Schmaltz has 3 points, Mammoth top Blues for 3rd straight win

SALT LAKE CITY – Nick Schmaltz had two goals and an assist, and the Utah Mammoth defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-2 at Delta Center on Friday.

“'Schmaltzy' was possessed, was really, really good,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “Won battles, the speed he had defensively, his face off, his PK, everything.”

Lawson Crouse and Sean Durzi scored, and Clayton Keller had three assists for Utah (22-20-3), which has won three straight and four of its past five. Karel Vejmelka made 26 saves.

“I think the guys, they're even-keeled right now, they really focus on the process, on what they have to do,” Tourigny said. “They were just in the right frame of mind and humble, urgent every shift, even when we took the lead, we did not change the way we played.”

Vejmelka became the second Czech native to be the NHL’s first goaltender to reach the 20-win mark in a season, joining Dominik Hasek (1996-97 and 1998-99).

“It's a big accomplishment,” said Vejmelka. “[Hasek] is one of the best goalies in NHL history, so it's an honor, and I'm glad about it, and happy for it.”

Pavel Buchnevich and Oskar Sundqvist scored and Joel Hofer made 19 saves for the Blues (17-20-8), who lost their second straight game.

“I thought we had a lot of really good looks,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “We need to bear down on those chances more. That's kind of where the game slipped away from us. And special teams again, we ended up on the wrong side of it. Those two things combined right now didn't allow us to have success.”

Schmaltz opened the scoring at 15:10 of the first period, tapping a rebound from Keller into the net to give the Mammoth a 1-0 lead.

“We've talked about it the last little bit here about maintaining pressure when we're up,” said Schmaltz. “I thought earlier in the year we gave up some leads and kind of sat back and watched teams kind of dictate the play, and I thought tonight was another big win. We kind of shut it down and scored a big goal, and it mattered. So it shows a lot about this group and we've got to keep it going.”

Crouse scored at 7:45 of the second period, beating Hofer with a wrist shot on the glove side off a pass from Keller to make it 2-0.

Sundqvist made it 2-1 at 7:55, firing a wrist shot past the blocker of Vejmelka.

“I think we played pretty good, we can't really get the puck in tonight,” said Sundqvist. “The goalie was playing great and we had a couple of chances where we should probably score, myself included, but it is what it is sometimes.”

Durzi scored at 11:43, beating Hofer on the back door off a pass from Schmaltz to give the Mammoth a 3-1 lead.

Buchnevich scored at 16:27, sending a shot past the glove of Vejmelka to cut the lead to 3-2.

Schmaltz scored his second goal at 6:57 of the third period, beating Hofer on the blocker side on the power play for the 4-2 final.

The goal was the 198th time that Keller and Schmaltz have factored on the same goal, which set an NHL record for two United States-born teammates.

“It feels like we've been playing with each other for a long time, so we know where each other are at all times on the ice, always looking for each other, and it's been a heck of a ride playing with him,” said Schmaltz. “Hopefully we've got many more great numbers ahead.”

NOTES: Mammoth forward Alex Kerfoot left the game at 9:00 of the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. There was no update on his status after the game… Robert Thomas left the game 21 seconds into the third period after hitting his face on the ice after a collision with Crouse. The Blues forward returned at 13:48. “Really relieved. You know, it looked ugly,” said Montgomery. “Thank God he's fine. He came back, and he made a high-end play to [Sundqvist].”