^{Nate Schmidt ties a career high with 4 points, fueling Utah’s 5th win during this homestand.}

The Utah Mammoth played their 6th straight home game tonight as the Seattle Kraken came to town. Seattle, struggling with a 1-2-2 record lately, and losing ground in the Pacific Division, was looking to turn the tide of their 2026 and end the Mammoth’s 6 game point streak. Seattle arrives after a week of away games in the east coast, from low elevation, from a late Thursday night game and an early game Saturday, with a 2 hour time difference. So, they should have been at a fairly big disadvantage over the course of the game – sounds good for Utah!

Before I get into the write-up, let me say that I love being completely wrong when the outcome comes out completely right. None of my three keys of the game even mattered, with Kailer Yamamoto not in the lineup, Joey Daccord sat for Philipp Grubauer, and a game where few penalties were called – and therefore a theoretically tight game – ended up being a run and gun affair with 9 total goals.

Hey, sometimes things don’t work out, and sometimes when everything you expect goes wrong the end of the day, things end up right. I wonder if I’m going somewhere with that…

FIRST PERIOD:
The first period was a tale of two halves, with Seattle owning the first 10 minutes, and the Mammoth controlling the game on the final 10.

The Seattle Kraken started the game out extremely fast and strong, dominating the Mammoth across the board. It took a minute, but Seattle had managed to get 4 shots on net, peppering Karel Vejmelka early and often. At the minute mark, Matty Beniers ripped a snap shot in on Vejmelka, which was saved and sent backwards towards the boards. However, Kappo Kakko – great name – retrieved the puck and sent a pass into the slot for Jordan Eberle. Sean Durzi, covering Eberle, came at him but missed knocking the puck away. Eberle went to his backhand, flipping the puck up and over Vejmelka’s glove. 1-0 Seattle

A number of icings disrupted play over the next minute and a half or so, until Brandon Tanev was called for a hooking penalty. His stick was somewhat near the midsection of Ben Meyers. Notably, Meyers wasn’t moving, nor was he impeded eventually when he did move. It’s the kind of weak call you want to scream over. So I did.

When the penalty kill started, I told my wife one of two things was likely to happen. Utah would either give up a goal quickly, or Seattle would give up a shorthanded goal. This is because Seattle sells out on offense, which works very well in their favor usually. However, not today. The Hockey Gods^tm decided the call was egregiously bad and decided to balance the scales. Beniers slipped on the faceoff, taking out a teammate and giving Utah an immediate 3 on 2 shorthanded chance. Ian Cole, at the line, dished off to Lawson Crouse. Crouse, skating towards the net, showed impeccable patience as Kevin Stenlund took up position behind Philipp Grubauer, Waiting until Grubauer committed, Crouse slid the puck over to Stenlund, who had a simple redirect from, oh, 3 feet from the goal line for one of the easiest gimmes in his career. 11 seconds after the penalty, and less than 3 minutes into the game, balance to the game was restored by the Hockey Gods^tm (praise be upon them). 1-1 Tied

Utah scored on their first shot of the game 3 minutes in, and wouldn’t get their second until almost the 10 minute mark.

Right after the goal, with Utah shorthanded and a threatening power play on the prowl, Jack McBain decided to make life even more interesting for the Mammoth. McBain cross checked Shane Wright off the faceoff, an inexcusably stupid penalty considering the circumstances. Seattle would go on a 2 man advantage with 1:37 to work with.

Seattle, as expected, had great puck movement with so much extra space to work with. Mikhail Sergachev found himself in great position to block a cross-ice high danger shot early. Karel Vejmelka then kicked out a rip by Vince Dunn in the mid-circle, and the defense swept the loose puck in the crease aside to safety. Eeli Tolvanen ripped a shot in the high slot, which Vejmelka made an entertaining, and critical, glove save. The PK team, exhausted but successful, was able to kill off both penalties, blocking more shots than got through.

At the 13 minute mark, a loose puck was swatted at by Wright on net, which seemed to appear out of nowhere, but Vejmelka made the save. The rebound was free, but Wright’s follow up was saved by a heady play – literally – and Vejmelka covered. With just over 11 to go, Ryan Winterton tipped a shot that Vejmelka got a piece of; the puck squirted through 5-hole but it ended up directed wide.

That shot seemed to flip a switch on the period. Within 30 seconds, the third line changed the tempo and momentum. At just about 10:30, Nate Schmidt, Michael Carcone, and Jack McBain all took a bite at the apple. Carcone’s shot was kick saved right to McBain, who shot over the net which ended the flurry as the puck was cleared.

Utah would continue their pushback from the first half of the period, with play barely in their zone over the next few minutes. While Utah had few quality chances – JJ Peterka tried to sneak the puck through Grubauer’s mask, and a bouncing puck was tantalizing close for Barrett Hayton to slam home – they couldn’t cash in.

Peterka had an awful giveaway behind his net with about 7:30 to go, giving Seattle their first offensive pressure in over 3 minutes. However, Utah blocked shots to keep Vejmelka from seeing too much, and Utah would kill off the Kraken pressure, and then reapply their own.

With 6 to go, Carcone threw a backhand to the crease. McBain was right there, but couldn’t stuff the puck under Grubauer, who fell on it to stop play. A faceoff later, Crouse weaved his way on the wing in on Grubauer. As he got behind the net, he threw a centering feed to Nick Schmaltz, who was interfered with, then dropped, into the net. Not a penalty because reasons, the Kraken were able to clear the puck with no damage done.

3 minutes of play was spent back and forth as both teams traded hits, turnovers, and zone time. Berkly Catton had a chance with 2 and a half to go, getting behind Crouse and having about 20 feet to Vejmelka on a partial break, but Veggie was able to get a piece to stop the last Kraken dangerous chance of the period. Crouse had Utah’s last shot, a deep in the slot chip from a deflected puck off a skate, but Grubauer’s reflex save kept the score knotted at one.

Utah and Seattle tied 12-12 on shots somehow, as Utah gave up 11 shots in the first 10 minutes and Seattle gave up 11 in the second ten.

SECOND PERIOD:
The second period started out as the opposite of the first for the teams, as the Mammoth started out the better team and… THEY SCORE!

Controlling the puck from faceoff, Utah missed a few shots from Dylan Guenther to start the zone pressure, however the sharp angle shot from the far boards hit Grubauer in the pads, and was directed to the high circle near side. Schmidt stepped into the sliding puck and rifled a laser beam of a shot over Grubauer’s glove far side. Gru reacted late, likely due to Jordan Eberle crashing on Schmidt, inadvertently setting up a screen that the goalie could’t recover from. 30 seconds in, Utah has their first lead. 2-1 Utah.

Play was fairly even the next three minutes or so, with a single shot by Seattle being saved by Vejmelka around the 17 minute mark. Play continued mostly uneventfully until Nick Schmaltz got his first of the night. A big blast at the blue line from Nate Schmidt went wide, but the rebound bounced to the left of Grubauer. With Lawson Crouse streaking in, Grubauer set for a Crouse rebound shot. Additionally, Vince Dunn who was without a stick, slid out to block the shot. However, Crouse whiffed on the shot and Schmaltz took control of the rebound, reset the puck, and shot far side post, past Dunn’s outstretched hand, and Grubauer’s outstretched glove. 3-1 Utah.

From the goal to the 10 minute mark there were 2 shots total, no real scoring chances, and the game just flowed. However, Guenther got whistled for a tripping penalty at the halfway mark. Seattle’s special teams was tasked with a third Kra… er… crack at breaking through on the Mammoth PK.

After several giveaways and somewhat disjointed play, the Kraken had a chance when Brandon Montour threw a puck on net that got deflected and bounced wide. Schmaltz continued his strong play with another shorthanded chance, going up the near wing with Marino streaking far side, but the pass was broken up. Kevin Stenlund had the same idea moments later, but his pass to Crouse was similarly broken up. Time expired on the penalty just as Vejmelka covered the puck with exactly 8 minutes to close out the period.

The Mammoth got some immediate pressure back, as Hayton came in for a wraparound chance on Grubauer that was stopped. Shortly after, Utah would get their first power play of the day. Good to give the PKers a rest for a change. Eberle interfered/held Hayton as Utah was leaving their zone, and the Mammoth would be up a man for 2 minutes.

The first power play unit had good puck movement, especially when they shortly morphed into a Box 1 (2 low, 1 in the slot and 2 at the blue line configuration) but passes couldn’t connect and no dangerous chances really developed, save for a single point shot. However, PP2 was nearly successful when Hayton passed through the Crease to Carcone, whose first shot hit Grubauer’s pad. With the goalie down, he tried to shoot the rebound up but ended up too high and missed an otherwise open net. Time expired and Eberle returned.

Following the positive momentum from a successful kill, Seattle went on the attack. At the point, Dunn walked in as he received a pass and blasted a hard shot on Vejmelka. The puck wasn’t completely stopped, and landed behind Vejmelka’s pad. Durzi wasn’t able to box out Beniers, who swatted the puck off the post, then got his own rebound and slammed the puck home. 3-2 Utah.

While Utah didn’t allow for an immediate second response from Seattle, they also didn’t control play. Neither team had much momentum for a minute or so after the play. with neutral zone play and dump-ins the name of the game.

On a rare offensive zone pressure, Peterka had the puck close to the near-boards goal line. With But in front of the net, Peterka looked for the tap-in play, but Grubauer got his stick on the pass to disrupt it. Countering, Frederick Gaudreau was able to find Chandler Stephenson get past Sergachev. Stephenson had a breakaway from the blue line in, going forehand, backhand, forehand beating Vejmelka 5 hole. Within 2 minutes, the 2 goal lead from Utah evaporated as the Kraken stormed back late. 3-3 Tied.

The final two minutes were uneventful, and after two the teams went to the locker rooms knotted once again.

Shots favored Utah in the period – 8-7, and Utah led 20-19 through two.

THIRD PERIOD:
The Mammoth scored on the first shot of the 1st period, first two shots of the second period, and were on pace to get 3 goals in the third on three shots, right?

Let me preface the rest of this section with this – Seattle had 2 shots in the third period, and were clearly gassed. Their first shot came after nearly 11 minutes were gone and the second with just 3 minutes left. As play wore on, their exhaustion mounted and it showed.

At the first minute in, Crouse again came close to scoring by being in the crease for a Clayton Keller pass from the boards. Crouse’s positioning was just slightly off, and the redirect went right into Grubauer’s chest. A minute later, Tanev had the puck ricochet into the slot, but surrounded by 4 Kraken players, his rushed shot was just wide of the mark.

Gaudreau got the sole Kraken high-danger chance of the period when Sergachev turned the puck over behind the Mammoth net. A feed to Gaudreau was shot just barely wide, and a missed Seattle pass cleared the zone for Utah.

The next few minutes were mainly uneventful until Utah got their second power play of the game. Just past 6 minutes in, Adam Larsson hooked Schmaltz as the Utah forward skated behind the Kraken net. However, the power play was fairly weak; 2 shot attempts – one from Guenther that missed, and a slapshot from Sergachev that was saved – were all the team was able to muster against the last place PK in the league.

To be frank, the next 7 minutes contained Vejmelka’s only save of the period so far, and plenty of nothing. Both teams looked like they came off back-to-back games, with a slow pace and little to show for it on either end.

As the game ground down and the feeling was an overtime game, Utah suddenly found life and their legs. Schmidt, dumping the puck in 5 on 2, chased the puck to the corner and his forecheck helped force a turnover. Keller, picking off the clearing attempt, ripped a pass from the far boards to the slot, with a waiting Schmidt in the slot. Schmidt was able to rip a shot that deflected up from Ryker Evans’ stick, beating Grubauer on the glove side to put the Mammoth ahead with less than 6 minutes to play. 4-3 Utah.

At the 5 minute mark, after an icing led to an offensive draw for the Mammoth. A won draw led to a Nate Schmidt shot from the slot that was blocked up high. The block, however, landed right at Keller’s stick. Cycling to the far wall, he found Crouse in the slot – an exact copy of the play a minute earlier. The puck hit Crouse’s skate, momentarily confusing Grubauer who expected the shot. Once collected, however, the puck was lifted top shelf, right between the helmet and glove. Crouse, for all his work all game, and for being empty no matter the fantastic play he had until then, finally got the reward he deserved. 45 seconds gave Utah a 2 goal lead and loads of energy from a stalemate and slog of a third period. 5-3 Utah.

Grubauer went to the bench with 3 minutes to go, and Crouse immediately gave it a college try, shooting the puck less than a foot wide of the yawning cage. Brandon Montour got Seattle’s second and last shot of the period on Vejmelka, who fought it off, and Utah would hold the zone by not allowing any passes or deep pressure to get to Vejmelka. After a dump-in collected behind his net, Karel Vejmelka earned his second assist of the year by passing to Marino at the far boards. Marino launched the puck nearly 200 feet at the Seattle net, but missed wide. However, the puck rebounded to the dead center of the ice in the slot. Barrett Hayton, streaking ahead of the Seattle defense, notched his first goal in 14 games to seal the game with the empty netter. 6-3 Utah.

The teams played out the final minute until the horn, and Utah earned their 11th point of a possible 12 in the homestand.

Shots were 11-2 in favor of the Mammoth, who dominated the final period. Shots for the game ended with Utah ahead 31-21 thanks to that third period play.

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3 GOALS (THE GOOD):

The Great (double) 8 Hey 88, have yourself a career tying day, why don’t you? Nate Schmidt tied his best point total of his career tonight, with 2 goals, 2 assists. His previous best was a 4 assist night when he played for the Golden Knights in 2019. That game was a blowout – a 6-0 game that was never in doubt.

Tonight? Schmidt had the winning goal in a game that was far closer than it should have been. Putting Utah up 4-3 late in the third, his assist on the dagger goal just 45 seconds later sealed the deal for Team Tusk.

Utah’s best offensive defenseman, Mikhail Sergachev, hasn’t had a 4 point game with Utah. In fact, no defenseman ever has. Schmidt set a record today, and he did so with his little boy and parents in the crowd. Nothing could be greater than that.

The Old Man and the Sea The veterans for the Mammoth stepped up big time today. Perhaps they were spurred on with the Youth Movement in the building. Perhaps, like Schmidt above, their established families were in the crowd and they wanted to impress. Perhaps, they decided that their New Year’s resolution was to outplay the kids.

Either way, it worked. Schmidt (34), above, had a career defining game. Lawson Crouse with three points was the second star of the game. Nick Schmaltz and Kevin Stenlund both potted a goal and had positive ratings on the day. John Marino? Just +5 on the day. Karel Vejmelka? He only backstopped an insane 1st period and a 5v3. Speaking of the 5v3, Stenlund, Cole, and Crouse took the majority of the time on the kill, helping ensure the Mammoth didn’t fall behind.

Marino and Crouse are the the youngsters of the group at 28. The others were born before I graduated high school.

The future is the kids, and we all give Guenther, Cooley, Peterka, and But their flowers. We talk about Tij Iginla, Maveric Lamoureux, Caleb Desnoyers and Dmitri Simashev as the up and coming heart of the Mammoth. Today, however, that heart’s got a doctor monitoring it and some cholesterol medicine, and we’re all the better for it.

Trophy Catch The Mammoth were faced with three Kraken power plays. The first, a weak call, led to a shorthanded goal for Utah. That would be their 4th this season, tied for top 10 in the NHL.

Utah would then face a nearly full 5 on 3 power play against a Kraken power play that has been red hot since Christmas, scoring over 30% of the time. Utah killed off both penalties, then another one later in the game.

The penalty kill has been a rollercoaster this year. October saw Utah kill just 73.5% of power plays, 23rd in the league. November? 87.2% plus a SHG, good for 9th overall. December? 85% plus 2 shorties, 4th best. January? 74% coming into the game, 20th in the league with just one fewer net goal against in half a month than all of November and December combined.

Stopping the Kraken power play when the game was close – in fact, being +1 differential on net PK today – was critically important for the team. In fact, Utah had three really good rush chances on the second penalty kill, threatening for a second shorthanded goal.

Had Seattle scored on either of their early power plays, a 2-0 deficit is far worse than a 1-1 tie. That changes the tone and feel of the game, which thankfully we won’t have to speculate a bad outcome on.

Great job by the PK for a net positive PK percentage for the game (133% net PK).

3 CHIRPS (THE BAD):

Going to Need a Bigger Boat The Durzgachev pairing tonight was simply awful. Sean Durzi was on the ice for all three Seattle goals. Mikhail Sergachev had baffling decision making choices. Their play in the first left Karel Vejmelka on an island several times. Had Vejmelka had an average game in the 1st period, this game is over before it hits the second period.

Sergachev was great on the early PK but struggled hard afterwards. He and Durzi left a puck in the slot loose that Shane Wright had a golden opportunity on (x2). Durzi failed to box out Beniers for the 2nd Kraken goal. Sergachev got beat cleanly leading to the third.

The pairing, when good, is really good. However, defensively, they are suspect at points and prone to break down with either mental lapses, poor positioning, or lazy play. Tonight, two bad plays in the end of the second put Utah in a bad position at the end of the period. Thankfully, the Kraken completely collapsed in the third, giving Utah the win, but had Utah maintained their 2 goal lead, this game in the third has a completely different, non-panic inducing feel.

No Wind in Their Sails Tonight was the second game in the past three where the Mammoth faced a tired team – either from a back to back, or from a time-zone difference, long flight, and altitude. The fact that both the Blue Jackets and Kraken came in with these massive disadvantages should be concerning the way the respective first periods were played. Sure, Seattle ended up crashing in the 3rd period after all, but the Mammoth need to learn to get their killer instincts from the face off.

Plus, letting a tired team take control over the second half of the second period isn’t a good look. Whether it be conditioning, coaching, or just the team having the flu at the same time, it’s just something that needs to be addressed before they hit the road next weekend.

A Whirlpool is a gigantic vacuum in the ocean, sucking anything that comes into their reach down to destruction in the murky depths. The Mammoth power play is a whirlpool, too. It takes 2 minutes of game time down to the murky depths while simply just sucking.

The power play unit that gets the most time is Guenther, Keller, Schmaltz, Peterka, and Sergachev. In January so far, the forwards have spent 25 minutes+ on the ice each, with Sergachev in the 23 minute mark. This is the equivalent of 12 minor penalties, 5 major penalties, one and a quarter periods, or the time it takes to get Barrett Hayton to prepare for a shot in the slot.

Know how many goals the forwards have with over a period of time together at a man advantage? 2.

Guenther is on pace to come close to 40 goals. Of his 23 so far, only 4 have come on the power play. Keller has regressed a lot on his goal scoring, but still is on pace for about 23-25. Know how many of his 13 goals came on the advantage? 1. Peterka has 16 goals – roughly on pace for last year. Know how many PPGs? 2. Schmaltz is 5 goals away from a career high, potting 18 so far. Only 4 have been PPGs.

How in the world is such a talented group of guys, who are pretty much all goal scorers, not do the one damn job they’re supposed to do?

The power play is 3 for 23 in January. They faced a few of the worst teams in the league on penalty kills, and got basically nothing from it. How bad is it? Utah has played:

New York Islanders – #8 PK. Somehow, the ONLY good game they had. 2/5.
New Jersey – #25 PK. 0/2.
New York Rangers – #14 PK. 0/1.
Ottawa Senators – #31 PK. 0/4.
St. Louis Blues – #28 PK. 1/3.
Columbus Blue Jackets – #29 PK. 0/2.
Toronto Maple Leafs – #3 PK. 0/2.
Dallas Stars – #15 PK. 0/2.
Seattle Kraken – #32 PK. 0/2.

I’ll give them the Rangers, Toronto, and Dallas as games that being stopped by a PK in the top half of the league wouldn’t be that terrible of a stat. Aside from an Islanders team that had a goaltending sieve in net, they scored 1 goal on 18 attempts, good for 5.6% success rate. The second worst team? The NY Islanders, at 10% – nearly double their effectiveness (in nearly half the power plays).

The mid-point in the league is 20% in January, 4 times more effective than Utah. This is absolutely unsustainable, and the lack of creativity on the system, the lack of juggling personnel, the just absolutely failures of the power play are stunning. The team is winning, so the power play is not a super concern to most people, but in tight games against beatable opponents – I look at you, Colorado Avalanche at the end of December – any 1 of the 3 attempts would have at least given Utah a point.

It’s a disgrace that the power play coach gets a salary to do his job and I have to pay to write a blog about how bad he is at it.

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Next up:

We have a few days to scoreboard watch, as Utah closes its homestand against Philadelphia on Wednesday.