The Utah Mammoth scored four unanswered goals to defeat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 at KeyBank Center on Saturday. John Marino, Anders Lee and Kailer Yamamoto each contributed a goal and an assist to lead Utah past Buffalo.
Buffalo opened the scoring 8:00 into the first period when Tage Thompson beat Karel Vejmelka with a power-play wrist shot, assisted by Rasmus Dahlin. Utah responded just over two minutes later at 10:12 of the opening frame as Yamamoto scored his first goal of the season with a wrist shot off assists from Barrett Hayton and Mikhail Sergachev to level the score 1-1.
Utah grabbed control during the second period with two goals in a span of 2:01. Nick Schmaltz broke the tie on the power play at 15:23 with a wrist shot assisted by Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller. Lee then widened the advantage to 3-1 at 17:24, scoring on a backhand set up by Marino and Yamamoto. Marino capped the scoring 1:45 into the third period, firing a slap shot on the man advantage after passes from Hayton and Lee for his first goal of the season.
Special teams and goaltending favored Utah throughout the night. The Mammoth converted two of their five power-play opportunities while the Sabres scored on one of four chances. Vejmelka stopped 23 of 24 shots in the victory for Utah, while Buffalo goaltender Colten Ellis turned away 26 of 30 shots in the loss.
The outcome moved Utah to a 4-2-0 record in the regular season. Buffalo dropped to 2-3-0 and remained winless over its last two games.
The Mammoth next host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday, October 19. The Sabres will host the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, October 21.
