Heading into the third period, it looked like the Utah Mammoth were on track to lose their first game of the road trip. It was a shame, as the team had been playing pretty decently, but Sergei Murashov and the Pittsburgh Penguins defense had put their bodies on the line to stop every shot coming their way. The Mammoth’s shots didn’t bounce their way. The Penguins shots were.
Everything changed in the third period when the Mammoth came to life, taking over the game, including the scoreboard, and forcing the game into overtime. It was all for an overtime winner that would give the Mammoth their second straight victory. It was truly one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history. Here are some takeaways from Sunday afternoon’s 5-4 extra-time win.
Can’t take a break
It took 41 minutes for the Mammoth to score on Sunday, but it wasn’t for a lack of tries. The Mammoth dominated the shots in all three periods. They clearly had an advantage over the Penguins.
However, just because they won on shots doesn’t mean they won on the scoreboard. The Penguins played solid defense. Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell and Ryan Graves in particular put everything on the line and sacrificed their bodies to stop shots.
In net, rookie Murashov put on a show. He made quite a few good saves to hold the Mammoth scoreless in the first two periods. There was no luck going Mammoth’s way, as Murashov and the Penguins’ defense seemed to be locked down, leaving no opportunities to score.
“We did a lot of good things in the first two periods,” said head coach André Tourigny. “We couldn’t get our shot through; they blocked a lot of shots. We could have been a little quicker in our execution to get some pucks through and have some deflection on our end and increase our shooting volume and open the floodgates.”
Meanwhile, on the rare occasions they had the puck, the Penguins found a way to score. They stormed the net and found that every rebound was possible to score on the Mammoth, like on Bryan Rust’s goal. The Penguins also took advantage of turnovers, such as when Ben Kindel scored on the breakaway after a Mammoth miscue.
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The Mammoth also had three power play opportunities in the first two periods. It looked like it should have been 3-0 at the end of the second period. No 3-0 Penguins. But that’s just hockey. It can be such an unpredictable game.
“It’s hockey,” Sean Durzi said. “It’s such a fast game, a lot of our game is gray area, bad pucks, dirty pucks, things like that. I thought they were on the right side of the balance early on. Sticking with it and not just mailing it and finding a way to get two points is something we have to continue to do.”
To Mammoth’s credit, that’s exactly what they did. They put their heads down and worked. They didn’t give up and were rewarded for it.
A third period comeback for the ages
Less than 10 minutes into the third period, the Mammoth managed to turn the entire game from what seemed like a potential blowout to a nightmare for the Penguins. Four unanswered goals showed the Mammoth’s fight and resilience despite defeat.
Just over a minute later, Nick Schmaltz found Nate Schmidt on the other side of the Penguins zone with the puck. Schmidt made a roof to ruin Murashov’s shutout hopes. This is the play that started the momentum for the Mammoth and gave the Penguins flashbacks to their previous game.
See, in the Penguins’ previous game, they were up 5-1 midway through the third period against the San Jose Sharks. Somehow the Sharks went on to score five unanswered goals win the match in overtime. Coming off that, seeing the Mammoth score give them momentum wasn’t a good sign for the Penguins. No one thought history would repeat itself.
A few seconds after Schmidt’s goal, Michael Carcone got his own rebound back and fired the puck off Murashov’s back to score the second huge goal of the game. Now the Mammoth was left with only one.
Just a few minutes later, the Mammoth would complete the comeback. Kailer Yamamoto, near the blue line, advanced the puck to Sean Durzi, who whipped it in after a beautiful wrist shot to score the tying goal.
Durz makes it 3-3!
Things are getting exciting here in Pittsburgh. pic.twitter.com/vb1fdKQJut
— Utah Mammoet (@utahmammoth) December 14, 2025
The goal was Durzi’s first of the season. It has been a tough season for the defender as he suffered a serious injury just a few games into the season. Since his return a few weeks ago, he has been playing decently defensively, but has not regained his attacking game.
His teammates had his back, especially his fellow defenders like Schmidt. Seeing him score earlier in the match gave Durzi even more motivation and energy to try and get one himself to help the team move forward. He broke through at the right time.
“We had a nice defenders and goalkeepers dinner last night,” Durzi said. “Seeing Schmidty (Schmidt) get the D going motivated me a little bit. It’s a great group. We have such a good group of D in our organization that take care of each other, push each other every day and have fun together. I think that’s really important.”
The Mammoth’s attack did not stop there. Fast forward a few minutes and Carcone scored his second of the match to give his team its first lead of the match. The four-goal comeback was the largest in franchise history. Just as nice as all that, Daniil But got his first NHL point on an assist on Carcone’s second goal.
Michael Carcone for the lead role! But he takes his first @NHL point with the assist!
🚨 4-3, Utah! pic.twitter.com/Ja2EFpEzgY
— Utah Mammoet (@utahmammoth) December 14, 2025
It was a fantastic effort by Mammoth in the last twenty. Four unanswered goals in less than ten minutes to get back into a game is quite rare in the NHL. However, the Mammoth showed that they can do it, truly a taste of how this team played in October.
“It’s hard to score three goals quickly, especially in this league,” Dylan Guenther said. “We were able to get one, and we know they were maybe a little bit vulnerable because of how the game ended yesterday, so that gave us confidence.”
Although Justin Brazeau scored on a deflection late in the third to tie the game and send to overtime, there was no doubt who had full momentum. The final shots in the third period were 17-6 in favor of the Mammoth. It was their game to win. Fortunately, the team’s most influential player came in handy in overtime.
The marksman wins the duel
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Guenther scores the overtime winner and his team wins the game. You’ve actually heard it six times in the last season and a half. Guenther is second in the league in extra-time goals (6) since the start of the 2024/25 season and first in winning goals (14).
When the game went into overtime, everyone knew it was his time to shine. The Penguins threw the puck into the Mammoth zone, which John Marino retrieved. Marino flipped the puck to Guenther, who skated through the neutral zone into the Penguins zone. Guenther then fired a puck past Murashov and into the back of the net for the overtime winner.
Gunner does what he does best! OT winner!!! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Q5YsH4DEZO
— Utah Mammoet (@utahmammoth) December 14, 2025
It was Guenther’s 15th goal of the season, which now makes him the Mammoth’s lone goal leader. His teammates know they are watching something special every time he scores, especially considering how young he is. They are excited to continue to see Guenther grow and score.
“He’s elite,” Durzi said. “It’s amazing to watch. What’s special about Gunner is that he cares about improving his game and getting better. He’s not satisfied with his shot, even though it’s one of the elite shots. You see him constantly working on it… I think the competitiveness and the fire to keep getting better and really caring about his craft makes him special.”
Even Tourigny joked that he never tires of seeing Guenther score overtime winners and that he really enjoys it. I’m sure Mammoth fans can’t blame him for that.
Guenther’s overtime winner makes it two straight wins for the Mammoth. Yes, both wins were over struggling teams, but as Durzi said, points are what the team cares about right now, and they got two on Sunday.
What I am saying is that Sunday’s game was one of the Mammoth’s better performances in recent memory, despite trailing 3-0 early in the third period. The most important thing the team showed on Sunday is that they are able to maintain their confidence and keep working despite the setbacks.
That’s very important because if Mammoth were to simply give up heading into the third period, it shows a toxic and lazy culture that could require some changes. However, there was only struggle and hard work from the Mammoth in the closing period, which shows the strong culture they have.
“The guys in the room and on the bench said the right thing all night,” Tourigny said. “They didn’t panic. Obviously things didn’t go our way for a while score-wise, but we played well, and the guys stuck with it, and we thought we needed an ugly one, a rebound or something like that in the third and when we got the first one, we rolled pretty well.”
This is the kind of victory you can build on. Why? The momentum of a comeback and the hard work the Mammoth has put in is something that can continue into the next game and the next. It’s not like they pulled this match off and narrowly won. The Mammoth were by far the better team. Although they had to fight to achieve victory, it shows real courage and character.
This was a game that showed that the Mammoth are still united as a team and really want to win. Who knows? They could lose their next two games on the trip. However, the potential is there and winning a match like Sunday feels like a step in the right direction.
“We did well in the third building momentum,” Durzi said. “The group really cares about each other. We believe it’s important to have success as a team, and I think we took good care of each other tonight.”
The Mammoth will continue their road trip on Tuesday as they travel to take on the Boston Bruins. The Bruins are 19-14-0 this season and coming off a 6-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild. These two teams last met in October, where the Mammoth won 3-2.
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