^{A wedgie means something different in Colorado I guess…}

The Utah Mammoth lost their first game of the season tonight in Ball Arena. The Avalanche beat the good guys by the score of 2-1.

Colorado relied on the strength of Scott Wedgewood’s dominant performance, as he withstood several breakaway chances and strong pressure, on route to a 32 save victory. The lone Mammoth goal came courtesy of Dylan Guenther, with a beautiful one-timer from just inside the blue line on the power play.

Colorado opened scoring on the first of several sloppy plays in the opening period. Ross Colton was the beneficiary of an odd man rush, collecting a touch pass from Victor Olofsson. He beat a sprawling Vejmelka blocker side to give the home team the advantage.

Colorado would take the lead for good on a power play goal by Nathan McKinnon who was left unattended, and lasered a shot over Veggie’s shoulder to give us the final score.

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THE GOOD:

Lawson Crouse was a beast on both ends of the ice tonight, absolutely looking like a man possessed. If he continues play like this tonight, he might be looking to break his previous goal record (24 in the 22-23 season with Arizona).

Dmitri Simashev made his NHL debut tonight, and absolutely looked like he belonged. At just 20, he was a beastly force on defense, making smart plays and holding his own against tenured NHL forwards. I know who my jersey’s going to be this year.

Team defense was fantastic today (after the first period) holding Colorado for nearly 15 minutes between the end of the first and much of the second periods. The team held the lethal power play shotless in their first 2 attempts.

THE BAD:

Team defense in the first period was abysmal, giving up several prime chances on broken plays. Aside from the Colton goal, Colorado had a 3 on 1 chance later in the period, which miraculously ended without a shot attempt. Woof.

Ian Cole. Ian didn’t waste any time in getting into midseason form by taking a bad penalty in the critical third period. Last year, Cole amassed 32 minor penalties – 9 more than second place. While Cole is a fantastic shot blocker and penalty killer, terrible timing on the penalties he takes continue to kill this team.

Scoring 6 on 5 has never happened in Utah history. Tonight was no different. Multiple lost face-offs led to multiple poor zone entries and lost opportunities. This team is way too talented in the forward groups to be failing on special teams here.

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Next up:

On to Nashville in an epic battle of the beasts on Saturday. Think the NHL’s going to be smart enough to market that game effectively?