Crouse scores twice, Mammoth defeat Golden Knights in Game 3 of West 1st Round

SALT LAKE CITY -- Lawson Crouse scored twice for the Utah Mammoth, who won the first home Stanley Cup Playoff game their franchise's history, 4-2 against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round at Delta Center on Friday.

“I think we did a good job of weathering the storm,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “We scored a big goal on our power play, then we scored a big goal 5-on-5, and then our power play took the lead from there. I think until we took the 4-0 lead it was a hard-fought game, and it was really good. Obviously, in the third they had a big push, and they played well. They're a good team. They played really well. Proud of the way we defended and the way we weathered the storm in the first period.”

MacKenzie Weegar had a goal and an assist, Dylan Guenther scored, and Clayton Keller had two assists for the Mammoth, who are the first wild card from the Western Conference. Karel Vejmelka made 30 saves.

“I think we used our speed a lot tonight. I think we stuck with it,” Keller said. “They're a great team and they make you work for everything. ... I know we didn't have a ton of shots, but we had some attempts and some looks where we may have missed the net. (Vejmelka) was unreal, (penalty kill) was unreal tonight, so I think we'll make adjustments and go forward into the next one.”

Jack Eichel and Nic Dowd scored for the Golden Knights, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division. Carter Hart made eight saves.

Utah has won two in a row to lead the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 will be here on Monday (TBD; Utah16, SCRIPPS, ESPN).

“I thought we took a step forward in how we have to play from Game 2 (a 3-2 loss on Tuesday),” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “Game 2 we gave up 27 to 28 scoring chances, and that certainly didn't happen tonight. You know it's a series of ebbs and flows, but I did like a lot of our minutes tonight.”

Weegar gave the Mammoth a 1-0 lead at 12:59 of the first period. Kailer Yamamoto couldn't connect on a pass with Liam O'Brien in the left circle, but Weegar skated into the loose puck in the high slot and scored with a slap shot that hit the mask of Hart before going in under his blocker arm.

“There's lots of depth here,” Weegar said. “Obviously, some guys are eventually going to step up, too, so that's also a good sign. But I've talked about it a lot with this team. There are four lines that have identities, that can score, play both sides of the puck, and (six defensemen) the same way.”

Guenther made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 17:45, roofing a one-timer under the crossbar from the top of the left circle.

“No one is stopping Guenther's shot,” Tortorella said. “That's just a bomb.”

Crouse pushed the lead to 3-0 at 4:06 of the second period, redirecting Nick Schmaltz's centering pass on a rush over the blocker of Hart.

Crouse then scored his second goal of the period at 9:48, beating Hart blocker side again with a wrist shot from the high slot to make it 4-0.

“I think the biggest thing that we can take away from these games is there's going to be waves on both sides,” Crouse said. “We're going to have our pushes, they're going to have their pushes. It's just whoever can stick with it, and Vegas is playing really good hockey. ... I think just our mindset leading into each game, it's just been simple. We just got to keep going, take it one shift, one game at a time and see what happens.”

Eichel made it 4-1 at 13:20, getting to a rebound in the crease and tapping it into an open net with his backhand.

“We're a veteran group. We've been in the situation of being down in a series. We know it's a best-of-7," Eichel said. “In terms of a response, just go out there and play our game and do the things that make our team successful. I thought we made some adjustments tonight. We had some success with it. There's probably more things we'd like to get better at, but we're going to prepare for Monday and go find a way to win a hockey game.”

Dowd cut it to 4-2 at 16:52 of the third period, beating Vejmelka blocker side from the low slot off a pass from Reilly Smith, who was below the goal line.

“I think there's a reason why it's a seven-game series and not a one-game playoff or a three-game series, right?” Dowd said. “I mean, you're not going to win every single game. You do the math, you could lose 12 and still win a Stanley Cup, so it's one game. We’re on to the next game. I think we can take a lot of positives out of this game and correct some things, but overall, like I said, I thought we played well.”

NOTES: Guenther is the fourth player in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68) to score in a franchise’s first home regular-season and playoff game, joining Mark Messier (Edmonton Oilers), Ray Cullen (Minnesota North Stars) and Larry Keenan (St. Louis Blues). ... The Mammoth are the seventh franchise in NHL history to win their first home regular-season and playoff game.