Utah Mammoth left wing Lawson Crouse (67) skates with the puck in the second period agianst the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Sat Oct 24, 2026 (AP News photo)
By Tom Walker
October 24, 2026
SALT LAKE CITY–Utah rookie defenseman Dmitri Simashev tied the game late in the second period with his first career NHL goal, then netted the overtime game-winner to complete the comeback against Tampa Bay for a 5-4 win.
The Utah Mammoth (8-4-0) returned to Delta Center on Saturday night following a 5-3 loss in Seattle on Thursday to face the Tampa Bay Lightning (7-3-1).
Per the Mammoth stat crew, Utah entered the night 15-for-39 (38.5%) on the power play through 11 games on the season, leading the NHL both in power play goals and power play percentage. They are also the only NHL team with 18 different goal scorers and eight different power play goal scorers.
At 5:10 of the first period, Lightning forward Jake Guentzel was credited with his 7th goal of the season, unassisted, to put Tampa Bay on the scoreboard. In reality, the entire goal was assisted by Utah defenseman Nate Schmidt who accidentally redirected a puck past netminder Karel Vejmelka.
Guentzel, who was the closest player to the miscue, was credited with the goal. Two minutes later, Mammoth forward Kailer Yamamoto took the puck from the top of the red circle in his defensive zone the full length of the ice and beat Dennis Hildeby with a wrist shot for his third of the year to even the score.
Halfway through the frame, Pontus Holmberg regained the Lightning lead 2-1 on a snap shot for his 3rd of the season, assisted by Erik Cernak and Ryan McDonagh. At 12:42, with Utah captain Clayton Keller in the penalty box for interference against Holmberg, Brayden Point picked up his 2nd of the year, assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Charle-Edouard D’Astous, to put Tampa Bay up 3-1.
Kucherov’s assist was the 1,138th point of his career, making him the career Lightning leader in points as his teammates jumped onto the ice to congratulate him. With a little over two minutes remaining in the period, and with Emil Lilleberg in the sin bin for interference against Barrett Hayton, Dylan Guenther closed the gap to 3-2 with his 5th goal of the season, assisted by some perfect passing by Mikhail Sergachev and Keller.
Tampa Bay reestablished their two-goal lead at 5:32 of the second period with Conor Geekie netting his 2nd goal of the season, assisted by Scott Sabourin. At 12:33 Utah went on the power play when Kucherov was whistled for hooking against Yamamoto, and though the Mammoth did not score with the man-advantage, Anders Lee tipped in the puck six seconds after it expired to get Utah back to within one, assisted by MacKenzie Weegar and Vincent Trocheck.
With three minutes remaining in the period, rookie defenseman Dmitri Simashev picked a great time to score his first NHL goal, assesed by Andrew Peeke and Trocheck, to complete the comeback and go to the locker room tied at 4-4. Simashev became the 19th Mammoth goal scorer of the season on the play.
Following a scoreless third period, Tampa Bay and Utah went to overtime. Since losing to Nashville in a shootout on April 14, 2025, Utah has gone to overtime in 16 of their last 96 regular season games, winning 10-of-16 bonus hockey opportunities in the OT period.
Last season Utah became the only team in NHL history since the introduction of shootouts to go the entire season without participating in one. At 1:44 of the extra frame, Simashev passed the puck to Hayton from behind his own net as both players then charged up the ice.
With Hayton attacking Hildeby, he dished off the puck at the last moment to Simashev who was crashing the net and knocked it in for his 2nd goal of the night, his 2nd NHL goal overall, and his first career overtime game-winner for the 5-4 victory. Along with Hayton, Vejmelka broke onto the scoresheet picking up his first assist of the season.
In the winning locker room, Simashev couldn’t hold back his excitement. “I feel amazing,” the rookie defenseman said. “”So I scored in overtime in the KHL, and it was kind of the same thing. I scored my first goal the game before and then the second in overtime. But I mean, I didn’t expect to (play) in overtime to be honest. Thanks Butter (Daniil But) for trusting in me. I was just so happy when we scored the goal that that’s all my feelings right now.” Talking about the comeback mentality after Thursday’s loss in Seattle, Simachev said, “I think that starts from the locker room, from the energy you have before the game and between the periods. I think obviously the character in the third period and overtime. That’s the main thing. I played in the KHL and won the championship and I just want to say character is the most important thing.” So what was better? Scoring his first NHL goal, or scoring the overtime game-winner? “It’s hard to say. Both. I can’t pick one, so just going to say both of them.”
“One of those nights, something seemed to happen every shift,” said forward Anders Lee. “We needed all facets of our game, and I think especially in the third period, but regardless of what had happened before that, we stuck to our plan and got to our game, and we really got to it in the third. We put ourselves in a great position by clawing back before that. Just proud of the group that we settled in and, and didn’t get away from what we needed to do tonight. At the end of the day, when you do that over time, it gives you an opportunity to win a game.”
“What a game,” said Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny in his opening statement. “There’s a lot to unpack here. I think the first thing for me is, we started really good, but then we got a little bit of bad luck. This morning, I was talking about helping our goalie. I’m not sure shooting in our own net was part of the plan, but it’s part of what I want to talk about. Veg had a tough stretch, and you start the game that way, and then they score three goals in the first period. He showed a lot of character bouncing back and coming up big like he did at the end of the game and making big saves in overtime and in the third. Really proud of him, really proud for him. I think we all know how much he cares and how much the team means to him, so to see him bounce back and come up big in key moments and help us to get the two points was huge. So is the team, because after they scored, you could see the stress and we were not as connected from that moment. We misexecuted a lot of plays and we were a little bit nervous. We were capable of regrouping and finding our game and played much much better in the second half of the game. Really proud of the guys for that. We talked about that being one of our goals this season of being able to find a B game, being able to close games, being able to find your game when you don’t necessarily play your best game. Being able to find a gear, find a shift in momentum and get your game back. The way we played in the third period, (I’m) extremely proud of the boys and the way we reacted, so a lot of positives there. And obviously, Barrett Hayton’s line was, wow, (they) were really good.”
Speaking further of Hayton’s line, Bear remarked, “Well, right from the beginning, first shift of the game, they.. I would like to find a sexy way to tell you, they just keep it simple and they win battles. Hockey is not that complicated if you don’t want to complicate it. They were our best line because they were our simpler line. You don’t see them make drop pass, east-west plays. You don’t see them make any blind plays. They protect the puck if they have to. They play north all the time, they get on the forecheck, get pucks behind the D, they put pucks at the net, move the puck at the open guy, (if the) guy’s not open they put the puck in a safe place. Other lines are trying too hard, trying to make plays that are low percentage, and then you end up having to check and backcheck and defend just because of your poor decision. I think that line, all our lines work for me in terms of work ethic and intensity. That line takes the best decision on the puck.”
Utah, now 8-4-0, closes out the two-game homestand on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild (7-3-2) with whom they are currently tied for first place in the Central Division. Following Tuesday’s game the Mammoth embark on a six-game swing through Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vegas, finally returning home on November 12 to open up a five-game homestand against the St. Louis Blues.
