Los Angeles Kings right wing Mathieu Joseph (17) lands on the ice after getting block by the Utah Mammoth during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, March 22, 2026, in Salt Lake City. Melissa Majchrzak/AP
By Tom Walker
SALT LAKE CITY–Lawson Crouse scored twice in the first period and Nick Schmaltz added a pair including the overtime game winner as the Utah Mammoth defeat the Los Angeles Kings for the first time in franchise history 4-3 in overtime.
The Mammoth (36-28-6) welcomed the Kings (28-25-16) to Delta Center on Sunday evening, with Utah looking to reverse the result of their previous four encounters with L.A., all losses, since moving to the Beehive State.
Eight days ago, Kings captain Anže Kopitar passed legendary Hall of Fame forward Marcel Dionne, who last suited up for L.A. four decades ago in 1987, to become the team’s all-time points leader. In 20 NHL seasons, the two-time Stanley Cup champion also leads the team in career games played, entering Sunday’s contest with 451 goals and 860 assists for 1311 points in 1508 games. Off the ice, Kings Head Equipment Manager Darren Granger was recognized for working his 2500th NHL game.
The first period provided plenty of fireworks as Utah and Los Angeles put up four goals in a span of two minutes and 43 seconds. Mammoth Associate Captain Lawson Crouse got things going at 7:04 of the frame with his 18th goal of the season, set up perfectly from behind the net by defenseman John Marino.
Just 36 seconds later, Kings forward Alex Laferriere evened things up with his 18th goal, assisted by Quinton Byfield. At 9:19 it was Crouse striking again for his second of the game and 19th of the season, assisted by Alexander Kerfoot and Kevin Stenlund, but before the public address announcer could complete announcing the goal to the fans, Byfield launched a bullet unassisted past Utah netminder Karel Vejmelka for his 15th on the year at 9:47 to even the score at 2-2. Both teams’ defenses held the other side in check for the latter half of the period which ended with Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper stopping 13 of 15 shots and Vejmelka turning away 8 of 10.
The second period seemed as if it would end scoreless, but with less than four minutes remaining Mammoth forward Nick Schmaltz was able to bat a rebound off a shot by Clayton Keller past Kuemper for his 25th goal of the season, his career high for a season, with Crouse picking up his 3rd point of the night with an assist, his eighth career three-point game, to take a 3-2 lead to the locker room. Karel Vejmelka was a perfect 10 in turning away L.A. shot attempts.
The third period was a carbon copy of the second, with neither team scoring until Artemi Panarin broke through for the Kings with three and a half minutes left, his 25th goal of the season assisted by Drew Doughty, to send the game into overtime.
At 1:46 of overtime, Schmaltz struck again with the game-winner for his 26th goal, assisted by Mikhail Sergachev and Kevin Stenlund, to deliver Utah’s first ever victory over L.A., setting a new career high in goals and tying his career high in points in the process.
“Huge. Obviously, this is a team that’s right on our heels, and we face them two times within a week,” said Lawson Crouse in the locker room after the game. On playing on a line with Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz, Crouse said, “Obviously, with Kells and Schmaltzy, they’ve played together so long, they know each other like the back of their hands.
That chemistry, it’s great to jump in there and just play and just try to play fast for them. Be smart and heavy and try to win battles. Get to the net, and open the ice up for them. Obviously, they’re elite-level playmakers and finishers, so there’s a happy balance of getting to the net and trying to open up ice, but also being available for them to make quick plays to get shots on goal.”
Schmaltz talked about the squad’s determination and patience late in the game. “They had a push there in the third, we knew that was going to happen. At this time of year, I feel like every game’s super tight, so we didn’t really hold our heads down when they tied it up, we just took it to overtime. Huge two points for us.” When asked if the games are beginning to have a playoff feel, Schmaltz responded, “Guys are super competitive. Everyone wants to push their team into the playoffs, so guys are fighting for their lives out there. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of competitiveness, a lot of stuff after the whistles, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun out there. … It’s way more fun playing these games than knowing you’re going to tee it up at the end of April or whatever it may be. Super exciting to be in this position that we put ourselves in. We got some work to do left, but we put ourselves in a good spot.”
Utah Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny opened his postgame comments, saying, “I loved the urgency and I loved the intensity of our game. That’s a heavy team on the other side. It was important for us to be (competitive) in our battles. I think that in the first period we had unbelievable pace and we got the momentum. (Los Angeles) retaliated twice after we scored; it was a little bit unfortunate, but I really liked our first period. Then in the second, we were not as fast moving the puck. We were not as connected and we slowed down a little bit. They were playing well as well, so that helped them to apply a little bit of pressure on us. But we stayed with it and we found a way to score a big goal. I liked the way we played in the third period. I think we were still aggressive offensively and we made good plays. All in all, I’m really proud of the guys. I think (Barrett Hayton’s) line with (Mikhail Sergachev) and (MacKenzie Weegar) did an unbelievable job against their first line. (Nate Schmidt) was sick and could not finish the game. We finished at five (defensemen) and they were strong; played really well. Really proud of our D corps and obviously (Lawson Crouse’s) line with four goals, tough to ask for more.” With regard to the playoff feel, Bear commented, “It’s really important. We all know L.A. is fighting to catch up (to us). It’s a really important game. We have two games against them this week. We lost the last game at home. It’s important for us where we take a lot of pride in that. But it was a big game. They’re heavy. They play a helluva game. They’re competitive. They’re tough to play against. They put a lot of pucks on the net. You need to be hard around the net. I’m really proud of the way we responded.”
The Mammoth (37-28-6) will take on the Edmonton Oilers (34-28-9) for the third game of the homestand on Tuesday.
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