Mammoth 6, Kraken 3

In an important Western Conference match-up between two playoff contenders, the Utah Mammoth prevailed at home 5-3 over the Seattle Kraken.

Although in different divisions, the Kraken in the Pacific and the Mammoth in the Central, both teams could be battling for one of the two open Western Conference wild card spots as the season comes to a close.

Seattle started the day in third place in the Pacific, a playoff position of a more solid sort, while Utah sat in the 1st wild card position.

The Kraken started out like gangbusters, but didn’t take full advantage of the early momentum. Just two minutes after captain Jordan Eberle scored 69-seconds into the contest, Seattle earned a pair of power plays. The 5-on-3 portion lasted 1:37.

Nothing doing. In fact, the Mammoth tied the game 1-1 on a shorthanded goal by Kevin Stenlund.

Having survived Seattle’s early push, Utah flipped the script by starting the 2nd period on fire. Mammoth D-man Nate Schmidt scored just 28-seconds in, with Nick Schmaltz making it 3-1 just four minutes later.

This time the Kraken came back to tie things up, also in short order. Matty Beniers crashed the net and scored at 15:11 of the 2nd period before Chandler Stephenson scored two-and-a-half minutes later.

That set up a tight-checking third period where both teams had to battle for opportunities. Then Utah got a break.

When Seattle D-man Jamie Oleksiak attempted to backhand the puck up the boards out of his own zone, he partially fanned on it, it hit the corner and caromed loose to the left circle. Clayton Keller snagged it and quickly found Schmidt in the slot for his second goal of the night and his fourth on the season.

Schmidt went top corner and ‘Grubi’ didn’t have a chance.

Forty-two seconds later, another miscue in the Seattle D-zone off a face-off allowed big forward Lawson Crouse to cash in with a shot in the same spot, high glove.

Barrett Hayton added an empty-netter for the final margin. The Mammoth have seven wins and just one loss to start the month of January.

Seattle finished its five-game road trip with a record of 1-3-and-1. The club begins a six-game home stand on Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Earlier Kraken:

— Kraken’s Back-to-Back Challenge After 3-2 OT Loss

Earlier Canucks:

— Canucks Should Avoid The Murky Middle