LAS VEGAS — As tends to happen on The Strip, Game 5 between the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth stretched long into the night.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored the first playoff hat trick of his career, and Brett Howden scored the double-overtime winner for the Golden Knights Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena. Vegas claimed its second-straight overtime victory to take a 3-2 series lead over the Utah Mammoth as the series shifts back to Salt Lake City for Game 6 on Friday.
Utah defenseman John Marino opened the scoring late in the first period with a well-timed activation deep into the Vegas zone. Marino sent the puck to the point and streaked toward the weak-side post. Clayton Keller’s shot went wide of the net, but bounced off the end boards and straight to Marino, who buried the shot.
The Mammoth played undisciplined hockey throughout the first period, and it eventually cost them in the final minute. Earlier in the frame, Nick Schmaltz nullified the end of a Utah power play with an interference penalty on Brayden McNabb behind the play. Then Logan Cooley took an unnecessary holding penalty when he clotheslined Ivan Barbashev as the two raced up the ice, and Mikhail Sergachev boarded Brett Howden late in the period.
Vegas’ power play struggled to generate much offense on its first two opportunities, but eventually broke through with a goal by Pavel Dorofeyev. It was Dorofeyev’s second straight game with a goal.
Lawson Crouse recaptured the lead for the Mammoth midway through the second period with a wrist shot that beat Vegas goalie Carter Hart’s blocker to make it 2-1. Crouse has three goals and an assist for Utah over the last four games of the series.
Late in the second period, Shea Theodore made incredible plays on consecutive shifts to pull Vegas ahead for the first time in the game. First, he drove the Utah net and made a nifty drop pass on the doorstep to Dorofeyev, who beat Karel Vejmelka’s glove from a shot in tight. On his next shift, Theodore walked the blue line and threaded a shot through traffic that snuck through Vejmelka to make it 3-2 Golden Knights.
Utah is one of the most dangerous teams in the NHL in transition, and the Golden Knights know it. They had limited Utah’s odd-man rush chances incredibly well in this series, but the Mammoth were finally able to generate one midway through the third period, and Dylan Guenther took advantage to tie the game 3-3. Kailer Yamamoto raced up the ice and dished a pass perfectly onto Guenther’s tape for the one-timer.
Carcone found space, and gave Utah the lead once again with another one-timer in transition with just over seven minutes to play.
Then, for the seventh time in only five games, the Golden Knights erased a deficit. Hats rained down on the ice following Dorofeyev’s third goal of the night to tie it with 52 seconds remaining in regulation.
Utah couldn’t handle the puck on consecutive shifts in double overtime. First MacKenzie Weegar fumbled the puck straight to Jack Eichel for a breakaway. Karel Vejmelka made the save on that play, but he couldn’t stop Howden’s shot on the next turnover by Utah.
Vegas continues to win the special teams battle
The Golden Knights’ power play hasn’t been hitting on all cylinders in this series, but it has been outperforming Utah’s by a good margin. John Tortorella continues to tweak his power play units, with Mitch Marner now down on the second unit and all three defensemen (Theodore, Rasmus Andersson and Noah Hanifin) seeing ice time with the man advantage.
Utah provided Vegas’ units with plenty of opportunities on Wednesday. And while the Golden Knights weren’t able to sustain much zone time on those chances, Dorofeyev scored in the first period to give Vegas three power-play goals this postseason.
Guenther scored Utah’s lone power-play goal in the series back in Game 3 in Salt Lake City. The unit had a chance to change the game with a four-minute power play early in the third period, but failed to generate much of anything.
The Mammoth power play was 0-for-5 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 1-for-14 in the series. They also allowed a shorthanded goal to Brett Howden in Game 4, swinging the special teams battle even further in Vegas’ favor.
Dorofeyev coming to life
The 25-year-old winger has been an absolute sniper for the Golden Knights over each of the last two regular seasons. His 72 goals since 2024-25 are 16 more than his next-closest teammate, but Dorofeyev’s scoring prowess hasn’t translated to playoff hockey.
At least, it hadn’t until the last two games.
Dorofeyev scored only one goal over the first 12 playoff games of his career, but has four in his last two. He was a healthy scratch for the majority of the 2023-24 playoffs, and then struggled in last year’s postseason. It wasn’t looking great for the scorer through four games of this series, either. He was benched for large portions of Game 4, despite scoring the game’s opening goal.
It looked like he scored the overtime winner on Monday before it was called back for offside, but Dorofeyev carried that momentum into Wednesday’s game anyway. He has looked more confident with the puck on his stick and finished all three of his opportunities for Vegas, with a hat trick to force overtime.
Utah finds space in transition
Despite playing with aggressive positioning from their defensemen down the stretch of the regular season after Tortorella took over, Vegas backed off in a major way to limit rush opportunities for the Mammoth in this series. It was working like a charm, until the third period on Wednesday.
First Hanifin was caught up ice, creating a two-on-one rush for Yamamoto and Guenther. They executed it to perfection, with Guenther’s one-timer sailing past Hart as he dove across the net.
Minutes later, Alexander Kerfoot and Carcone raced down the ice for another two-on-one chance. Once again, the Mammoth took advantage. Kerfoot floated a perfect saucer pass over the defender’s stick, and Carcone ripped a one-timer into the top of the net to give Utah a 4-3 lead with just over seven minutes to play.
