Lawson Crouse scored a pair of second-period goals as the Utah Mammoth doubled up the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 3 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series on Friday in Salt Lake City.
Utah has won back-to-back games and leads the best-of-seven series 2-1. Game 4 is Monday in Salt Lake City.
MacKenzie Weegar scored and added an assist and Dylan Guenther also tallied for the Mammoth, who became the sixth franchise that has debuted since the 1990s or later to win its first-ever home Stanley Cup playoff game.
Clayton Keller chipped in a pair of helpers and Karel Vejmelka made 30 saves.
“Everyone’s playing well, whether it’s scoring or not,” Guenther said. “Guys are physical, they’re blocking shots, they’re winning battles — it’s a collective team success.
“(The penalty-killing) was so good, nice for the power play to get one, but (Vegas) has a really good power play. It got them into the first game and won them that game. Scored early in Game 2, so we’ll have to limit their chances, but special teams is big.”
Jack Eichel and Nic Dowd responded for the Golden Knights, while Carter Hart made eight saves. Vegas went 0-for-4 on the power play.
“I thought we played a good game,” Eichel said. “It was a bit of a weird one. We didn’t give up a ton. I think looking back on it, obviously, the power play, that’s an area where we’ve got to find a way to score for the group. But I thought there were some positives from the game.
“I liked a lot of things that we did. It’s not easy to win at this time of year.”
The Golden Knights cut their deficit to 4-2 at 16:52 of the third, with Dowd snapping a shot under the blocker of Vejmelka for his second of the playoffs. But that was as close as the visitors would get.
Crouse scored twice in a 5:42 span of the middle frame to give Utah a 4-0 lead.
The Mammoth took a 3-0 edge at 4:06 as Crouse redirected Nick Schmaltz’s pass over Hart’s shoulder for his third career playoff goal and first of the series.
Crouse added his second of the period at 9:48, snapping a shot blocker side past Hart from the top of the faceoff circle to give the Mammoth a four-goal lead.
Vegas got on the board at 13:20 as Eichel batted home the loose puck at the side of the net for his first of the series.
Vegas outshot Utah 13-6 in the first period, but it was the Mammoth with a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Weegar opened the scoring at 12:59, leaning into a slap shot from the top of the faceoff circle. The shot went off Hart’s mask and squeezed through for his second of the series.
Utah doubled its lead at 17:45 on a power play as Guenther one-timed a Logan Cooley pass up and over Hart’s shoulder for his second goal of the series.
When a best-of-seven NHL playoff series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 holds an all-time series record of 245-124 (.664).
–Field Level Media
