The Utah Mammoth went into this road trip hoping to steal wins on back-to-back nights, just like they did on their previous voyage — but it was not to be.
Their matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, while hard-fought, did not fall in their favor. Here’s the story.
Quick catchup
Toronto Maple Leafs: 5
Utah Mammoth: 3
It looked like the first period would be the same as the first in Buffalo on Tuesday: goalless. But with 1:11 to go, Toronto area natives Lawson Crouse and Michael Carcone connected for a true third line type of goal, playing hard in the corners and going to the net.
About five minutes into the second, William Nylander capitalized on a slot chance with a delayed penalty to tie it up, after which former Mammoth Matias Maccelli set up Auston Matthews to give the Leafs the lead.
A Mikhail Sergachev blast from the point found its way past Anthony Stolarz late in the second, tying the game before the intermission.
The third period was where things got away from the Mammoth. Eight minutes in, John Tavares scored his 501st NHL goal, and nearly eight minutes later, Maccelli scored a goal of his own.
Matthew Knies took advantage of the empty net, which would have sealed it for the Leafs, had it not been for a late goal from Dylan Guenther.
Sergachev stated it simply.
“We didn’t do what coach asked us to do, which is play simpler in the neutral zone, in our zone,” he said.
Takeaways
Utah’s formula for success
When at least one of Utah’s top two lines is firing on all cylinders, they seem to win. When the offense is left to the bottom six, they don’t. Aside from a too-little-too-late goal from Guenther, the Mammoth’s top players just couldn’t get much going. The power play hasn’t found the back of the net in the last four games, either.
It’s too early to make any drastic changes, but it’s clear that the secret is out: The Mammoth’s top two lines are dangerous, and teams aren’t going to be surprised by them the way the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota Wild were a couple weeks ago.
“On their side, they did what they had to do,” said head coach André Tourigny. “They worked. But I think it was extremely tough for us to connect a few plays in a row.”
That said, they are getting a good amount of secondary scoring. The bottom six have three goals in the last three games, in addition to some timely goals from defensemen in recent games.
Matias Maccelli: The Mammoth killer
It was clear most of last season that Maccelli wasn’t happy. He wasn’t scoring, which led him to eventually have an almost permanent seat in the press box. He knew he had more to give, but he didn’t know how to do it.
The player and the team agreed in the summer that it would be best for him to find employment elsewhere, so they facilitated a trade to send him to the Maple Leafs.
Things haven’t been perfect for him in Toronto, but on Wednesday night, they were. He set Matthews up for the go-ahead goal in the second period, and then eventually scored the game-winning goal.
“Great team win,” Maccelli told the media after the game. “Personally, it felt even better doing it against my old team and getting that game-winner, too, feels really good.”
The teams will connect next in Salt Lake City on Jan. 13. Barring unforeseen circumstances, it will be Maccelli’s first game back at the Delta Center since the trade.
In a less noticeable but equally important way, another former Utah Hockey Clubber had a major impact on the game.
Dakota Mermis played one game for Utah HC last season. It was a memorable performance for the wrong reasons, and before he knew it, he was back on waivers, where the Maple Leafs, who had put him there in the first place, scooped him right back up.
Toward the end of the second period on Wednesday, a puck dropped in the crease an arm’s reach away from Nick Schmaltz, with the goalie out of position. It would have been a tap-in, were it not for Mermis’ presence.
Had that gone in, it could have been a completely different game.
Dmitri Simashev (finally) has an NHL point
It was a big night for Russians in the NHL. Dmitri Simashev tallied his first point, and then Alex Ovechkin scored his 900th goal.
It was high time for Simashev to get one. He had two points in the preseason, but it took him 14 games to get on the scoresheet once the games started counting.
Although his offensive game hasn’t bloomed the way he may have wanted, his defensive game makes him look like a 20-year veteran — not a 20-year-old. He’s playing between 17 and 20 minutes a night, many of them against the other teams’ best players.
“I’m happy for Sima,” said Sergachev, who hosted the rookie in his home for the first month of the season. “He’s a great player. He’s going to have a lot more points coming in.”
Goal of the game
Crouse feeds Carcone from behind the net
There’s nothing fancy about this goal, but hard work and quick thinking helped the Mammoth capitalize on a low-percentage play. Props to Crouse for putting in the work to make it happen, as well as Carcone for knowing where to go.