Lawson Crouse scored a pair of second-period goals as the Utah Mammoth doubled up the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 3 of their Western Conference quarterfinals series on Friday night in Salt Lake City.
Utah has won back-to-back games and leads the best-of-seven series 2-1. Game 4 is Monday in Salt Lake City.
MacKenzie Weegar scored and added an assist and Dylan Guenther also tallied for the Mammoth, who became the sixth franchise that has debuted since the 1990s or later to win their first-ever home Stanley Cup playoff game.
Clayton Keller chipped in a pair of helpers and Karel Vejmelka made 30 saves.
Jack Eichel and Nic Dowd responded for the Golden Knights, while Carter Hart made eight saves.
The Golden Knights cut the deficit to 4-2 at 16:52 of the third, with Dowd snapping a shot under the blocker of Vejmelka for his second of the playoffs. But that’s as close as the visitors would get.
Crouse scored twice in a 5:42 span of the middle frame to give Utah a 4-0 lead.
The Mammoth took a 3-0 lead at 4:06 of the middle frame as Crouse redirected Nick Schmaltz’s pass over the shoulder of Hart for his third career playoff goal and first of the series.
Crouse added his second of the period at 9:48, snapping a shot blocker side past Hart from the top of the faceoff circle to give the Mammoth a four-goal lead.
Vegas got on the board at 13:20 as Eichel batted home the loose puck at the side of the net for his first of the series.
Vegas outshot Utah 13-6, but it was the Mammoth with a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Weegar opened the scoring at 13:00 of the first period, leaning into a slap shot from the top of the faceoff circle, which went off Hart’s mask and squeezed through for his second of the series.
Utah doubled its lead at 17:45 on a power play as Guenther one-timed a Logan Cooley pass up and over the shoulder of Hart for his second goal of the series.
When a best-of-seven NHL playoff series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 holds an all-time series record of 245-124 (.664).
