Utah Falls Short to Pittsburgh, 4-3

SALT LAKE CITY – In a back-and-forth game, the Utah Mammoth fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3. Dylan Guenther scored twice while Ian Cole added one in the loss. There were strong stretches of play for Utah in Saturday’s game. The Mammoth will look to improve on areas of their game that fell short.

“(It’s) disappointing,” head coach André Tourigny said following the game. “The first angle is that we had full control of that game, and instead of playing a mature, simple – get above them, put pucks deep and stuff like that – we forced the play with the puck and tried to do way too much. We took penalties in the (offensive) zone – most of them, except one – five in a row in the second. We gave them hope (with) bad line changes and stuff like that. So, it’s not like we played (badly). Even if you play well but you (make) the wrong decisions and you don’t manage the game the right way, it’s a song we (sang) two months ago, before the break. The guys fixed it, we had success, but now we have to do it all over again. The lack of maturity today in our game and our management cost us the game. We were in full control; we had no reason.”

“I think we’ve been trying to make a concerted effort to stick with the game plan,” Cole explained. “Even though there were stretches of that game where we did a really good job sticking to it, and there were stretches where we kind of deviated and we got away from it. They ended up cutting out plays and transitioned back on us and, you know, call it ‘unforced errors, so yeah, we’re going to have to do some soul-searching and figure out how we want to win.”

Guenther continued to light the lamp with two first period goals. His first tally was the result of suffocating pressure by Guenther that forced a turnover. He drove in and scored to give Utah a 1-0 lead. A minute and a half later, Guenther crashed the net on the power play. A clearing attempt hit off him and over the goal line. This tally doubled the home team’s lead. Guenther has five goals in his last five games, and has 33 goals this season.

Utah had some penalty trouble in the second period with five penalties and Pittsburgh’s power play took advantage. On a 5-on-3 advantage, the Penguins scored their first power play goal of the night. At the start of the third period, with 1:45 left on a second period power play, the visitors scored their second goal on the man-advantage. This is an area the Mammoth can fix for the final stretch of the regular season.

“We can do a much better job in terms of putting ourselves in positions to not take penalties that are, call it unnecessary,” Cole explained. “Some are going to be necessary, fine, some are going to happen, accidents, whatever fine. But giving one of the best power plays six opportunities and a 5-on-3 is not putting us up for success.”

The Mammoth did regain momentum at different points of the third period. With two minutes left, and goaltender Karel Vejmelka pulled for the extra attacker, Utah had a series of close chances. However, the home team was unable to find the equalizer. 

As they have done before this season, the Mammoth are focused on learning from this loss and bouncing back. Utah won’t have to wait long to get back on the ice as the Mammoth travel to Dallas to face the Stars on Monday.

“I mean, I think you learn from stuff like this,” Guenther explained. “But as much as you want to break everything down, you can’t beat yourself up for too long–there’s 15 games left, so make sure we learn from it, but it doesn’t bleed into our other games.”

“We’re definitely going to have to shift the mindset a little bit,” Cole said. “We’re going to have to take a look in the mirror and figure out what we can do better–each of us, individually– and if we are able to improve our game individually, we’ll be able to improve our game as a team. Everyone in this locker room has more to give…so we can do better all the way around.”

Additional Notes from Tonight

• In the second period, Logan Cooley crashed into the net, was helped off the ice, and went down the tunnel. However, Cooley returned minutes later and got right back to work on the penalty kill. Cooley finished the game and played 15:07.

• Guenther's first-period goals marked the second-fastest two tallies by any player in franchise history (1:31). The forward has scored five goals over his last five games, and he now leads Utah with seven power-play tallies in 2025-26 (per Mammoth PR).

The Mammoth’s next two games are on the road against the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights.

Upcoming Schedule

• Mar. 16: UTA vs DAL

• Mar. 19: UTA vs VGK

• Mar. 20: ANA vs UTA