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Utah Mammoth left wing Brandon Tanev (13) fights with Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jayden Strubble (47), center Jared Davidson (49), center Joseph Veleno (90)in the second period at the Delta Center on Wed Nov 26, 2025 (Canadian Press photo via AP)

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–Utah scored three goals in the second period for the first time this season, but Montreal came from behind in the third to defeat the Mammoth 4-3.

The Utah Mammoth (12-8-3) wrapped up their four-game homestand on Wednesday night against the Montreal Canadiens (11-7-3). The game marked the return of Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi to the lineup following a 21-game absence due to an upper body injury.

Montreal struck first just past the halfway mark of the first period as Zachary Bolduc scored his 5th goal of the season on a slap shot which got past Utah netminder Karel Vejmelka, assisted by Lane Hutson and Nick Suzuki. At 16:37, Suzuki would make it 2-0 Canadiens with his 6th goal of the season, assisted by Cole Caufield and Bolduc.

The second period has generally been tough for the Mammoth, but on Wednesday they scored a season high 3 goals in the period to take the lead. At 9:43 Barrett Hayton netted his 3rd goal of the season, assisted by Clayton Keller and Mikhail Sergachev. A couple of minutes later it would be Kailer Yamamoto tying the score with his 3rd on the year, assisted by Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley. Less than two minutes after that it would be Michael Carcone scoring his 4th of the year on a wrist shot, assisted by Kevin Stenlund and John Marino.

It seemed as if Utah had all the momentum going into the third, but Montreal quickly reclaimed it beginning with a holding penalty against Yamamoto which put Montreal on the power play. The Canadiens thought they had scored the tying goal just 19 minutes into the penalty, but Mammoth head coach André Tourigny took a timeout and then challenged the goal for being off side. The replay officials in Toronto agreed and Montreal went back on the power play still down a goal. They didn’t have to wait long, however, as Suzuki would get the equalizer on the power play with his 2nd goal of the night and 7th of the season, assisted by Bolduc and Brendan Gallagher. Barely a minute later, Ivan Demidov silenced the Utah crowd as he found the back of the net on a snap shot, assisted by Oliver Kapanen and Noah Dobson to take a 4-3 lead. The Mammoth came close on several occasions to send the game to overtime, but ultimately Canadiens netminder Jakub Dobes kept Utah off the score sheet in the 3rd period, stopping 31 of 34 shots overall in the game, to give Montreal the victory.

Utah Mammoth forward Barrett Hayton spoke with the media after the game regarding the team’s momentum. “I thought we did a really good job in that second period, just managing the game better. Obviously, something we reviewed was something we had to be better at. And we did a really good job during the second period. Game wise I need a second to kind of reflect on exactly what it is. It’s frustrating right now not coming out with two points.”

Defenseman Sean Durzi talked about returning to the lineup after his 21-game absence. “Watching the guys all year, you kind of see how they go through the ups and downs. You try to be in all the meetings you can be, but when I’m rehabbing, they’re on the road and can’t see it all. You try to see the guy’s ways in warm-ups, things like that. Routines change so much throughout the year. Just wanted to contribute, whether it’s on the ice or off the ice, bring some energy. Do something.” Talking about the team’s adversity during the game, Durzi said, “I don’t think we lost focus. We, as a group, are mature enough to kind of control what we have to control. I thought we did a lot of good things. It was an emotional game; we all care so much that sometimes it’s tough. I think again, the maturity in here never wavered, and confidence never wavered. I thought we did a good job of keeping our focus and moving on to the next.” Durzi felt there were several positives in the game. “I thought we battled hard. A few missed cues led to a few goals, but at the end of the day, our primary focus was in the right place: tracking hard on their top guys, in a lot of situations, five-on-five, playing a team game. Direct and how we want to play. You see flashes of it. We’ve got to bring it, and can’t let those miscues cost us.”

Head Coach André Tourigny began his post-game comments by saying, “I think we played a good game, but unfortunately we got beat on our strength. Our (penalty kill) has been our strength since the start of the season. Tonight we were not as sharp on our PK. [To have a] power play score and a big goal was important for us. (Montreal) is a good team defensively and we generated a volume of shot quality and inside game. We had a lot of traffic there. I think (Montreal) scored two goals off of their rush; that’s unfortunate.” With regard to Durzi’s return, Tourigny added, “He played good; he made good plays with the puck, he was focused, he was urgent. He did a good job. But the toughest game when you come back is always the second one. The first one, you have all the energy and everything. He passed the test, no doubt about it. We’re happy to have him and he did a really good job. No doubt.” Comparing the second period with the rest of the game, Tourigny said, “That we managed the puck (in the second). I think we allowed ourselves to have five guys with energy all the time by managing the puck in the neutral zone. (We) allowed everybody to get the right changes so that we had guys with energy and with pace…I think we played a good game, period. That’s a good team on the other side…If two teams play a good game, what will happen? One team will pull the goalie with one minute to go–and hopefully we’ll be on the right side. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of it. We cleaned up our second period, we made some adjustments in our defensive zone. We’re satisfied about that. That was pretty good. The guys were really tuned in. We were at the net, we generated speed, we moved the puck good on the breakout. We need to clean up our PK. I’m not blaming our PK; they’ve been the best part of our game. That unit has been our rock since the season started. So I’m not blaming them; it’s just a matter of fact (tonight). We’ll clean that up and we’ll be ready for our next game…I think we can be a little bit better.”

Utah (12-9-3) split the four games of the homestand and will play the next six post-Thanksgiving matchups on the road against Dallas, St. Louis, San Jose, Anaheim, Vancouver, and Calgary before returning to Delta Center on December 8 to open a three-game homestand against the Los Angeles Kings.