This past Sunday, in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Utah Mammoth played the most exciting third period in franchise history, scoring four goals in six minutes to take a 4-3 lead after giving up three unanswered goals in the first 40 minutes.
Related: 3 Takeaways From Mammoth’s 5-4 OT Win Over Penguins
The Penguins got one back late in the third to force overtime, but Dylan Guenther ensured the Mammoth would complete the comeback, scoring the overtime winner.
Dylan Guenther Continuing To Come up Clutch
Following the Mammoth’s victory over the Penguins, the Mammoth put out a tweet detailing “Since the start of the 2024-25 season, Dylan Guenther ranks first in the NHL in game-winning goals (14), second in go-ahead goals (24), and tied for second in overtime goals (6). He trails only Leon Draisaitl (EDM: 26/7) in each of the latter two categories.”
Being a young team, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Mammoth have struggled to close out games and score the much-needed deciding goal, as evidenced by their 7-5-3 record in one-goal games this season.
However, Guenther is one of the few players on this team that can’t be blamed for their play in the big moments, as he, in addition to everything mentioned above, has 36 goals over the last two seasons for the Mammoth when their games are within one goal, which is tied for the 15th-most in the NHL over that stretch.
He also has three of the Mammoth’s four overtime goals this season, which has led the Mammoth to win four of the seven games they have played in which the extra frame was needed to decide a tied game.
Mammoth Locker Room Reaction
Following Guenther’s overtime goal, he was asked what it was like to score so many game-winning goals, to which he responded as cool as ever, saying, “It’s cool.”
Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny was asked a similar question following the game about what allows Guenther to score all these big goals. The coach responded by saying, “He doesn’t change the way he plays when there is pressure,” and went on to highlight Guenther’s nonchalant reaction after scoring the golden goal for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship in 2023.
Tourigny continued to say that he made this goal “look like another day at the office,” and it serves as a reminder to him that Guenther “expects to score.”
The high praise in the locker room continued with Sean Durzi chiming in, saying, “He really cares about improving and getting better” in response to a question regarding what makes Guenther such a dangerous goal scorer.
Durzi added that Guenther “is never satisfied with his shot, even though it is one of the elite ones” and that “you see him working on it constantly.”
A Star Still Developing
Before being drafted by the Arizona Coyotes with the ninth overall pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, we at The Hockey Writers wrote in his prospect profile, “Guenther has all the tools at his disposal to become an impact NHL player. He still needs to work on rounding out his overall game, but he has the potential to become a 60-point player.”
Guenther already hit this mark in 70 games last season in Utah’s first season in Salt Lake City. He is currently on pace to improve that, thanks to his availability: he has played in all 35 of the Mammoth’s games and is on pace for 35 goals and 63 points.
Every season he has played in the NHL, Guenther has improved his point-per-game production, starting at 0.45 in 33 games in 2022-23 and rising to 0.77 in 45 games the following season. This production then jumped to 0.85 last season in his first full season in the league.
This season, his production has dropped slightly to 0.76 points per game. With Guenther still being just 22 years old, you’d still expect this metric to be rising.
However, there is little reason to be concerned, as Guenther’s primary point production is well up: he is averaging 0.42 goals per game, up from 0.38 last season, and 1.1 primary assists per 60 minutes, up from 0.91 per 60 last season.
The dip in his points per game is coming from a lack of secondary assists, which are inherently unpredictable. This season, he is averaging 0.1 secondary assists per 60, compared to last season, when he averaged 0.76 per 60 minutes.
It has been quite some time since people have known that Guenther would be a highly productive goal scorer in this league. But he continues to improve drastically every season, and has been one of the best clutch goal scorers in the game.
Having a guy like Guenther who isn’t phased by any pressure will be huge for the Mammoth as they continue to learn to close out games with this young core they are trying to develop into a perennial playoff contender.
