Mammoth lose first home game to Lightning, 4-2

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – After winning seven straight games, the Utah Mammoth have now lost two in a row, suffering its first home defeat of the season to the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday, 4-2.

Jake Guentzel broke a tie midway through the third period and had an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning won their fifth straight game.

Guentzel put Tampa Bay ahead 3-2 at 12:06 of the third, skating the puck out from behind the net and beating goalie Karel Vejmelka blocker side.

“[It was] just a good draw by [Anthony Cirelli] and [Brayden Point] going to the net there to open up some space and I just tried to throw it on net and catch them off guard.” Guentzel said. “You take [the wins] as they come, and you move on, and it’s a big win for us.”

Brandon Hagel extended his goal streak to four games, and Cirelli and Yanni Gourde also scored for the Lightning (6-4-2), who began the season with one win in their first seven games (1-4-2). Jonas Johansson made 25 saves.

“I remember last year we came in here and they tore us apart,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “It was a strange game. I don’t think there was a bunch of rushes either way, but if a team made a mistake, both teams have the ability to make you pay. But that’s what we limited ourselves to tonight. We made a mistake on the first one, but overall we defended well, and if we didn’t, Johansson was there to make the save.”

Lawson Crouse and Kailer Yamamoto scored for the Mammoth (8-4-0), who lost their second straight game following a seven-game winning streak. Ian Cole had two assists, and Vejmelka made 22 saves.

It was Utah’s first home loss of the season (4-1-0).

“I think [Tampa Bay] is a really good team,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “We knew it would be a good test. I think we were toe-to-toe with them. They scored with seven (minutes) to go, but we were pretty close.”

Crouse gave the Mammoth a 1-0 lead at 5:55 of the first period, beating Johansson on the blocker side on a breakaway.

Gourde tied it 1-1 at 15:17, scoring at the right post on Emil Lilleberg’s feed from the left circle.

Cirelli gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead at 2:47 of the second period, firing a one-timer past Vejmelka off a pass from Guentzel.

“I think you could argue it was probably average all the way through,” Cole said of Utah’s performance. “They’re a good hockey team and we did probably too many things to shoot ourselves in the foot today … We’ll have to obviously look at it and assess it and hopefully bring a better game against Buffalo (Tuesday).”

Yamamoto tied it 2-2 at 2:21 of the third, beating Johansson blocker side with a wrist shot from the left circle off an assist from Cole.

Following Guentzel’s go-ahead goal, Hagel scored into an empty net at 19:44 for the 4-2 final.

“Don’t change the way we’re playing,” Cooper said of how to keep the winning streak going. “This is a grind because we have a really high-level Colorado team and then we’ve got to go in and play Vegas, so we just can’t take our foot off the gas. We had a slow start to the season and kind of fought our way back here, but it’s a long way to go.”

The Mammoth next begin a four-game road trip Tuesday in Buffalo.