Florida Panthers Steal Win From Mammoth With Last Minute Goal

Bending, but not breaking.

That’s how most of the third period went for the Utah Mammoth as it dealt with a barrage of shots on goal — 19 to be exact — from the Florida Panthers.

The Mammoth kept enduring Florida’s long offensive bursts, relying on Vejmelka, who was making save after save to keep Utah alive, ending the game with 32 saves.

But just as overtime looked imminent in a 3-3 tie game, Anton Lundell finally broke the Mammoth’s defense, scoring a goal in the final minute of the game.

Even then, Vejmelka was inches away from making yet another critical save, originally tipping the Panthers’ forward Eetu Luostarinen attempt at a tip-in with his glove. 

But still, the puck would get past Vejmelka, deflecting off the bottom part of his glove, inconveniently landing in front of a wide-open Lundell. Florida’s last shot attempt on Vejmelka proved to be all it needed to get a 4-3 lead and ultimately win the game. 

“Yeah, you have to find ways to win,” said Jack McBain. “I think, when you look around the league, good teams find ways to win hockey games, even when they don’t have their best or they’re close games. That’s something as a group, we got to figure out. ” 

The effort on defense Utah was playing with in the third was impressive, especially Vejmelka, when he refused to allow the Panthers to score even when all he had left to use was his right glove.

However, what the Mammoth really needed was to get shot attempts of its own off in the third, with Utah only managing a measly four shots on goal in the period despite having 30 shots on the day. 

Utah may have played elite defense for most of the period, but with no offense to complement it, the Mammoth never could take control of the game. 

“I thought we played pretty well, and even in the third, I thought we managed it well,” said Dylan Guenther. “They played really well, and we were on our heels too much, probably just [needed] a few more pucks in deep, and a few more offensive zone drives.”

Even with the lack the shots Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky saw in the third, he still deserves credit for his impressive 27-save night, especially for his glove save that stole a goal away from Clayton Keller in the second. 

But when Utah was getting shots on the net in the first two periods, it had success. Specifically, Guenther made his shots count as he scored goals on two of his three shots on net.

His goal in the first period gave the Mammoth a strong 1-0 start, especially with slow starts being a point of emphasis after Utah’s recent 4-2 loss to the Kings. But Guenther’s second goal was even more important, singlehandedly keeping Utah in the game.

Just before Guenther scored, Utah had managed to give up three goals across 4:07 of game time, spanning two periods, and had fallen into a 3-1 deficit.

The Panthers’ third goal of the day was especially brutal, as it came from a Nate Schmidt turnover after his pass off the boards was intercepted by Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe and teammate Sam Bennett scored.

With three goals scored in so little time and a growing deficit, Utah stayed focused and never showed any sign of quit despite the sudden scoring spurt from the Panthers. 

As soon as the puck dropped at center ice after the Bennett goal, Guenther was already on a breakaway and put the puck through Bobrovsky’s legs only 13 seconds after Utah fell behind 3-1.

Guenther’s goal made all the momentum swing back to the Mammoth’s favor. The mistakes slowed down, Utah’s defense played tightened up and Utah’s offense would eventually tie the game up with a goal from McBain. 

But even with resilient play from the Mammoth, the Panthers would eventually wear the defense down with its incredible third period play. 

“I think we showed a lot of character being down by two goals; (to) come back in the game and give ourselves a chance,” said André Tourigny. ” I think in the third period, we got in trouble. We got in the box; that’s how (Florida) got their momentum. I think that 5-on-5, we played good. A little too much on our heels, but mostly from our penalties. I thought we defended well until the last minute.”

It was a very hard fought game, with plenty of great plays coming from both teams. Ultimately, Florida won this game because it made one last play just before the clock ran out.

Losers of its last three, Utah will have one last home game against the Seattle Kraken before it’s back on the road. That game will be on Friday, Dec. 12.