Mammoth Hold Late One-Goal Lead to Beat Bruins
On Sunday evening, the Boston Bruins wrapped up their three-game West Coast road trip in Salt Lake City with a matchup with the Utah Mammoth at the Delta Center.
In the two inter-conference games these two played last season, there were a combined four goals in both games with each team taking a win off one another.
Game Recap
The scoring started shortly after Liam O’Brien and Mark Kastelic ignited the crowd with a heavyweight fight four minutes into the game.
Shortly after Bruins’ Elias Lindholm went to the box for hooking, and on the ensuing power play, the Mammoth scored a weird goal. Nick Schmaltz chipped the puck off of Logan Cooley’s back, and it dropped in over Joonas Korpisalo’s shoulder.
David Pastrnak broke the ice for the Bruins 10 minutes later, scoring on the team’s first man-advantage of the game. These were the lone goals of the first period, and they went into the first intermission tied.
The Bruins took the lead just over five minutes into the second period on a give-and-go play between Marat Khusnutdinov and Pastrnak, who finished it off for his second goal of the game.
The rest of the second period was filled with physicality after the whistle. Charlie McAvoy buried a Mammoth forward into the end wall defending his goalie, which led to another scrum a couple of minutes later, where Nikita Zadorov and Brandon Tanev went to the box for offsetting roughing penalties.
In the following two minutes of four-on-four hockey, Nick Schmaltz circled the zone and found Mammoth captain Clayton Keller on the doorstep for a tap-in to square the game up again. It was Schmaltz’s second point of the game and sixth in his last two games coming off a hat trick.
After both adding a goal in the second period, the Mammoth and Bruins entered the final period tied once again.
Utah then regained the lead with J.J. Peterka feeding Dylan Guenther a one-timer from inside the circle just after the midway point of the final period.
The Mammoth went on to hold the 3-2 lead throughout the final 10 minutes and fended off the Bruins’ final pushes with the net empty.
The Mammoth will look to extend its win streak to four on Tuesday in a game against the Colorado Avalanche, while the Bruins head home before playing the Florida Panthers that same day.
ikings WR Justin Jefferson takes full responsibility for his drop—his shocking words will leave you rethinking his mindset
The Minnesota Vikings lost to the Philadelphia Eagles 28-22. The slim margin of defeat makes Justin Jefferson’s dropped touchdown reception against Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean stand out, and the All-Pro wide receiver is certainly taking it to heart.
Jefferson finished the game with five receptions for 79 yards. He was officially held out of the end zone following strong comments regarding that aspect of his game before the contest.
After the loss, Jefferson did not mince words about that battle with DeJean.
Vikings WR Justin Jefferson Delivers Blunt Take on Eagles CB Cooper DeJean
DeJean drew attention for his, as Pro Football Focus suggested on X after the play, lockdown coverage on Jefferson on the play during a drive that eventually saw the Vikings settle for a field goal.
Asked if he believed his “drop” was actually DeJean breaking up the pass, Jefferson said, “nah.”
“All respect to him, but that, that’s a catch any day of the week,” Jefferson told reporters on October 19. “I just gotta be more focused into pulling the ball into me and towards instead of just laying the ball out there and letting him just knock the ball out my hand. So, I would say that’s more on me than on him.”
DeJean celebrated the incompletion, as DBs are wont to do. However, it was Jefferson who was touting his abilities and, really, his mindset before the game.
“To be honest, wherever that ball touched my hand, I’m trying to get in that [end]zone,” Jefferson told Vikings legend Randy Moss on “Sunday NFL Countdown” on October 19. “So, it can be in the red zone, it can be from 50, or it might go 97 [yards] again. Who knows?”
Jefferson’s longest reception of the day went for 40 yards on a catch-and-run.
Justin Jefferson Points Out Red Zone Issues
Jefferson said that the Vikings’ struggles in the red zone were due to “just hurting ourselves and just causing us to go backwards instead of forward. We just got to execute our plays to the fullest and just take one play at a time. And when the opportunity comes, make those plays.”
The Vikings were 1-for-6 on the day in the red zone, including Jefferson’s drop.
“One of those red zone drives is – that’s me, dropping a touchdown, and not really pulling the ball all the way in. And I’m always critical on myself,” Jefferson said. “And always, especially when my opportunities are very, very slim. So, those are opportunities, I got to make the most of them.”
Making the most of their opportunities was a theme for the Vikings during Jefferson’s postgame availability.
Justin Jefferson Remains Confident in Vikings
Asked if the Vikings were trying to “figure it out” during the game, Jefferson said. “Yeah and no.”
“Honestly, it’s just executing those plays, those one or two plays, every drive that kind of hurts us and put us in bad positions. But I don’t feel like we’re still trying to ‘find out’ or still trying to ‘figure out what’s going on,’” Jefferson said.
“We understand what’s going on. We have the players out there that make the plays and do what we need to do to go down and score; we just need to finish those drives, especially games like this. We’re competing against a team that just won a Super Bowl. So, plays like that and making the most of those opportunities is the things that count.”
Jefferson and the Vikings will look to regroup in Week 8. They will visit the Los Angeles Chargers on a short week for “Thursday Night Football.”
