Dylan Guenther Is Already Getting Game-Winners Again for Utah Mammoth

Dylan Guenther is as clutch as ever for Utah Mammoth.

Playing in overtime against the Predators, Utah was in full control after securing the puck early. Though Utah was managing to keep the puck away from Nashville, the Mammoth was still looking for an opening in the Predators’ defense.

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Suddenly, after a near turnover, Guenther got that opportunity and delivered big time.

Though Nashville defenseman Spencer Stastney certainly put a lot of pressure on Guenther, Guenther stayed strong and controlled the pass from Mikhail Sergachev by deflecting it back off the boards.

But what was even more impressive was Guenther holding off Fedor Svechkov’s best efforts to steal the puck shortly after.

With Svechkov too far behind and the puck under control, all Guenther had to do was get past goalie Juuse Saros. With a quick burst and Saros leaning left, Guenther took his shot and won the game.

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“As you get more comfortable playing in close games and [get] in those situations all the time, I mean you get better at it,” said Guenther. “Those are the ones that you want to play in.”

For Guenther, game-winners are a regular occurrence as he managed to score nine game-winning goals last season. On top of that, Guenther’s offense has been very important for Utah as he has scored two of Utah’s four goals this season and even added an assist on a third.

Utah winning its first overtime game is a great sign, especially since it lost 13 overtime games last season.

But not everything went well for the Mammoth in overtime, as it saw defenseman Sean Durzi injured and in pain after a hard collision with Nashville.

“I don’t have an update,” said coach André Tourigny when asked about Durzi’s injury status.

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Utah will have to hope Durzi’s injury isn’t too serious, considering he was a big part of why the Mammoth even got to overtime after assisting on a clutch Jack McBain goal to tie the game 2-2 in the third.

But if not for an earlier Utah challenge that successfully called back Nashville defenseman Roman Josi’s third-period goal due to an offside, the game might have ended differently.

If not for Karel Vejmelka’s impressive play as well in his 200th NHL game, Utah would never have been able to tie the game and force overtime. But in the end, the score was still 2-1 despite the scares, and Utah eventually forced overtime thanks to McBain’s goal.

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“We showed a lot of resilience,” said McBain. “There was a lot of penalties and stuff in the second period. Maybe not our best stuff, but we stuck with it really well and got a good team win there.”

Though the Mammoth came out swinging on offense with a great goal from Logan Cooley just 2:21 into the game, Utah still has some work to do if it wants to be a top-10 offense.

Specifically, the Mammoth’s power play wasn’t able to capitalize despite four opportunities. It wasn’t as if Utah didn’t get any shots either — Nick Schmaltz got all four of his shot attempts by simply sitting in the slot on the power play.

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The Mammoth will need to find more opportunities to crash the blue paint to help Schmaltz and change up its shot selection a bit more if it wants to capitalize on the man advantage.

But more importantly, Utah will need to clean up its game after it amassed six second-period penalties that nearly put the Mammoth in a big hole. Though Nashville also took penalties of its own, the Mammoth still gave it five power-play opportunities.

On the bright side, the Mammoth has to be happy it was able to be successful with its penalty kill unit, but it certainly made winning tonight’s game even harder by being down a man so often.

But a win is a win, and Utah will take its first one any way it can get it.

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With its next game on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 13, Utah could come away from its road trip 2-1 — that is, if it can stay out of the penalty box.