Nick Schmaltz Hat Trick Lifts Mammoth to 6-3 Victory Over Sharks

Then, four minutes later, Schmaltz put another puck in the back of the Sharks’ net after Barrett Hayton recovered a puck on the forecheck and found Keller, who again found Schmaltz in the slot for the goal.

The Mammoth carried this two-goal lead into the first intermission. However, the Sharks would claw back within one just over five minutes into the second frame on a power-play goal, where Tyler Toffoli banged home a one-timer after Karel Vejmelka left a rebound on a point shot he initially saved.

The Sharks used this spark to keep coming, tying the game less than two minutes later, on a goal from Jeff Skinner. It was a weird one, where Skinner tried to force a pass to the front of the net. It bounced off a Mammoth defender and ended up in the back of the Mammoth’s net.

This had the game tied at the halfway mark. The Mammoth regained the lead with just under four minutes left to play in the second frame after Liam O’Brien tucked a puck in the Sharks’ wide-open net after Yaroslav Askarov mishandled it behind the net, which gave the Mammoth a 3-2 lead that they carried into the final period.

In the third, the Mammoth started pouring it on. It started with Schmaltz completing the hat trick when he was left all alone in the slot for the third time of the night. Michael Carcone then added his first of the season less than three minutes later, before Keller did the same to give Utah a four-goal lead with under 10 minutes to play.

Macklin Celebrini finally got his first of the season to bring the Sharks back within three goals late in the period, but that would be as close as the Sharks would get as the Mammoth went on to close out the 6-3 victory.

The Sharks are back in action tomorrow night on home ice against the Pittsburgh Penguins, while the Mammoth get the night off before playing the Boston Bruins at home on Monday.