Utah Mammoth defenceman Nate Schmidt takes a shot against the Boston Bruins in the second period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Sun Oct 19, 2025 (AP News photo)
By Tom Walker
SALT LAKE CITY–Dylan Guenther scored the third Period go-ahead goal and Vítek Vaněček locked down the net as the Utah Mammoth improves to 3-0-0 on their opening homestand beating the Boston Bruins at the Delta Center 3-2.
Coming off of back-to-back home wins at Delta Center to begin the 2025-2026 season, the Utah Mammoth (3-2-0) welcomed the Boston Bruins (3-3-0) to Salt Lake City on Sunday afternoon for the third of four games on the homestand.
At 3:30 of the first period, Boston’s Elias Lindholm was whistled for hooking against Dylan Guenther to put Utah on the power play. Nearly a minute later, Mammoth captain Clayton Keller found forward Nick Schmaltz in front of the net whose one-timer hit linemate Logan Cooley squarely in the back on the numbers, bouncing over his left shoulder and over the head of Bruins netminder Joonas Korpisalo, falling cleanly into the net to open the scoring.
Cooley was credited with his second goal of the season. Keller’s assist gave him an NHL-high 35 power play points (9G, 26A) over his last 61 games going back to December 8, 2024. Just past the halfway mark of the period, Mammoth forward Dylan Guenther was called for tripping against Morgan Geekie to give the Bruins the man advantage, which David Pastrnak cashed in for his 3rd of the season, assisted by Pavel Zacha and Charlie McAvoy, to tie things up. As the buzzer sounded, Korpisalo had stopped 11 of 12 shots in the frame while Vítek Vaněček turned away 9 of 10.
At 5:46 of the second period, Boston took its first lead of the game on a goal by David Pastrnak, his 4th of the season, assisted by Marat Khusnutdinov, as a vocal minority of yellow-clad cheering Bruins fans made their presence known. At 15:57, with Brandon Tanev and Nikita Zadorov serving offsetting roughing penalties, Keller put a rebound off a shot by Schmaltz past Korpisalo on the 4-on-4 for his second goal of the season with the additional assist going to Ian Cole. Keller and Schmaltz have combined on six goals over the past six periods. The period would end with the two squads knotted up at 2-2.
The two squads played to a draw in the first half of the third period until Dylan Guenther broke through at 10:37 of the frame with his 3rd goal on the season, assisted by JJ Peterka, to give Utah a 3-2 lead. Boston pulled Korpisalo with a minute and a half to go, but was unable to solve Vaněček who earned his first victory of the season, saving 24 of 26 shots. Guenther’s goal was his second game-winner of the season and an NHL-leading 8 over his last 36 games going back to February, putting him ahead of Sidney Crosby and Cole Caufield who have six each.
After the game, captain Clayton Keller addressed the team’s resilient third period. “We had a good third. For whatever reason, our second hasn’t been great, but we’ve been able to bounce back and play hard in the third, get back to our style of hockey, and I think we did a great job of that tonight.” Praising Vítek Vaněček’s performance in net, Keller added, “V was unreal all game, key saves at the right times, so it’s great to see him get a win here tonight at home. I’m sure that’s a huge confidence booster as well, making great stops and having an unbelievable game like that.”
Game-winning goal scorer Dylan Guenther spoke of scoring in front of his parents for the first time. “I mean it only took 25 years, so this might have been the last road trip if I hadn’t gotten one, but this one is special. Growing up as a kid always dreaming of playing in the NHL and getting to score with your family in the stands is pretty cool.” Speaking of the Mammoth playing calm in pressure situations, Guenther said, “We have a lot of leaders here, a lot of guys who have won. And heading into the third, you have to be comfortable in those situations and own it. That’s when you want to play when the game’s tied, you’re at home and the crowd is into it. I think it’s just a ton of fun. So if we embrace that, we continue to get better at it.”
Utah Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny was all smiles in the interview room. Speaking of the chemistry between Dylan Guenther and JJ Peterka, Tourigny said, “I liked their third period, and I talked to JJ after the second about using his speed in every phase and putting speed on their D and stuff like that. I really like the way he responded too, he attacked right in from the first shift in the third period, and he attacked with a lot of speed. He (Dylan Guenther) elevated this game in the third, and on the winning goal, he had a great reload, great strip, made a good pass, and obviously, Gunner took a really good shot. But I like that line in the third, and the way they responded.” What is it like to be undefeated at home to begin the season? “Trying not to get ahead of ourselves, in the sense that I don’t want to get too excited, but obviously we’re happy about how it happened so far. And we know we have 41games at home, and we want to take advantage of it. But so far, so good.”
Utah (4-2-0) concludes its homestand on Tuesday against the visiting Colorado Avalanche (5-0-1) who previously defeated the Mammoth on their October 9 home opener.