On Sunday afternoon, we saw the Utah Mammoth make a quick stop at home to play the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Delta Center after closing out a four-game road trip before heading out for another four-game road trip.
This was the Lightning’s first of three on the road, and they came into Sunday’s contest as winners of four straight.
Game Recap
After losing their seven-game win streak to the Edmonton Oilers, the Mammoth came out motivated and scored the first goal just over five minutes into the game. It was Lawson Crouse’s second of the season that came when he got loose behind the Lightning’s defensemen for a breakaway off a nice breakout pass from Ian Cole.
Yanni Gourde would respond for the Lightning 10 minutes later with his third of the season, finishing off a few incredible passes from the Lightning to set up the back-door tap-in.
After 20 minutes, these were the only two goals, and these two teams went into the first break tied. However, they took their first lead of the game just over two minutes into the second period on Anthony Cirelli’s seventh of the season after rifling home a one-timer from the top of the left circle.
The Lightning held this 2-1 lead into the second intermission. Despite a couple of post-whistle scrums late in the period, the middle frame flew by with both teams playing excellent defense, only allowing a combined two high-danger chances.
Coming out of the gate in the third, the Mammoth took control of the early chances, which led to Kailer Yamamoto tying the game and scoring his first goal of the season after going bardown off another great pass from Cole just over two minutes into the final period.
The Lightning took the lead right back with seven minutes left to play after Jake Guentzel came out from behind the net and ripped a shot, short side over Karel Vejmelka’s shoulder.
Guentzel’s fifth of the season allowed Brandon Hagel to score an empty net goal for the Lightning with 15 seconds left in the game to ice the 4-2 victory.
Off the loss, the Mammoth will head out east with their first stop being the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, while the Lightning have won five straight and will look to make it six on the road against the Colorado Avalanche that same night.
