Utah builds a three-goal cushion
Utah had this one in hand and nearly gave it away. The Mammoth beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Tuesday night at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, and a three-goal lead shrank to one with about nine minutes left.
Daniil But opened the scoring at 14:55 of the first period. Vincent Trocheck made it 2-0 a minute into the second, and Mikhail Sergachev added a short-handed goal at 4:01 for a 3-0 lead.
The Leafs answered quickly. Auston Matthews scored on the power play 75 seconds after Sergachev’s goal, with John Tavares assisting. Dylan Guenther restored the three-goal gap at 14:17, Jack Roslovic cut it again at 16:29, and MacKenzie Weegar made it 5-2 with 40 seconds left in the period.
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Toronto closes the gap
Tavares scored on the power play at 7:12 of the third to make it 5-3. Rookie Gavin McKenna followed at 11:01, with William Nylander and Darren Raddysh picking up the assists, and Toronto was one goal down with time left. The equalizer never came. Karel Vejmelka made key saves during a final-minute penalty kill that kept the Leafs from forcing overtime.
Neither goalie had a clean night. Vejmelka stopped 22 of 26 shots, and Anthony Stolarz stopped 23 of 28. Toronto scored twice with the man advantage while Utah went without a power-play goal, but Sergachev’s short-handed goal in the second period proved costly.
What it means
Utah improves to 5-2-0, and Toronto drops to 3-3-1. Both teams are back on the ice Thursday: the Mammoth play at Edmonton, and the Leafs host Buffalo.
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