Mammoth rally from 3 down in 3rd, recover for OT win against Penguins

PITTSBURGH -- Dylan Guenther scored 42 seconds into overtime for the Utah Mammoth, who rallied from three goals down in the third period before recovering for a 5-4 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday.

Guenther won it on a wrist shot from the high slot for his 15th goal this season. He has five goals on a four-game scoring streak.

It was Guenther’s third overtime goal of the season, tied for the NHL lead. He has six since last season, trailing only Leon Draisaitl (seven) of the Edmonton Oilers.

“Just keep going the same way,” Guenther said of the comeback. “It’s tough. Sometimes you want to change things, but I think when you don’t see the outcome, I mean, just bear down and make sure you finish your chances. So, I mean, we did that in the third.”

Michael Carcone had two of four straight goals in the third period, Nate Schmidt and Sean Durzi also scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 12 saves for the Mammoth (16-15-3), who have won two straight after losing their previous three.

“Just like we drew it (up),” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “But no, seriously, what I did like was the guys in the room and on the bench, they said the right things all night long. Didn’t panic.”

Justin Brazeau tied it late in the third period with his second goal of the game, Ben Kindel had a goal and two assists, and Sergei Murashov made 32 saves for the Penguins (14-8-9), who have led in the third period in four of five straight losses (0-1-4), including a four-goal lead in a 6-5 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

"First of all, not in a million years did I think we'd be back here 24 hours later having the exact same conversation,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said.

Utah, trailing 3-0, scored four times in the first 7:06 of the third with Schmidt and Carcone scoring the first two goals 15 seconds apart.

Schmidt cut it to 3-1 at 1:07 with a wrist shot off a rebound from Nick Schmaltz.

Carcone followed his own rebound with a shot off the side of the net that bounced in off the back of Murashov to pull the Mammoth to within 3-2 at 1:22.

Durzi tied it 3-3 at 5:35 with his first goal this season, a wrist shot through traffic from the right circle that was upheld when the Penguins challenged for goalie interference.

“I thought we did a lot of good things throughout,” Durzi said. “A few plays we probably want back, but we knew we had our game going and, you know, we knew we just had to get a few more pucks to the net. Thought we did a good job of that in third.”

Carcone scored on the ensuing power play with a wrist shot in the right circle off a pass from Barrett Hayton, putting the Mammoth up 4-3 at 7:06.

“You would have thought, after yesterday, that it would change a little bit,” Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “But it didn’t.”

Brazeau tied it 4-4 by deflecting a shot from Karlsson at 14:06.

He gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead 48 seconds into the first period. Brazeau attempted a spinning backhand pass above the crease to Rutger McGroarty, but it instead went in off Schmaltz.

Bryan Rust made it 2-0 at 15:21, chipping in a loose puck in front after a pass from Carcone hit off Mammoth forward Kevin Stenlund.

Kindel extended the lead to 3-0 at 5:40 of the second period, scoring his eighth goal of his rookie season with a wrist shot on a breakaway.

The Penguins were then outshot 17-6 in the third.

“I don't think, overall, we had our best today,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said, “but we still had enough to get a win. And unfortunately, we didn't do that.”

NOTES: Since the start of last season, Guenther leads the NHL in game-winning goals (14). He is second in go-ahead goals (24) to Draisaitl (26). ... The Mammoth’s four goals in 5:59 are their fastest in franchise history, ahead of four in 7:37 during a 7-4 win against the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 23. ... Penguins goalie Stuart Skinner and defenseman Brett Kulak were unavailable due to immigration issues for a second straight game after being acquired, along with a second-round pick in the 2029 Draft, in a trade from the Edmonton Oilers for goalie Tristan Jarry and forward Sam Poulin on Friday. Each was granted non-roster status Saturday, leading to Murashov being an emergency recall from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.