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On a remarkable night in the Lenovo Center, the Carolina Hurricanes completed one of the most amazing comebacks that you will see. Trailing 4-2 late in the third, they scored three goals in 1:29 seconds to just stun the Utah Mammoth 5-4.

How amazing? It’s only the third time in NHL history that a team has come back to win in regulation when trailing in the final two minutes when trailing by two goals.

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After their longest layoff of the season—not including the Olympic Break—there were of course some concerns about rust going against one of the hotter teams in the league. Utah entered the night solidly in the first wild card spot and with work to do to slide up to third in the Central. They were also playing their third road game in four nights and missing leading goal scorer Dylan Guenther, and the Canes looked to press that advantage. The top line especially excelled, and it showed just three minutes in. Andrei Svechnikov was able to pinch and get possesion of the puck in the zone, eventually getting it back and going to the opposite corner and feeding it to a pushing Jalen Chatfield. Chatfield put it on net, and Karel Vejmelka was able to make the stop, but gave up the rebound right at Svechnikov. Clayton Keller’s stick was right there with Svechnikov’s as he was shooting, and the puck ended up in the back of the net, giving the WhalerCanes an early 1-0 lead.

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As the period continued, the rust of the Canes showed in terms of passes that weren’t that crisp and a few failed clearing attempts. However, Carolina also laid out a few hard hits indicating they wanted to press their advantage. In the final minute Utah had their best offense of the period, but Brandon Bussi was able to make the saves when needed, and it was 1-0 at the end of the first with the Canes holding a 9-8 shot advantage. In a sign of just how on the top line was, Sebastian Aho was a perfect 7-0 in faceoffs for the period.

Utah seemed to remember there was a game being played in the second period while the rust for the Canes really showed up. Carolina would get an early power play that would be feeble, complete with returning defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere just completely losing control of the puck. Shortly after its conclusion, Gostisbehere was in position to take the puck near the red line, but just fell to the ice. Utah was able to recover with Kailer Yamamoto going in all alone on Bussi to knot the score. A few minutes later, the Canes felt they should have gotten another Power Play when the stick was slashed right out of Sean Walker’s hands. Play didn’t stop and Utah just skated the puck with only Walker back to defend. Bussi was able to make one save but Yamamoto was able to tap in the rebound for a 2-1 lead.

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The Canes would answer on their third power play of the period. The second went much like the first did, however near the end of it Kevin Stenlund just blatantly cross checked Logan Stankoven, continuing a trend of increased physical play by the Mammoth that period. The whole power play started when Mikhail Sergachev cross-checked Jesperi Kotkaniemi into the boards. While the 5-on-3 produced nothing, Gostisbehere was able to atone for his mistakes with a blast from the blue line that beat Karel Vejmelka to knot the score at two.

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Unfortunately, Utah was able to immediately answer when Jalen Chatfield tried to dump the puck in deep and just bounced it off a Barrett Hayton, who skated the puck in, passed it to an open JJ Peterka and was able to get a soft one past Bussi giving the Mammoth a 3-2 lead at the end of the second. Utah outshot the Canes 13-10 in the period, and honestly the way Carolina played they were lucky to have only been down one.

The magic seemed to be gone in the third as the Canes did manage to kill a Power Play, but gave up the fourth goal to Utah when Hall and Gostisbehere went into the corner, but it was taken by Yamamoto, who fed it over to Jack McBain, over to a wide open Michael Carcone. Carolina still had a little under 13 minutes left on the clock, however they weren’t able to muster much offense until Utah committed a dumb penalty.

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Nikolaj Ehlers and Barrett Hayton were going for the puck in the Canes’ offense zone when Hayton made zero play on the puck and just swung he stick up into Ehlers’ face. The official called a four minute double-minor on the play, and the Canes would get to work eventually.

The first part of the power play was as lifeless as most others, but once the first minor expired, Carolina was able to get established into the zone. Eventually, Gostisbehere shot it past the goal, and it took a great bounce behind the goal, off the board, right into an open Svechnikov who burried the puck to give the Canes a chance at 4-3 with 1:59 left.

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A Lenovo Center that really hadn’t had much of a chance to get excited started lighting up knowing that the Canes would have two minutes to tie it with Bussi on the bench. They just needed 32 seconds as the Canes won the faceoff, got into the zone, pulled Bussi, and Jackson Black would feed a perfect pass up to Gostisbehere at his sweet spot. Similar to his first goal, he buried the shot to knot the score with 1:27 left.

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Lenovo Center erupted, and a place that had sounded like a sleepy midweek game all of a sudden sounded like it was the Stanely Cup Playoffs. Utah sensed this, wanted to make sure they at least got a point, and called timeout to settle the troops and hold on for the part of the period. The Canes’ momentum was just too much. Carolina once again gained possesion of the puck and instead of settle for the point, pushed their advantage again with the bump up shift. With 30 seconds left, Jalen Chatfield would whip a shot to the net that Jordan Martinook got a stick on, sailing it wide but also right into the blade of Jordan Staal, who tipped it in for the 5-4 lead and the game winner.

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Carolina improves to 31-15-5 on the season, keeping their six point cushion over Pittsburgh who crushed Chicago Thursday night. After a day off, the Canes hit a back-to-back that starts Saturday afternoon in Washington before coming back to Raleigh on Sunday—assuming weather isn’t an issue.

The Carolina Hurricanes snatched victory out of the tusks of defeat Thursday night at Lenovo Center as the Canes scored three goals in the final two minutes of the game, winning 5-4 in regulation over the Utah Mammoth.

Andrei Svechnikov and Shayne Gostisbehere each tallied twice, while Jordan Staal netted the eventual game-winner.

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After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour along with Gostisbehere, Svechnikov and Staal spoke with the media. Here’s what they had to say:

On the team’s resiliency: I mean, I don’t know how you draw them up, but at the end of the day, we found a way. Kind of a crazy last couple of minutes, but we’ll definitely take it.

On Andrei Svechnikov: He had a great game. I mean, I thought he was our best forward and maybe the best on the ice. He was impactful the whole night and was really driving play. That’s the kind of player he can be and if he continues to do that, it bodes well for us.

On the fan support: When we got the tying goal, for sure, you could really feel it. You can’t understate that. That emotional lift that the crowd can give you.

On Jordan Staal: He had a great move on the penalty kill too in the third. I don’t know if he’s just getting better. I don’t know how to say it on the offensive side of things, maybe a little more confidence around the net, but he’s certainly been impactful in that regard this year. He’s always been getting opportunities, but they seem to be going in this year a little bit more frequently and that’s great.

On the net-front presence for a few of the goals: Power play wasn’t great, but we got a couple of opportunities and need to have that net-front presence. Obviously the goalie couldn’t see the one and even the other one, it was probably just late because he couldn’t see it on the rebound where it was going. You have to have that guy there and I think that’s why we got two of those goals.

On Shayne Gostisbehere shaking off a few big mistakes to deliver with some bigger goals: It was weird the way the game was going. A couple of turnovers in the neutral zone when they really put no pressure. It’s not like you were under siege. He falls down on one, another we just shoot it right into their guy. That talented team is going to make you pay on that and that’s what they did. On the other one, they forechecked us and we kind of bobble it. It was more than just him on that, there were a couple of other mistakes made, but it is always about your next shift, good or bad. You score a goal, you don’t sit there and pat yourself on the back. You have to go do something about it. You give up a goal, Ghost, he’s been around. I don’t think he gets too flustered.

On Jordan Staal’s production: To me, I love that he’s doing it because now we’re talking about him. He’s kind of a guy we’ve talked a lot about this year, which is good, because it’s well deserved, but even when he’s not scoring and it’s not going in, his game is the same and it still really has the same impact with the way he plays for us. There’s a reason why he’s our captain and it’s not just because he’s now scoring. No, that’s how he goes about his business to do that and how he prepares to play at 37. That says it all for me.

On the team’s discipline: That was weird. There was a lot of stuff going on. I don’t really… it’s not like we play these guys a bunch, but yeah. You’ve gotta be disciplined. You can’t take penalties. That’s a killer. We saw it today as it worked in our favor. They take one at the end and that’s really what cost them the game. You have to be that.

On knocking off the rust: Every time you don’t play, coming back is a little harder, but it was good to contribute and help the team win.

On the come from behind victory: It starts with Bussi’s big saves. Made that big toe save. If they go up 5-2, I don’t think we’re talking about it, but it’s just about being relentless. To never say die and if you put pucks to the net, you never know what’s going to happen.

On mentally overcoming mistakes: Just forget. Or score right after so you forget about it. Just pedal to the metal. We just kept going. I think we played a pretty good game, just little things, a couple of freebies here and there that hurt you on the scoresheet.

On the difficulty of being injured so frequently: It definitely sucks. You never want to be out, especially when you’re playing pretty well and when your team is doing good. You want to contribute and be out there with the guys. It’s definitely tough, but guys have had it worse in here, so I’m not going to be one to complain. It’s little things, but you just have to take care of yourself.

On the power play scoring twice despite its struggles: It’s just about sticking with it. The entries weren’t beautiful, but at the end of the day, when you get two goals on power plays, it’s going to help you win.

On the come from behind win: Obviously that was a special 1:30 for us. Just tried to stay focused and play all the way down. That’s how we should play all the time, but I mean, a couple of bounces for us, but we stuck with the plan and stuck with the game.

On if there was a message delivered to the team heading into the third period: Yeah, just play hard. Don’t think about anything, just play all the way down and play every shift hard.

On the power play’s struggles: Definitely. We couldn’t even do the breakouts, so it was kind of struggling, but we still found a way, so that was still kind of good.

On if the four-day break was helpful: Maybe. Myself personally, I prefer to not sit for days. When you’re in the routine of playing every other day, that’s a little bit nicer for me, but I mean, no excuses.

On if anything feels at all different with his game this season: No. Same, exactly the same. I feel the same. I’m the same person, same player.

On if he perhaps then feels the puck is just finding him as of late: I mean, I wouldn’t say that the puck is finding me to be honest. Like I said, I do the same things and last year was the same thing. I don’t know. You guys tell me.

On the late three-goal flurry: We were just trying to get back in the game, get anything going. There was definitely some momentum we were riding and the fans got into it. We were just riding the wave. Obviously the game was kind of just… things weren’t clicking and then it finally clicked. To get those three goals that quickly in that short period of time to win was really cool.

On Shayne Gostisbehere: He played great obviously. Things don’t always go your way throughout games, Ghost was the one that fell down there and he came back and scored two big goals for us. A couple off the shinpads and it’s in the back of your net, but I thought the boys did a great job of sticking with it and finding ways to create some offense. We got fortunate with Fly eating one there and getting the four-minutes there. That was big and the power play came up big. Then a couple quick ones after that as well.

On the crowd’s energy: There’s something to be said about this building. The fans here are great. They’re always behind us, but once it gets going and fired up, you can tell and the guys feed off of that. We appreciate them. They didn’t have much to cheer about tonight, it was kind of just back and forth with not much going on, but like I said, a big goal and momentum is a funny thing in this game. I thought the boys kind of took it and the fans pushed us to another level too.

On Andrei Svechnikov’s consistency: You saw him tonight. He wasn’t only scoring goals, but he was physical, he was hard, he was skating well. He’s got his strength back and his speed. I think he’s also making better decisions with the puck as well and making it hard on teams to take it off of him. Going to the dirty areas and scoring goals. He’s the player that we all know he can be and this year he’s been solid all throughout.

On Whalers Night: The goal song is great. I really enjoy the Hartford nights and I think the fans do too. I think it’s just a lot of fun. A great franchise and so many great players played there. Just a lot of cool things going on with that and I thought the vibe was really cool.

On his go-ahead goal: It’s always nice to score goals, especially game winners. It’s about making memories. I love the game, I love being a part of nights like this and you want more of them. You’re chasing them and chasing those memories to do it alongside the guys in this room, the friends. Battling with each other is what I live for and what I do this job for. Tonight was one of the good memories.

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This article was first published in the Ute Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Wednesday night.

As snow fell during the University of Utah’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new on-campus ballpark, it wasn’t exactly picture-perfect baseball weather.

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That didn’t diminish the excitement from university leaders and Utah baseball players as they marked the official opening of Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark — the culmination of a dream years in the making.

For more than 25 years, Utah’s baseball program has played its games at Smith’s Ballpark, the former home of the Salt Lake Bees, while evaluating its options for an eventual on-campus ballpark of their own over the course of a decade. When the Bees announced their move to a new stadium in Daybreak in January 2023, it heightened the need for Utah to have its own facility even more.

In April 2023, the school announced plans for a new ballpark on Guardsman Way, and less than three years later, that vision has become a reality.

Utah’s new $39 million state-of-the-art stadium will provide the baseball team with a much-needed on-campus home. The majority of the stadium cost was privately funded with major donations from Colorado Rockies owner Charlie Monfort, a Utah alum, and America First Credit Union.

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Over the past couple of decades, the baseball team has been essentially split between three areas: an on-campus practice field, Smith’s Ballpark and various on-campus athletic areas like weight rooms and dining halls.

The move to Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark brings everything in-house.

The field was among the first aspects of the new stadium to be finished, and the team has been practicing on it since August. That’s given them plenty of time to adjust to the differences between the new stadium and Smith’s Ballpark.

The playing surface is turf, not grass and dirt like at Smith’s Ballpark, and the dimensions are different. The wall in left and right field is 340 feet, with the center-field fence at 400 feet, compared to a 345-foot left field, 420-foot center field and 315-foot right field at Smith’s Ballpark.

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The early results from practices? The ball is traveling pretty well.

“Pitching coaches, beware,” said Utah coach Gary Henderson.

The team will officially move into the new stadium this week, starting a new era of Utah baseball as the Utes get ready for their third season in the Big 12 Conference.

“I think the first thing it does is it gives our kids a home, a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose. It’s a tremendous facility to prepare, to get prepared, obviously going to help very much in the recruiting process,” Henderson said.

The new ballpark provides all of the amenities needed for the program under one roof, including a state-of-the-art locker room, a film room, a strength and conditioning room and a recovery room with hot and cold tubs. An indoor training area with pitching and batting areas provides the team a place to train in the winter months.

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In addition to the aspects of the stadium that are used for performance, the new ballpark also gives the team a place to hang out while they’re not practicing or going to class. The lounge area will be a huge hit with the players.

“Having something like this to call home is great, and it also makes it that much better when you get to show up to a place where 34 of your best friends are and you get to work together towards the same goal together every day,” said redshirt junior infielder Cameron Gurney.

The stadium has a capacity of 3,000 — 1,200 chairback seats and 1,800 capacity on the berm in the outfield — which will provide a much more intimate experience than Smith’s Ballpark, which was cavernous in comparison with a capacity of 14,511. There is truly no bad seat in the house, as every chairback seat is within a few rows of the field, providing fans with an up-close view of the game

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Based on last season’s attendance at Smith’s Ballpark, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said that the Utes would have sold out nine games at the new ballpark.

Season tickets range from $75 to $125 for the 24-game home schedule.

“I imagine, particularly on good weather weekend-type games, this place is going to be packed, but season tickets are going really well,” Harlan said.

Aside from hosting Utah baseball games and practices, Harlan envisions the new stadium as a community space for baseball in the state.

“I want some high school games here, I want some state championship games here. We’re already working to get some regular-season games here, especially from high schools that are close by, and then further, get some Little League games here. I want to get some travel games here,” Harlan said.

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“I mean, we’ve got turf. We can use it, and so I think that’s going to be really, really important for us. This is a community asset, and it’s located right by great communities.”

With the official opening of Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark, Utah baseball now has a true home — something that will pay dividends for the program long into the future.

“It’s been a long time coming … I think what folks will start seeing when they visit this facility is how fun it is,” Harlan said. “It’s perfect for our program. I think it’s going to really lift us to places that we want to be. And frankly, it’s kind of a big missing piece that we’ve solved. They have a home here now, and we couldn’t be more excited.”

Now that the ballpark is officially open and the baseball team is moving in, the countdown is on for the facility’s first game: Utah vs. Grand Canyon on March 7.

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“It shows the statement that baseball is important to the athletic department, the tremendous visual that you have when you look out to center field,” Henderson said.

“It’s just a really nice statement that the athletic department has made that baseball is important at the University of Utah.”

In case you missed it

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Stephen Curry scored 27 points, Moses Moody had 26 and the Golden State Warriors beat the Utah Jazz 140-124 on Wednesday night.

Gui Santos had 16 points off the bench for the Warriors. Golden State made 23 3-pointers and never trailed over the final three quarters. Moody led the way with five 3s.

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Brice Sensabaugh scored 22 points off the bench for Utah. Keyonte George had 19 points and seven assists. Ace Bailey also scored 19 points for the Jazz and Lauri Markkanen had 18.

Utah trimmed a 22-point deficit to single digits entering the fourth quarter. The Jazz drew to 108-100 on a pair of free throws from Isaiah Collier with 9:52 left. Curry made back-to-back baskets to restore a double-digit lead.

Golden State used a 20-2 run to go up 136-109 with 3:29 left.

Golden State made it rain from the perimeter early, going 15 of 31 from long distance before halftime. Eight different players made an outside basket for the Warriors in the first half. Buddy Hield and Moody accounted for three apiece before halftime.

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Hield buried back-to-back 3s a minute into the second quarter to cap a 19-8 run that gave Golden State a 40-24 lead. The Warriors built a 16-point lead three other times in the second quarter — the final time when Quinten Post made a 3-pointer to make it 64-48.

Golden State expanded its lead to 22 points in the third quarter, going up 91-69 on a pair of free throws from Curry.

Up Next

Warriors: Host Detroit on Saturday night.

Jazz: Host Brooklyn on Saturday night.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Jan. 28, 2026, 10:45 a.m. ET

State leaders are pushing this legislative session to see a big J-U-M-P in students’ test scores after a dire new report noted that only about half of the kids in kindergarten through third grade are reading at their age level.

That leaves Utah far off the mark of hitting the 70% reading goal it had set to reach by 2027. Gov. Spencer Cox is suggesting, to help accomplish that, having schools hold back students a year if they’re not achieving.

But already, there are a few Utah schools who are having success without that step — which some in the education community worry is extreme.

At least four charter schools and one district — North Summit — had reached the 70% mark for reading by 2023. And another school, which joined the list in 2025, is now being held up as an example for dramatically moving the needle through other efforts.

That’s Mona Elementary School in the small, rural town of Mona in central Utah.

Last year, the school saw a 20 percentage point increase in third grade students reading on grade level, to now 70% in total hitting the mark.

“That type of achievement and growth doesn’t happen by chance,” said Rich Nye, senior education advisor for Cox and a former superintendent of both Ogden and Granite school districts.

The governor’s office highlighted the school during a literacy conference it held earlier this month.

The principal of Mona Elementary, Brandi Webster, along with two teachers at the school, Jennifer Schaugaard and Megan Montoya, spoke on a panel about their efforts. Part of it was getting all of their teachers certified in the science of reading and revamping their curriculum to match.

But it really started, Webster said, when she first took on the role of principal and noticed the school’s reading scores had been stagnant for about a decade, stuck at about 50% of students hitting the mark for their grade level — the same as the state average.

“Teachers were working so hard,” she said. “And I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I couldn’t figure out what else they could do.”

Mona Elementary is small, with about 280 students in kindergarten through fifth grade; and there are two teachers per grade.

Webster said those teachers had already been coming in early and staying late to help students with tutoring.

That’s when she decided to dig further into the data on a student-by-student level, Webster said. And she realized each student needed individualized plans that accommodate their specific needs.

The school worked to create student profiles for every kid in the school to track their progress throughout the year — not just at the end with final exams. They set check-in points throughout the year, as well as individual progress monitoring every Friday where the teacher would sit down with each student one-on-one while an instructional assistant watched over the class.

“We have seen so much progress in the kids,” Schaugaard said.

“It’s knowing the individual student,” Montoya added, and building a relationship there.

Students have been excited about their growth, both teachers said.

Each class spends at least 180 minutes a day working on reading — with 30 minutes of targeted intervention — and there’s movement between grade levels, too. For instance, if a third grader is reading on a first grade level, that student can be sent to a first grade classroom to get more tailored teaching that is specific to their needs.

Webster also said that the school decided to make it a community effort — with every employee involved, as well as parents. It couldn’t solely be on teachers, she said. The school engaged bus drivers, lunch workers and paraprofessionals to all help in different ways.

Mona Elementary held a meeting, too, that almost every parent in the community attended to talk about what could be done at home to help students read better. The school even made videos for parents to help instruct them on best practices — beyond just reading more books to their kids.

“They want their children to be good readers. But they don’t know how,” Webster said.

She said now the school doesn’t feel that 70% is good enough. They are pushing to have 100% of students reading on grade level.

Some concerns about matching that success

Webster acknowledged that it’s helpful to have the small class sizes they do in Mona, which makes a huge difference. The classrooms there have an average of 25 kids.

Utah, on average, though, tends to see K-12 classrooms with as many as 40 or 50 students.

Tiffany Hall, executive director of teaching and learning for Salt Lake City School District, said that’s a concern for her as others try to replicate that success — and might not find it as easy.

What schools need, Hall said, is more money to hire additional teachers or provide more training.

During his conference, Cox said he also saw that as a problem. And he emphasized that he doesn’t see the reading levels as “a failure of our teachers.”

He also promised that a bill this legislative session would provide more funding.

Montoya at Mona Elementary said without resources, more demands from the state won’t amount to changes in reading levels. It took her school leadership setting aside the money and time, she said, to make the changes there.

“You can give us the policy all you want,” she said, “but if you’re not giving us the help to get there, it’s not going anywhere.”

Correction • Jan. 28, 9:48 a.m.: This story has been updated to correct Mona Elementary‘s student enrollment.

Nina Dobrev‘s bathrobe photo has fans checking in from Park City, Utah, during Sundance weekend. She posted it 18 hours ago, tagged Park City, and wrote, “Final Sundance in Park City, Utah? bittersweet doesn’t begin to describe it…” Nina’s carousel from the Sundance Film Festival reads like downtime between screenings. The post shows about 480.8K likes and 888 comments.

Nina Dobrev shares a bathrobe photo from Utah during Sundance Film Festival

Have a look at Nina Dobrev in a bathrobe:

The “Vampire Diaries” alum wears a plush white hotel robe, loosely cinched at the waist. It falls open at the neckline. Her hair looks half-done, pinned up at the crown, with loose lengths down.

The warm bathroom lighting highlights marble counters and polished wood doors. The photos also landed after she discussed recovering from a dirt bike injury. Fans replied fast, with one writing, “Such a cutie,” another said, “Gorgeous,” and a third added, “THE DIVA”.

Originally reported by Santanu Das on Reality Tea

The post Nina Dobrev Wears a Bathrobe While in Utah for Sundance Film Festival appeared first on theFashionSpot.

PROVO, Utah (ABC4) — Anti-ICE protests continued Tuesday in Salt Lake and Utah counties following the fatal United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis Saturday.

More than 100 Kearns High School students walked out of class shortly before 1 p.m. and marched to the Kearns Library.

“This is so important because we just wanted to make a change because there’s been so much violence with ICE,” Kearns High School student Charlie Robinson said. Students at Bingham High School in South Jordan also held a similar demonstration.

In Provo, dozens of demonstrators protested outside of Senator John Curtis’ (R-Utah) office ahead of a Senate appropriations bill that would provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) more money.

“We are here to make sure that he hears Utahns and knows that we expect him to vote no against the upcoming Senate appropriations vote,” protester Sarah McConkie said. “What’s at stake is more funding for ICE, DHS. Given everything that has happened in Minneapolis, right now we can’t imagine anyone voting to give them more money and more power to carry out terror on that community.”

If Congress fails to pass that bill on January 30, it will lead to another partial government shutdown.

On Monday, Curtis posted a statement about the shooting on X, calling for an independent investigation.

“We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible—no matter their title—must be held accountable,” Curtis’ post said. “Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission.”

Protests today come after thousands attended anti-ICE protests over the weekend in Salt Lake City and Park City amid the Sundance Film Festival.

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