Killorn has goal, 2 assists for Ducks in win against Mammoth

SALT LAKE CITY -- Alex Killorn had a goal and two assists for the Anaheim Ducks, who defeated the Utah Mammoth 4-1 at Delta Center on Friday.

“I loved the way we competed in the second and third periods,” Killorn said. “Not a great start, we'll work on that. But yeah, it definitely had an excitement to the game.”

Ryan Poehling had a goal and an assist, Cutter Gauthier and Mikael Granlund scored, and Lukas Dostal made 29 saves for the Ducks (38-27-4), who have won two of their past three games. John Carlson had an assist for his first point with Anaheim.

“I think both teams showed the importance of the game, and everybody's fighting for the same airspace as far as standings go and trying to make the playoffs,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Both teams have been absent (from the Stanley Cup Playoffs) for a while and I think they both want to achieve that goal. And I think no matter who we're playing, everybody's going to have some motivation behind them.”

Anaheim extended its lead to three points over the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division.

Dylan Guenther scored, and Vitek Vanecek made 20 saves for the Mammoth (36-28-6), who have lost five of their past seven (2-3-2). They won 4-0 at the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

Utah holds the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference and remained six points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, who hold the second wild card. 

“You can see the way we played in the third, we generated a lot of offense,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “We had great opportunities, we had momentum, we were aggressive and all of it. We were not on our heels, so really the only thing I don't like is the scoreboard.”

Guenther made it 1-0 at 1:48 of the first period, beating Dostal over the blocker from the left face-off dot with a one-timer set up by Sean Durzi.

“Solid effort, back to back, they had a good push, we had a good push, and we've just got to bear down a little bit more on some plays,” Guenther said. “I mean, it’s right there, so I think there’s some positives.”

Poehling scored a short-handed goal to tie it 1-1 at 13:37, digging the puck off of the left boards and beating Vanecek on the blocker side with a wrist shot on a breakaway.

“I think the rest of the games (from) here on out are going to be like that,” Poehling said. “When you look at the standings, it's so tight just in our division, and then even with the wild card. So for us to just kind of know that and kind of get a feel for that, it's not only going to help us in these games, but I think it'll help us if we eventually get there.”

Killorn scored at 9:09 of the second period, beating Vanecek off a pass from Beckett Sennecke to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead.

“The points are just huge, right?” Killorn said. “Like, especially in the Pacific, we want to kind of stay where we're at, and we have teams right behind us. And with a win or loss, things can change really quickly. So we value these points highly.”

Gauthier scored an empty-net goal at 18:24 to make it 3-1. With the secondary assist on the goal, Carlson got his first point in his third game since being traded from the Washington Capitals on March 6.

Just 41 seconds later, Granlund scored another empty-net goal at 19:05 for the 4-1 final.

“We're happy with it. I think it puts us in a good spot,” Quenneville said. “Last night, we had a favorable day. Tonight, we had to take care of our own business, so I think we did what we had to do.”

NOTES: Poehling scored Anaheim’s eighth short-handed goal of the season. The Ducks are tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for the fourth-most among all teams. Anaheim has eight or more short-handed goals in a season for the fifth time in the past 10 seasons, following 2023-24 (12), 2019-20 (10), 2017-18 (19) and 2016-17 (nine). ... Guenther has scored 61 goals through Utah's first two NHL seasons. Among franchises to debut in the 1990s or later, only four others have scored 60 or more through their franchise’s first two seasons: William Karlsson (76 with the Golden Knights), Jared McCann (68 with the Seattle Kraken), Brian Bradley (66 with the Tampa Bay Lightning) and Jonathan Marchessault (64 with the Golden Knights).