Mammoth open 5-game road trip with win against Capitals

WASHINGTON -- Dylan Guenther had a goal and an assist, and the Utah Mammoth opened a five-game road trip with a 3-2 victory against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Tuesday.

Mikhail Sergachev and JJ Peterka scored for the Mammoth (32-25-4), who have won two of their past three games and were coming off a 4-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. Clayton Keller had two assists, and Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves.

“A good bounce back,” Keller said. “It wasn't the way we wanted to play last game. We wanted to kind of flush it, and I thought we did a great job and everyone contributed tonight. It was a great effort. ‘Vej’ was great, made a huge save at the end there. So, it's good to see that response, for sure.”

Pierre-Luc Dubois and Ryan Leonard scored, and Logan Thompson made 20 saves for the Capitals (31-25-7), who had won five straight home games and have lost two in a row overall.

“I thought we started a little bit slow,” Leonard said. “They had a lot of [offensive] zone time. It’s never a good feeling when you’re back on your heels that early. Tried to flip the script and get momentum going, and we fought hard to the final buzzer.”

Guenther gave the Mammoth a 1-0 lead at 11:12 of the first period when he took a pass from Keller on the rush and beat Thompson to the far corner with a snap shot from the top of the left circle.

“We all came with a lot of speed, and they had to stand there and kind of were able to almost break it up,” Guenther said. “But [Keller] made a nice play to me and just used the defender as a screen and made a nice shot.”

Sergachev made it 2-0 at 13:23, receiving a pass from Keller and scoring through a screen in front by Barrett Hayton with a snap shot from the high slot during a power play.

“They had the puck the majority of the time in the first period because we were just shooting ourselves in the foot,” Capitals forward Tom Wilson said. “They had the puck and they were executing well, so it was hard to get it back.”

Dubois pulled the Capitals within 2-1 at 19:27 with a power-play goal, getting the feed from Rasmus Sandin and carrying the puck across the offensive zone for the snap shot from the right dot.

Peterka increased the lead to 3-1 at 18:24 of the second period on the power play. Peterka’s snap shot from the slot hit the post and deflected in off Thompson's glove as the goalie tried to reach behind him for the puck.

Leonard pulled the Capitals within 3-2 at 6:31 of the third period. The forward ended a 14-game goal drought when he sent a snap shot over Vejmelka’s left shoulder from the right circle during a power play.

“It’s nice to see it go in again,” Leonard said. “But, obviously, you want to get the win, especially at this time of year and the spot we’re in.”

With Thompson pulled for the extra skater, Vejmelka slid across the crease to save a Dubois snap shot with 1:29 remaining.

“I think they had a push at the end, which is expected, but I liked the pressure we applied on them on their 6-on-5,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “So they had to execute really quickly and they did a good job, but they could not get high quality (shots), so I’m happy about that.”

NOTES: Sergachev became the fifth defenseman to score 10 or more goals in each of a franchise’s first two seasons, and the first since Shawn Chambers did it with the Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-93 and 1993-94). … Keller has 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in 13 career games against Washington. … Guenther scored his 28th goal of the season, a new career-high. … Capitals forward Aliaksei Protas (personal) was a late scratch. … Dubois has registered six points (four goals, two assists) in five games since returning to the lineup on Feb. 5 after missing 47 consecutive games because of injury.