Would it even be Utah Mammoth hockey if they didn’t make things interesting in the third period?
Last season, the story of far too many games was that they secured a decent lead through the first two periods or so before letting it slip in the third. That’s exactly what happened in their preseason contest against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.
Dylan Guenther scored twice before Jack Eichel matched with two late goals of his own. The Mammoth controlled the puck the majority of overtime, but all it took to end it was a partial breakaway from Shea Theodore.
Here’s the full story.
Mammoth Hockey for dummies
Hockey 101: How does overtime work in the NHL?
If you’re new to hockey, you might not have known what to expect when the game was tied after three periods. Before reviewing the game as a whole, let’s go over the tiebreak procedure.
Overtime in the NHL regular season is a singular five-minute period. Teams play at 3-on-3 instead of 5-on-5. As soon as a team scores, the game ends.
If the score is still tied after those five minutes are over, they go to a shootout — a shooter-versus-goalie event that’s similar to (but more fun than) penalty kicks in soccer.
Whichever team scores more after three rounds wins the game. If it’s still tied after three rounds, they play one more round at a time until someone prevails.
In the playoffs, the tiebreak format is completely different: 5-on-5 overtime until someone scores. It’s played in 20-minute periods, and it sometimes takes two or three extra innings to find a winner.
That would be too taxing if they did it on a nightly basis, so they only do that in the postseason.
Mammoth Hockey for casual fans
Dylan Guenther is doing what he said he’d do
When Dylan Guenther faced the media ahead of training camp, he said he wanted to expand his skill set and score more goals from in tight. The bulk of his 27 goals last season came from one-timers and midrange wrist shots.
“I think holding onto pucks down low, getting inside more, I think scoring, like, greasier goals, scoring more in tight,” he said when asked how his offseason training will help his game.
Guenther scored against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday in that exact fashion, and he added two more by going to the net on Thursday — and that’s not including the foiled scoring chances that came that way (I saw at least two of them).
As long as that doesn’t significantly reduce the amount he uses his lethal shot, Guenther in store for some big things. Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong famously told Tij Iginla on his draft day that Utah needs a 50-goal scorer — but they might not have to wait for Iginla to arrive before they get one.
All that being said, it’s easier to find lanes to the net against the largely non-NHL competition that’s present in preseason games. Don’t necessarily expect Guenther to do it with such ease once the regular season starts, but do expect him to be on the hunt for those opportunities.
Bonus: Don’t forget about Barrett Hayton
Usually each section gets just one talking point, but it’s necessary to add another one here.
We’ve framed Barrett Hayton as a middle-six center who would likely play the 3C role on a Stanley Cup-winning team, but he wants to be much more than that, and he hinted on Thursday with his play that he’s capable of it.
In Logan Cooley’s absence, Hayton has been tasked with centering Guenther and JJ Peterka. Hayton looked perfectly in place with those two on Thursday, even tallying the primary assist on Guenther’s first goal.
He provides the defensive stability needed to let his line mates fly offensively, and he’s more than capable of chipping in points on a somewhat regular basis.
You have to wonder if the coaching staff will consider keeping those three together and putting Cooley between Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz.
Mammoth Hockey for nerds
How did Dmitri Simashev look on the top pairing?
Golden Knights star defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is out long term with a back injury, but you could have convinced Golden Knights fans that he was wearing number 26 for the Mammoth on Thursday.
Dmitri Simashev, like Pietrangelo, was drafted by Bill Armstrong. Both guys are big and they’re both immovable forces in the defensive zone. Simashev isn’t guaranteed to have the same offensive upside as Pietrangelo, but he does have two points through two preseason games, which is a great start.
For a significant portion of the night, Simashev was tasked with babysitting the line of Eichel, Mitch Marner and Ivan Barbashev. He was, for all intents and purposes, perfect in that regard, as Vegas didn’t score while he was on the ice.
Simashev played the third-most minutes of any Mammoth player and he saw time on both the power play and the penalty kill. He even got a shift in overtime, though that was the lone point in the game when he looked a little out of place.
“What we like about him right now is his focus and consistency in training camp,” head coach André Tourigny said of the 20-year-old after morning skate on Thursday.
“He’s doing a really good job of, every day, bringing the same things and being consistent in his play and being really well-prepared and everything.”
But there’s still at least one question on the coaches’ minds about Simashev.
“Who is he exactly? Is he what we see right now? Because a lot of people can do it for two weeks. Now, he needs to do it for the next 15 years, so we’ll see,” Tourigny said.
It seems as though Simashev has a great shot at cracking the opening-night roster.
What’s next?
The Mammoth now have a five-day gap between games — but that doesn’t mean it’s a break. They’ll still practice every day, and it’s possible that the next round of cuts will happen during that stretch.
Their next game is on Sept. 30 in Boise, Idaho, where they’ll take on the Los Angeles Kings.