Utah Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka (70) lays on the ice looking at the puck after giving up the game winning goal to the Vegas Golden Knights in overtime in game 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs first round at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Mon Apr 27, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–The Utah Mammoth started out looking dead in the water only to come back with a fury before surrendering to the Vegas Golden Knights in overtime 5-4 to even the best-of-seven series at 2-2 Monday night at the Delta Center.

The Mammoth hosted the Knights at Delta Center on Monday night for Game 4 of the Western Conference First-Round Series in which Utah led 2-1 in the best-of-seven contest following last Friday’s 4-2 home victory.

Vegas came out swinging from the drop of the puck, desperate to avoid falling into elimination game status if they failed to prevail in the match. The early desperation paid off as Pavel Dorofeyev connected on a pass from Ivan Barbashev just 72 seconds into the game to put the Golden Knights up 1-0.

At 16:44 the Mammoth had an opportunity to tie things up when Cole Smith went to the penalty box for tripping against JJ Peterka. With six seconds remaining in the man-advantage, it was the Golden Knights who came up with a shorthanded goal by Brett Howden, assisted by Mitch Marner, to take a 2-0 lead heading into the locker room. Utah, who managed just 12 shots on goal on Friday, finished the opening frame with just 3 against Carter Hart. Vegas converted two goals on eight shots against Vejmelka.

The Golden Knights picked up where they left off at the beginning of the second period when Smith scored his first goal of the series at 3:26, assisted by Noah Hanifin and Colton Sissons, to make it 3-0 as Vegas continued to dominate both ends of the ice.

Just past the eight minute mark the Mammoth broke onto the scoreboard as Nick Schmaltz picked up the loose change of a shot by Lawson Crouse to score his first post-season goal, assisted by Crouse and Mikhail Sergachev. 29 seconds later Utah defenseman Ian Cole trimmed the deficit to 3-2 with his first goal, blasting a one-timer from above the faceoff circle on a feed by Sean Durzi to bring the Delta Center crowd to life and suddenly make a game of what had been a lackluster effort by the Mammoth to that point.

Michael Carcone completed the Mammoth comeback at 1:45 of the third period with his first goal of the postseason as he one-timed a pass from Dylan Guenther into the back of the net to make it 3-3. With the momentum overwhelmingly shifted to Utah, Clayton Keller gave the Mammoth a 4-3 lead at 5:10 when he gloved down a pass from Nick Schmaltz and shot it at the Vegas goal where it bounced off the body of Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore and into the net. The Golden Knights were down but not out, and at 10:25 Brett Howden tied the game at 4-4 with his second goal of the night, assisted by Hanifin and Eichel, which is how the period ended.

The Mammoth were the only team in the NHL not to participate in a shootout during the regular season, and in the post-season shootouts aren’t a thing, so Utah and Vegas began a sudden death overtime period in which either the Mammoth would come away with a dominant 3-1 lead in the series, or the Golden Knights would even the series at 2-2.

With 9:38 remaining in the overtime period, Vegas thought they had won the game when Pavel Dorofeyev tipped in a loose puck, but upon video review it was determined that the Golden Knights were offside and play continued. With 52 seconds remaining in the bonus period, Shea Theodore took advantage of Karel Vejmelka having lost his stick and drilled the game-winner into the back of the net, sending the series back to Las Vegas on Thursday tied at 2-2.

Mikhail Sergachev, who assisted on the goals by Carcone and Keller, talked about Utah’s ability to fight back from the 3-0 deficit. “It was a determination. We came back from three-nothing. We were up in the game, and it was a good playoff hockey game.” Sergachev continued, “We had a slow start to the game and didn’t play our best. But in the second period, we came back, our fans were rallying and brought us back into the game, and we came back. We just got to fix the start, and I think we’ll be fine.” Asked about what will need to change in Game 5, the Assistant Captain said, “We need a better start; we need more pace in the neutral zone. And when we have an opportunity to score a goal, we’ve got to put it in. We had some opportunities (tonight) where we maybe passed on the shots (and) didn’t create enough traffic. Next game, we gotta focus on that.”

“I loved our fight,” Keller told the media. “We’re still playing confident. We got down in the game, but kept going. Everyone was contributing. Got some momentum there from the fans as well. All in all, we fought well until the end. We’ll learn from this game and still be really confident, for sure.” Talking about the second period turnaround, Keller said, “Just splitting the puck all over the ice, no hesitation, guys were making plays with the puck. Just being around the net and hungry. Guys want to make a difference, so that’s a good thing and we have a group of guys that are confident and want the puck on their stick.”

“Obviously, we haven’t been happy with our starts the past two games,” said defenseman Ian Cole. “We’re going to have to rectify that going forward. As the game went on, I thought we played better. You get into overtime and anything can happen. Unfortunately, we’re not happy with the outcome. But we’re going to move on to Game 5.”

Utah Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny began his post-game remarks saying, “Obviously, (Vegas) had a great start. I liked the way we responded after their third goal. Even then, we got in the box; right away after that’s where we started rolling and got back in the game a little bit. So I’m proud of the way our guys responded to adversity. That was a hard-fought game. We know how good they can be and I think we responded well (in) the second half of the game.”

No matter the outcome of Game 5 on Wednesday in Las Vegas, there will be a Game 6 on Friday at Delta Center. The only question is whether the Mammoth will enter that game with a chance to clinch the series, or if they will face a must-win situation to stay alive and force a Game 7 back in Nevada.