Rookie Forward Daniil But Scores First NHL Goal in Utah’s Close Loss to New Jersey

SALT LAKE CITY – In a tight battle, the Utah Mammoth fell 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils. Daniil But scored his first NHL goal in the loss which was Utah’s lone tally. Karel Vejmelka made 20 saves on 22 shots.

“We did a lot of good stuff,” head coach André Tourigny. “Dominate scoring, chance, shots, things like that. But, at the same time, we did score a big goal on their power play, then made a mistake, and on the rebound, we had an opportunity to put the game away when we had the lead and could not score the big goal or take advantage of our opportunity. In the third, they did a good job. Give them credit. At the same time, we need to find a way to put pucks in the net, to find seams, and to create more chaos, but we could not find a way to find seams and put pucks in the net.”

“Yeah, it's a tight game," Alexander Kerfoot explained postgame. "One play kind of makes a difference, and when we score a power play goal, they score a power play goal. We had some looks there six-on-five to tie it up, but I thought overall, it was a pretty good hockey game, but they just made one more play than we did.”

But scored on the power play, nine and a half minutes into the game, as the Mammoth’s second power play unit continued to find the back of the net. Sean Durzi found the rookie in the slot, who capitalized on his backhand. But’s goal opened the scoring and was the team’s fourth power play goal in their last five home games.

“I am not going to lie, it felt good when I scored,” But reflected. “But the most important thing is winning, and we lost today.”

“Yeah, it’s great to see,” Kerfoot said on But’s goal. “Awesome moment for him. He's a young kid who's going to score lots of goals in this league. He's had some looks, so it was nice for him to see one go in, and hopefully the floodgates open for him. I’ve thought that he's been around the puck around the net and it was just a matter of time before he got one.”

Kerfoot made his season debut after an injury had sidelined him the first 26 games of the season. In his first game back, Kerfoot played 8:14 and had one shot, one block, and two hits. Kerfoot also had some shifts on the Mammoth’s penalty kill.

“Yeah, good,” Kerfoot said of how he felt in his first game back. “Like I said at the intermission, I've never gone through an injury like this. This season, I feel like more than ever, because the schedule is so condensed, we haven't had practice time really at all. I haven't gotten into a practice. So, my first couple shifts, it was just feeling, trying to keep it short. But overall, the game felt fast, but I felt good and felt like my touches were good when I was out there and just got to keep building.”

It was a busy night for the Mammoth’s penalty kill on the other side of special teams. Utah went 1-for-5 shorthanded against New Jersey. Despite allowing a power play goal in the third period, the Mammoth were solid on the penalty kill and even stood strong when the team was down two for 63 seconds.

The Mammoth have one more game at home and two total games before a well-deserved winter break. Up next for Utah, a home game against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.

Additional Notes from Tonight

• Defenseman John Marino played his 400th NHL game against his former team. Marino has played 189 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins, 139 games for the Devils, and 72 for the Mammoth.
• But has now tallied three points (1G, 2A), in 10 games this season with all three points coming over his last four contests. His three points are all power play points (per Mammoth PR).
• With an assist, Durzi extended his points streak to four games (1G, 3A). This marks the longest point streak of his career with Utah (per Mammoth PR).

Upcoming Schedule

• Dec. 21: WPG vs NJD
• Dec. 23: UTA vs COL
• Dec. 29: NSH vs UTA