The Buffalo Sabres dropped their second consecutive game at KeyBank Center on Saturday, falling 4-1 to the Utah Mammoth.
Utah’s power play was the story on Saturday as the Mammoth entered the contest converting on a whopping 40% of opportunities (8-for-20). They continued that hot streak by going 2-for-5 against the Sabres, while Buffalo went 1-for-4, though breaking its 0-for-13 start on the man advantage.
Tage Thompson had the lone goal for the Sabres, a power-play tally in the first period. Rasmus Dahlin dropped a pass for Thompson, who gained the zone and beat Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka from a tough angle to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead.
It was the first time since the season-opener at Columbus that the Sabres struck first, but the Mammoth wound up storming back for four unanswered goals to improve to 4-2-0.
Less than two minutes after Thompson’s goal, Kailer Yamamoto – in his season debut – converted on a back-door tap-in that Buffalo goalie Colten Ellis had little chance of stopping.
Things remained tied at 1-1 until the final five minutes of the second period, when Utah broke the game open with two late strikes. Both teams had just three shots on goal in the second period until just over 6:00 to play in the middle frame.
Nick Schmaltz scored the Mammoth’s league-leading ninth power-play goal at 15:23, camped out a couple feet off the crease banking in a cross-crease feed from Logan Cooley. Anders Lee cushioned Utah’s less than two minutes later, backhanding a puck past a stick-less Ellis with 2:36 left in the period.
John Marino delivered the final blow on an early third-period power play to make it 4-1.
Ellis, in his second start of the year, made 26 saves in the defeat, including multiple highlight-reel stops that kept the game close early. His counterpart, Vejmelka, walked away with the win and a 23-save performance.
