Pittsburgh Penguins center Tommy Novak (18) takes a shot on goal agianst the Utah Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka (70) in the first period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Sat Mar 14, 2026 (AP News photo)
By Tom Walker
SALT LAKE CITY–Utah got off to a hot start on two first period goals by Dylan Guenther, but fell victim to undisciplined play as Pittsburgh fought back to deliver a fourth straight loss to the Mammoth 4-3.
The Utah Mammoth (34-26-6) closed out its brief two-game homestand on Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins (32-18-15). Absent from the Penguins lineup were future Hockey Hall of Fame forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and it was noticeable on the ice as the game unfolded, or so it seemed in the beginning.
Dylan Guenther single-handedly accounted for all scoring in the opening frame. At 5:06 of the first, Guenther stole the puck from Penguins forward Blake Lizotte at the blue line and shot the puck under the outstretched pads of Pittsburgh goalie Stuart Skinner for his team-leading 32nd goal of the season, unassisted.
91 seconds later, with Anthony Mantha in the penalty box for cross-checking against Mikhail Sergachev, Mammoth forward Barrett Hayton put the puck off the goal post behind Skinner, and as the puck trickled along the goal line Penguins defenseman Connor Clifton knocked it away but directly into the skate blades of Guenther who was crashing the net.
Both the puck and Guenther crossed the goal line as the net came off of its moorings. The call on the ice was no-goal, but upon video replay it was determined that the puck had first crossed the goal line followed by Guenther.
Pittsburgh did not challenge whether the puck was kicked into the net, resulting in Guenther’s 33rd goal of the season, again unassisted, and the second-fastest two goals in franchise history. Earlier this season he established the fastest franchise two-goal mark in 78 seconds against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
According to NHL States, he is just the second NHL player to record two unassisted goals in under two minutes since the 2018-2019 season. With the ice sheet seemingly tilted in the direction of the Penguins goal throughout the period, Utah took a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Karel Vejmelka turned away all 7 shots by Pittsburgh, while Skinner turned away 12 of 14.
The Mammoth were sailing through the first half of the game when they ran into penalty trouble beginning at 13:39 of the second period when Lawson Crouse went to the sin bin for high sticking against Parker Wotherspoon.
A half minute later, Alexander Kerfoot joined him when he was whistled for interference against Rickard Rakell, giving the Penguins a lengthy 5-on-3 power play. Pittsburgh didn’t squander the opportunity as Anthony Mantha scored his 25th goal of the season, assisted by Erik Karlsson and Egor Chinakhov. Up to that point the game had seemed rather one-sided but with 2:34 remaining in the frame, Thomas Novak tied things up with his 15th goal of the season, assisted by Wotherspoon and Mantha. Utah managed only four futile shots on goal in the period while Vejmelka stopped 4 of 6 by the Penguins.
Utah began the third period on the penalty kill due to a late second period hooking penalty by Ian Cole against Bryan Rust. At 1:24, Rust converted the power play for his 24th goal of the season, assisted by Rakell and Chinakhov to take their first lead of the game 3-2.
Not quite three minutes later, Mammoth defenseman Ian Cole tied things up again 3-3 with his 3rd goal of the season, assisted by Alexander Kerfoot and Kevin Stenlund. Just past the 8-minute mark of the frame, the Penguins regained the lead on forward Noel Acciari’s 8th goal of the season, assisted by Wotherspoon and Karlsson, which ended up being the difference in the game.
“I think we’ve been trying to make a concerned effort to stick with the game plan, even though there were stretches of that game where we did a really good job sticking to it, and there were stretches where we kind of deviated and we got away from it,’ said defenseman Ian Cole in the locker room following the loss. “They ended up cutting out plays and transitioned back on us and, you know, call it ‘unforced errors, so yeah, we’re going to have to do some soul-searching and figure out how we want to win.”
Dylan Guenther opined, “I think you learn from stuff like this, but as much as you want to break everything down, you can’t beat yourself up for too long–there’s 15 games left, so make sure we learn from it, but it doesn’t bleed into our other games. … Learning’s important. But you don’t want it to bleed, you don’t want to get too emotional, if we get down 2-0 in the next game, you don’t want that to kind of snowball, I think it’s just the next shift. And being aware of the things that we have to fix, but making sure that it’s a clean slate going into every game.”
Head Coach André Tourigny began his post-game remarks saying, “(It’s) disappointing. The first angle is that we had full control of that game, and instead of playing a mature, simple – get above them, put pucks deep and stuff like that – we forced the play with the puck and tried to do way too much. We took penalties in the (offensive) zone – most of them, except one – five in a row in the second. We gave them hope (with) bad line changes and stuff like that. So it’s not like we played (badly). Even if you play well but you (make) the wrong decisions and you don’t manage the game the right way, it’s a song we (sang) two months ago, before the break. The guys fixed it, we had success, but now we have to do it all over again. The lack of maturity today in our game and our management cost us the game. We were in full control, we had no reason.”
In his sober analysis of his team’s performance, Bear conceded, “It would have been unfair to win today, the way we managed the game. And I believe we generated way more offense than them – at five-on-five, we were the better team. It doesn’t matter, if you don’t manage the game the right way. It’s too good of a league. It’s not a league where you can gamble, and we gambled and we lost the game. … We had a great start, scored a big goal on the track on a strip, scored on the power play. We’re playing well, putting pucks at the net, we have traffic, we have opportunities – we’re in control. That has to be enough, and it wasn’t.”
The Mammoth (34-27-6) play a pair of games on the road next week in Dallas and Las Vegas before returning Friday for a four-game homestand beginning with the Anaheim Ducks.
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