PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - The Pens overcome a 2-0 deficit in the first period and beat the Mammoth 4-3.
Utah jumped on the Pens in the first period with two Dylan Guenther goals. The Mammoth outshot the Pens 13-7 in the period and took advantage of Penguin turnovers which have become a problem lately.
With 5:48 to play in the second period, the Pens got a 5 on 3 power play after Utah committed two penalties in 33 seconds. Anthony Mantha buried a wrister to get the Pens on the board to make it 2-1 Utah. Mantha with his 25th goal of the season, ties his career high. Less than 3 minutes later, Parker Wotherspoon took a slap shot from the blue line and Tommy Novak got the rebound and tied the game with his 15th goal of the season.
"We started getting back to playing the way we want to play in the second period. I didn't think it was even close in the first. The guys responded. You're going to have off shifts, that's part of hockey. You don't want to have periods where I just feel like we weren't playing the style we want to play, we weren't winning races just away from the puck, not getting up. Credit to the guys, there was a lot of hockey left and we were able to take some momentum and start to build our game," said head coach Dan Muse after the game.
With 18:36 to play in the game, Bryan Rust scored on the power play to give the Pens a 3-2 lead.
Less than 3 minutes later, Ian Cole scored his third goal of the season and tied the game 3-3.
Wotherspoon threw a puck on net and once again it led to a goal. Noel Acciari fought off two defenders in front of the net and scored the go-ahead goal with 11:57 in the game.
The Mammoth pressured in the final minutes with their goalie pulled but Stuart Skinner came up with huge saves. He made 26 saves in the win.
"Points are so important right now. You come off a game you don't like, you always want to bounce back. We're down early and just the way they stuck with it and just continued to build our game and even at the end it's about finding a way to get the points and they did that tonight," said Muse.
The Pens head to Colorado Monday night. Evgeni Malkin is eligible to return to the lineup from his suspension.