Nine goals in Salt Lake City: Utah Mammoth 5-4 Pittsburgh Penguins

Highlights

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Nine goals, six penalty minutes a side and a 29-19 shot count — Delta Center delivered a night Utah Mammoth controlled and very nearly handed back. The final read 5-4 to the home team, but Pittsburgh spent the last five minutes of it chasing a lead that once stood at three.

Erik Karlsson needed two minutes to open the scoring, Tommy Novak with the setup. Utah answered twice before the first period closed: Clayton Keller from Lawson Crouse at six, Kevin Stenlund off Jack McBain at eleven, 2-1. Rickard Rakell tied it at 2-2 in the second — Bryan Rust drawing the assist — and then the Mammoth landed their punch. Nate Schmidt restored the lead at 32, Kailer Yamamoto stretched it to 4-2 at 35, and a period containing four penalties, including matching minors to Sidney Crosby and Andrew Peeke at 37, ended with Utah two clear.

Nick Schmaltz made it 5-2 at 42; Egor Chinakhov answered within a minute, Andrei Kuzmenko assisting, and when Declan Carlile connected at 55 — Kaedan Korczak with the helper — the margin was one with five minutes to survive. Utah survived. Pittsburgh's power play had gone a perfect 2-for-2, yet the Penguins generated only 19 shots all night, and Arturs Silovs' 24 saves at the other end could not bend the arithmetic.

Nate Schmidt tops the sheet: the goal at 32, an assist, and a plus-2 that no other listed skater matched. He had company — Kevin Stenlund, Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz each finished with a goal and an assist, a four-man production line for the Mammoth. Bryan Rust's two assists arrived with a minus-2, the Penguins' evening in a single stat line.

Pittsburgh went 2-for-2 on the power play, Utah 1-for-2 — and the Mammoth still won where it counted, on the shot clock and on the scoreboard.