Nick Suzuki tallied two goals and an assist to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-3 comeback victory over the Utah Mammoth at Delta Center on Wednesday. Ivan Demidov scored the game-winner in the third period, while Jakub Dobes made 31 saves for the win. The Mammoth have now lost five of their past seven games.
The Montreal Canadiens overcame a third-period deficit to defeat the Utah Mammoth 4-3 in Salt Lake City, improving to 12-7-3 with their second straight win. Zack Bolduc opened the scoring at 10:38 of the first period on the power play, firing a one-timer past Karel Vejmelka for a 1-0 lead. Suzuki doubled the advantage at 16:37 with a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Cole Caufield, marking his 400th NHL point in his 477th game.
Utah responded in the second period, with Barrett Hayton cutting the deficit to 2-1 at 9:43 on a power-play snap shot from the right circle, assisted by Clayton Keller. Kailer Yamamoto tied it at 2-2 at 11:58, scoring at the netfront off a backhand pass from Dylan Guenther. Michael Carcone then gave the Mammoth a 3-2 lead at 13:52, chipping in his own rebound.
In the third, Juraj Slafkovsky appeared to tie the game at 2:31, but the goal was overturned on an offside challenge. Suzuki evened it at 3-3 at 3:20 with a one-timer on a rebound. Demidov sealed the win at 4:47, picking up a loose puck and beating Vejmelka on the blocker side.
"We weren't giving them much for the first half of the game, and then the second half of that second period, they started going," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. "The message was we felt like we had that game in the first half and we lost it. We got to go get it back."
Bolduc recorded his first career three-point game and said, "We had a bit of a lull, 10 minutes in the second period, and then I think the motto when we came back for the third was to work, keep things simple."
Suzuki added, "I'm just trying to do my best out there. I get to play with a lot of great players every single night and you know they've helped me get to where I am today."
For Utah (12-9-3), coach Andre Tourigny noted, "I think we played a good game, but unfortunately we got beat on our strength. Our [penalty kill] has been our strength since the start of the season. Tonight we were not as sharp on our PK."
Hayton said, "I thought we did a really good job in that second period, just managing the game better... but it wasn’t good enough."
Notes: Canadiens defenseman Adam Engstrom made his NHL debut after being selected No. 92 in the 2022 NHL Draft. "I was a little bit nervous at the start. Once you get into it, it's fine," Engstrom said. Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi returned after missing 21 games with an upper-body injury.