Nick Schmaltz scored the go-ahead goal to highlight a three-goal second period Tuesday night for the visiting Utah Mammoth, who beat the New Jersey Devils 5-3.
Clayton Keller, MacKenzie Weegar, Lawson Crouse and Vincent Trocheck also scored for the Mammoth, who are 3-1-0 through four games for the second time in three seasons since the franchise relocated from Arizona. Mikhail Sergachev collected three assists.
Goalie Karel Vejmelka made 30 saves.
Luke Evangelista scored twice while Jesper Boqvist added a goal for the Devils, who have lost two straight. Goalie Jake Allen recorded 26 saves.
The teams traded power-play goals in the first.
Keller put the Mammoth ahead just 1:57 after the opening faceoff when he took Sergachev’s feed from the high slot and tucked a shot under Allen’s glove.
Evangelista scored his first goal with 7:37 left, when he redirected Jack Hughes’ shot as Vejmelka was screened by teammate Nate Schmidt and New Jersey center Nico Hischier.
Sergachev set up the Mammoth’s go-ahead sequence early in the second by firing a shot from just in front of the blue line. Anders Lee sprawled for the rebound and glanced a shot off Allen’s pads before Weeger’s putback trickled off Allen’s leg and into the net at the 1:42 mark.
Evangelista collected another deflected goal a little under five minutes later, when Timo Meier’s shot glanced off Weeger’s skate and hit Evangelista’s stick before fluttering through Vejmelka’s legs with 13:29 left.
Schmaltz put the Mammoth ahead for good by scoring another power-play goal with 7:55 remaining in the second. Following an impressive bit of puck movement by Utah, Dylan Guenther fed Schmaltz at the goal line before the center skated into the crease and beat Allen glove side.
Crouse doubled the lead with 57 seconds left, when he tucked home the rebound after Barrett Hayton absorbed a check from Dougie Hamilton while taking a point-blank shot.
Boqvist pulled the Devils within one again at the 9:49 mark of the third, when he sent a backhander past Vejmelka. But Trocheck provided insurance by scoring his first goal for Utah with 3:08 left. Trocheck spent the previous four seasons with the New York Rangers.
–Field Level Media
