Thursday’s win in Edmonton belonged to the Mammoth. Saturday night belonged to Connor McDavid.
McDavid had two goals and three assists as the Oilers handed Utah a 6-2 loss in Salt Lake City, snapping the Mammoth’s three-game winning streak and evening the season series at one game apiece.
Utah never really gave itself a chance. McDavid scored 40 seconds into the game, Zach Hyman added a power-play goal, and Mathieu Joseph made it 3-0 before the first period was over. Joseph’s goal came after he took the puck from Dmitri Simashev and went in alone on Karel Vejmelka.
That was a rough opening for a Mammoth team that had held Edmonton to two goals on Thursday. This time, the Oilers were finding openings everywhere.
Kasperi Kapanen pushed the lead to four in the second period, knocking in a rebound off Evan Bouchard’s shot. McDavid then sent Leon Draisaitl in on a breakaway, and Draisaitl beat Vejmelka to make it 5-0. Vejmelka was pulled after allowing five goals on 17 shots, with Sebastian Cossa taking over.
The game was well out of reach by then, but Utah at least managed to make the third period more interesting.
John Marino got the Mammoth on the board with a shot from the point that slipped past Tristan Jarry through traffic. Sergachev scored less than two minutes later, cutting Edmonton’s lead to 5-2 when his attempt took a fortunate deflection off Ryan Shea’s stick and bounced into the net off Jarry.
The comeback never got any further. McDavid took the puck from Marino in the neutral zone and scored at 10:17, putting an end to any thought of a late rally.
Jarry finished with 26 saves for Edmonton. Draisaitl had a goal and an assist, while Vasily Podkolzin added two assists. Cossa stopped three of the four shots he faced after replacing Vejmelka.
For Utah, the two goals in the third were too little, too late. The Mammoth had shown on Thursday that they could beat the Oilers, but Saturday was a reminder of how costly a poor start can be against a team with that much firepower.
The teams will meet once more this season, Dec. 19 in Edmonton. Utah will have to wait until then for another shot at the Oilers.