Stamkos Tallies Twice in Third as Preds Come Back to Beat Mammoth

Steven Stamkos picked quite a moment to score in Utah for the first time.

The veteran forward tallied twice in the third period, and the Nashville Predators came back to beat the Utah Mammoth by a 4-3 final on Monday night at Delta Center. The result gets the Preds back in the win column in their penultimate game of the 2025 calendar with their first victory over the Mammoth this season.

Josi and Evangelista also found the back of the net in the win, and Juuse Saros was excellent with 28 saves of his own, but it was Stamkos - with career goals 598 and 599 - who ultimately helped deliver two points to Nashville.

“It’s one of those games where you have to come into it knowing that there might be some shifts where they sustain some pressure and you can't let it get to you - and they certainly did that, but we didn't break,” Stamkos said. “We stuck with it, and we talked about it in the second intermission - whatever happened in the first two, it's over. We got a chance to come out and just play solid and try to collect some points here. This is a tough road trip coming off the break for our group. So, wins are huge, and that was a big response for us in the third."

“It was a gutsy win,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “Coming in here, it's a hard place to play. They can get buzzing. I thought we handled a lot of the buzzing pretty good. I thought 'Juice’ was outstanding. And then ‘Stammer’ got a couple of goals for us in the third period. We've been on the wrong end of some of these [games] this year. It was nice to be on the right end.”

Utah took a 1-0 lead on the power play early in the opening period, but it wasn’t long before Josi evened the score with a shot from the slot for his fourth tally of the season.

A similar script played out in the second stanza as Evangelista answered a Utah goal with Nashville’s second of the evening when he cleaned up a Tyson Jost rebound for a 2-2 draw after 40 minutes of play.

Once more, the Mammoth regained the lead early in the final frame, but on a Preds power play, Stamkos found himself alone in the slot and buried a shot past Vitek Vanecek to tie the game once more. Then, less than two minutes later, Ryan O’Reilly found Stamkos again, and No. 91 potted No. 599 to give the visitors the only lead they needed all night.

“Both of them are great feeds from ‘Factor,’” Stamkos said of the assists from O’Reilly. “The first one, power play, kind of found myself in an unfamiliar spot, but wide open in the slot, and tried to get one off quick, and did. And then the fourth one was just a pretty standard dump and chase and ‘Factor’ winning a stick battle, which he does so often. And then me just trying to find a quiet area, heck of a pass and landed right on my tape, and just try to get it off as quick as possible and hit the five hole. Obviously, a big goal for our group."

The rest of regulation was far from easy as the Preds found themselves killing two penalties - including 25 seconds of a 5-on-3 Utah advantage, but they were more than equal to the task with Saros and his mates keeping the Mammoth off the scoresheet for a “gutsy” road win.

“This is the time of the year that can really either propel your season or sink you in a hole that is tough to get out of,” Stamkos said. “So, we know the way the schedule is right now being on the road for this many games, and we need to collect as many points as possible. We didn't really love our effort in St. Louis, so to come back and just kind of grind a win out; it’s a tough building to play in, and we found a way tonight.”

From here, the Preds will head to Las Vegas to face the Golden Knights on New Year’s Eve - but at least for a moment, they’ll appreciate their efforts in the midst of a massive trip away from home.

“Just enjoy the win,” Brunette said. “They're hard to come by in this League. [Then, we’ll] reassess some things. We got a little bit of summer hockey in us here tonight. We’ve got to tighten up here since the break, and we'll work on those tomorrow. We know what we have ahead of us, and we're just going to prepare for each game as they come.”

Notes:

Nashville’s lineup remained unchanged against Utah with Jonathan Marchessault remaining out with his lower-body injury. Justin Barron was the lone healthy scratch for the Predators.

Per NHL PR, Steven Stamkos scored the 118th tying goal of his career, one back of equaling Luc Robitaille (119) for 10th place on the NHL’s all-time list.

Stamkos scored his sixth game-winning goal since Dec. 1 and tied the NHL mark for most in a month shared by Johan Franzen (March 2008), Brian Propp (October 1982), Mike Bossy (March 1982), Bernie Geoffrion (December 1960) and Jean Beliveau (January 1960).

Stamkos scored his 98th career game-winning goal to tie Bobby Hull and Guy Lafleur for 11th place on the NHL’s all-time list.

Stamkos became the second player in franchise history with the winning goal in four straight victories, following Mike Fisher (4 from Jan. 23-Feb. 4, 2012).

The Preds will close out the 2025 calendar year when they face the Golden Knights in Vegas for a New Year’s Eve afternoon tilt. Nashville will then begin 2026 in Seattle when they face the Kraken on New Year’s Night to finish off a back-to-back set before heading to the province of Alberta.