Karel Vejmelka made 28 saves for his second shutout of the season and the Utah Mammoth scored on their first three shots en route to a 4-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Clayton Keller scored two goals, Barrett Hayton had a goal and an assist and Jack McBain also scored for Utah (36-27-6, 78 points), which won its second straight game.
It was the eighth career shutout for Vejmelka, who got a little help from the iron as four Vegas shots caromed off the posts. It was also Vejmelka’s 31st win of the season, one behind Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (32) for the league lead.
Akira Schmid made 14 saves for Vegas (31-24-14, 76 points), which was shut out in two consecutive games for the first time since March 21-22, 2022, at Minnesota and Winnipeg. Schmid replaced starter Adin Hill, who was pulled after allowing three goals on three shots.
Utah, coming in off a 6-3 victory at Dallas on Monday that snapped the Stars’ franchise record-tying 15-game point streak, scored three times in a 5:20 span early in the first period en route to a 3-0 lead.
Keller started the scoring at the 2:52 mark. John Marino picked up the primary assist with a nice crossing pass from the right point to Keller cutting down the left wing. Keller then fired a wrist shot that squeezed under Hill’s right arm.
Keller made it 2-0 a little over three minutes later when he roofed a rebound of a Lawson Crouse shot that bounced straight to him by the right side of the crease off the end boards.
McBain scored for the second straight game at the 8:12 mark to make it 3-0, shoveling in a crossing pass from Hayton over Hill’s right shoulder at the end of an odd-man rush following a Vegas neutral zone turnover.
Vegas pulled Schmid for an extra attacker with 2:25 to go and, after Braeden Bowman hit the crossbar with a deflection try, Hayton sealed the win with an empty-netter with 47.4 seconds left.
