom sent the puck over the glass from the defensive zone for a delay of game penalty. The Mammoth took advantage of New York’s miscues as forward Dylan Guenther fired off a slap shot which found the back of the net for his 7th goal of the season, assisted by Mikhail Sergachev and Keller. Utah went to the locker room sporting a 2-1 lead. Islanders goaltender David Rittich stopped 11 of 13 Mammoth shots in the period, while Karel Vejmelka turned away 5 of th 6 New York shots he faced.

The second period was a scoreless defensive display from both teams as Rittich stopped all 10 Utah shot attempts, and Vejmelka kept New York off the scoreboard on 7 shots.

At 13:44 of the third period Jonathan Drouin kicked the puck into the Mammoth net. Though the call on the ice was no goal, video replay officials overturned the decision despite clear video of the kick. Anyone searching the internet to see it for themselves will be stunned at the call. Nevertheless the goal stood, and the score at the end of regulation was 2-2.

In the overtime period, New York added insult to injury when Matthew Schaefer found a hole past Vejmelka to give the Islanders the overtime victory and handing Utah its first overtime loss of the season.

Utah Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny addressed the media after the game. “We had a really good first period, and for a number of reasons, we lost our momentum in the second period. They did a good job at keeping our guys tired on the ice, and we had a tough time changing. We didn’t turn the puck over a lot today, but we had a few costly ones which did not let us make good changes, and that wore us down a little bit. I think we were on our heels too much in the third period. We were protecting the lead, but we did not have the same aggression. I talked to you a lot about that. About the way we’re at our best to defend. It’s when we have aggression and pressure, and I did not like the way we closed that game.” Talking about the Mammoth special teams, Tourigny said, “Big goal on the power play for sure. I think that our power play had the opportunity to separate us during the game, and we didn’t. That’s unfortunate, because I think that was a key moment. On the flip side, the PK came up big. I think on the power play, we had a few good looks where the hole was there and the opportunity was there. We need to get clutch.”

Utah (10-7-1) now hits the road for games in Anaheim and San Jose on Monday and Tuesday, returning to the Delta Center for a four game homestand next Thursday beginning with the Vegas Golden Knights.