The Utah Mammoth built a three-goal cushion and held off a third-period push to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Tuesday at Delta Center.
Utah opened the scoring at 14:55 of the first period when Daniil But scored on a snap shot with assists from Jack McBain and Andrew Peeke. The Mammoth then scored twice early in the second period to extend the advantage. Vincent Trocheck converted a wrist shot at 1:00 off assists from Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther, and Mikhail Sergachev added a shorthanded wrist shot at 4:01 with assists from Barrett Hayton and Kevin Stenlund to make it 3-0.
Auston Matthews answered for Toronto at 5:16 of the second period on the power play, beating Karel Vejmelka with a backhand shot off a setup from John Tavares. Guenther responded with an even-strength snap shot at 14:17 to push Utah ahead 4-1. Jack Roslovic cut the deficit to two with a snap shot at 16:29, but MacKenzie Weegar made it 5-2 for the Mammoth with 40 seconds left in the second period on a snap shot set up by Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. Toronto pushed back in the third period, getting a power-play snap shot from Tavares at 7:12 assisted by goaltender Anthony Stolarz, followed by Gavin McKenna's even-strength snap shot at 11:01 off feeds from William Nylander and Darren Raddysh, but could not complete the comeback.
Vejmelka earned the win for Utah, stopping 22 of 26 shots. Stolarz took the loss for Toronto after making 23 saves on 28 shots. The Maple Leafs finished 2-for-5 on the power play, while the Mammoth went 0-for-4 with the man advantage but scored once while shorthanded.
The victory was the second in a row for the Mammoth, improving their regular-season record to 5-2-0. Toronto moved to 3-3-1 after the loss.
Both teams return to the ice on Monday, October 19. The Maple Leafs will host the San Jose Sharks, while the Mammoth will host the Pittsburgh Penguins.
