‘Utah brings out the worst in us’: Mammoth’s hot start frustrates Jets, Utah wins in OT

If the Utah Mammoth make the playoffs this season, it’s incredibly likely that the Winnipeg Jets don’t — and vice versa.

For that reason, their matchup on Sunday was among the more important games either team will play this year. The Mammoth pulled off the win, but it took the skin of their teeth to get it done. Here’s the story.

Quick catchup

Utah Mammoth: 4

Winnipeg Jets: 3

When the Mammoth took a 3-0 lead 23 minutes in, it looked like they’d waltz away with a regulation win against the Jets for the second time this season.

But hockey is a 60-minute game. It doesn’t end when one team takes a three-goal lead.

Kyle Connor began the Jets’ comeback with a power play goal midway through the second period. He doubled up with a nearly identical tally late in the third, and 15 seconds later, Morgan Barron struck to tie the game.

“We would have loved to close the game right there. I think we got a little bit nervous,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny. “We lost our composure with the puck. I often say there’s two (important things) when you’re protecting a lead: Having poise with the puck ... and to have a lot of pace defensively, which is our strength.

“... We became a little bit too conservative and they were able to come back.”

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If there’s one aspect of Utah’s game that strikes fear into opponents, though, it’s when Dylan Guenther has the puck in overtime.

He’s tied for the league lead in both overtime goals and game-winning goals this season, and he finished in the top six in both categories last year.

On Sunday, it was his passing that made him a threat.

Guenther collected the puck in the defensive zone, dipsy-doodled around his man in the neutral zone and found Clayton Keller in the offensive zone.

All it took was a perfectly placed shot for the captain to net the OT winner.

Utah winning in regulation prevents the other team from getting a point in the standings, so given the tightness of the playoff race the Mammoth would have liked to get it done earlier, but this was their second-best outcome.

“Utah brings out the worst in us,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel after the game. “That’s a bad start by everybody, and it just got us behind the 8-ball and then we’re chasing the game.”

Of course, some of Arniel’s greatest success came in Utah: He won the Turner Cup while playing for the Utah Grizzlies in 1996.

Tidbits and takeaways

Kerfoot’s afoot

After returning from the first long-term injury of his NHL career last Friday, there was a question mark regarding how quickly Alexander Kerfoot would be able to get back to his old self.

He’d played the second-fewest minutes on the team against the New Jersey Devils on Friday and he hadn’t participated in a single proper practice this season until Saturday.

Nobody would have blamed him for taking a few games to get his stride back, but he didn’t waste any time.

Kerfoot scored on Sunday, sneaking behind the Jets’ defenseman and sending a perfect one-timer past Connor Hellebuyck, who’s widely considered the best goalie in the world.

Additionally, Kerfoot played a perfect 1:39 on the penalty kill and increased his ice time by more than five and a half minutes game over game.

“He’s such a great player,” Keller said of Kerfoot. “He can play up and down the lineup. He’s a great leader. Something that we missed while he was out, like, just all the little things that he does on the bench, during the game, in the locker room, like, I can’t say enough great things about Kerf and how good of a person he is — and player as well."

Sean is on

For the second time in his NHL career, Sean Durzi is on a five-game point streak. He also has six points in his last seven games.

He’s done it quietly, though: a goal here, an assist there. Utah’s second power play unit, which he quarterbacks, has shown vast improvement in recent weeks and for the most part, Durzi has been good defensively, too.

Tourigny chalked it up to good chemistry between Durzi and his defense partner, Mikhail Sergachev, who added a pair of assists on Sunday for eight points in his last 10 games.

“Durz, every game, makes really good plays,” Tourigny said. “He needs to keep improving his consistency. The upside is there. The fact he missed a lot of hockey two seasons in a row, sometimes can affect his consistency.

“That said, lately he’s getting better every game, so we like that.”

Every good team has a reliable top defense pairing that’s capable of playing big minutes while keeping the puck out of their net and contributing frequent offense. If Durzi and Sergachev can keep this type of play up over long stretches, the Mammoth will be in a good position going forward.

The newest member of the 300-goal club

On a night when Sidney Crosby passed Mario Lemieux for most points in Pittsburgh Penguins franchise history, Kyle Connor won’t get as many flowers as he otherwise might, so we’ll give him some here.

Connor scored career goals number 300 and 301 on Sunday, and they’ve all come in a Jets uniform. He trails only Mark Scheifele and Ilya Kovalchuk for most goals in franchise history, and he’s second in that category since the franchise’s move to Winnipeg.

On the league-wide all-time list, he jumped active San Jose Sharks forward Tyler Toffoli and tied himself with Ulf Dahlen for 239th place, and at age 29, he has plenty of time left to soar much higher.

Also, he’s the second-fastest American to reach the 300-goal plateau.

“Pretty cool milestone,” Connor said after the game. “Once you look back on your career, that’s the kind of stuff you’ll remember, but right now, it’s focusing on winning and trying to be the best player I can and help out, so it doesn’t really mean much right now.”

Goal of the game

Lawson Crouse opens the scoring

At this point last season, Lawson Crouse had six goals and nine points. This year, he’s at nine and 15, respectively — a pace much closer to what his norm from Arizona.

“I think probably my mindset,” he said when asked what the difference between the two seasons is. “Trying not to let little things bother me, try to be a little bit easier on myself, and I think that’s been paying off.”