Delta Center, Detroit red wings, Game Recap, utah-mammoth

Wing and a Prayer

Your Favorite Hockey Guy in Utah

February 5, 2026

Utah flying high heading into the extended Olympic break with a win over Detroit

The Detroit Red Wings made Salt Lake City their last stop before the Olympic break. Both teams have a similar dynamic – in tough divisions, with above average goaltending, and strong leadership. Detroit is more power-play focused and able to win tight games, something extremely important come the playoffs. Meanwhile, Utah is a 5 on 5 juggernaut, and is winning games – big.

This is the second and last meeting of the teams, with previous meeting during my surgery – so I wasn’t able to cover them. However, Utah beat Detroit on the road by a score of 4-1.

FIRST PERIOD:
The Mammoth have started their past few games out taking really stupid penalties in the first few minutes of the game. This sort of thing killed early momentum and is a recipe for disaster. I mentioned they needed to come out strong without any penalt… HEY WE SCORED! 1-0 Utah

Wait, what happened? Michael Carcone cut off a clearing pass attempt by John Gibson and worked the puck down low. Andrew Copp got the puck after Dylan Guenther almost knocked it down, and Copp threw it up the boards, trying to clear. Alex DeBrincat got the puck tangled up in his skates for a moment, and Sean Durzi jumped on the loose puck. Durzi threw a quick wrister at the net, and Gibson had no idea a shot was even coming, as if the puck had already left the zone. Standing up and out of position, Gibson had no idea the shot was coming until the horn blasted in his ear. Durzi redeeming himself for his delay of game gaffe in the first minute against Dallas with a goal in the first minute against Detroit. 1-0 Utah

Utah continued to control play after the goal and for several minutes afterwards. Nick Schmaltz had a steal right behind the Red Wings net, but his shot from a tight angle was stopped by Gibson, who actually had proper positioning this time. On the faceoff after that stoppage, Utah had a near 2 goal lead, as Mikhail Sergachev took a pass from Clayton Keller, and skating on the far side of the faceoff circle, he threw a shot on Gibson. The puck was stopped, but it slid along Gibson’s pad towards the goal. The puck started crossing the goal line, but never completely made it over. Albert Johansson saved the goal for Detroit, as he swept the puck out of the goal mouth while it was still on the red line. 5 minutes in and Gibson looked shaky, and Utah was looking to press their advantage.

At the 6 minute mark, Detroit got their first shot on goal, when Patrick Kane put a shot in on Karel Vejmelka, but a delay of game a few seconds later by Ben Chiarot gave Utah the first power play of the game.

The power play unit, an abysmal 15%, started out slow. A missed shot by Keller led to a clear, and a Guenther shot was on net, but saved by Gibson. Utah had a passing clinic, but again – frustratingly! – no shots and a deflection out of play. Then, fortune smiled for the beleaguered power play unit as Dylan Larkin decided to lumberjack chop Lawson Crouse’s stick in half. While most slashes and cross-checks go unpenalized on a power play, one that snaps a stick is hard to ignore. That put Utah on a 5 on 3 power play for nearly a minute. And, as I tell my wife – if you can’t score on a 5 on 3, you don’t deserve to win the game.

So, the 5 on 3 went to work. A shot by Guenther was high and wide, and nearly exited the zone, but Sergachev was able to keep it from crossing the blue line. Feeding it around, Guenther fed to Keller at the high dot, who sent a pass to Barrett Hayton at the side of the net. Hayton had a defender come in just enough to leave the bumper open, and the pass to Schmaltz in the slot gave him everywhere to shoot at. So, he did. He went cross body on Gibson, who was trying to position himself to stop the shot. The puck fluttered over his glove and hit twine. 2-0 Utah

The power play continued, but the best chance was Detroit’s. A misplay by Durzi at the blue line saw him lose the puck off an attempted pass, and Marco Kasper rushed in on Vejmelka on a breakaway. Detroit’s second shot of the game was also turned aside by the Wasatch Wall, who played Kasper to the side of the net, stopping his backhand attempt. Kasper got his own rebound, and took a twisting shot that Vejmelka was also able to track and fend off.

As the penalty expired, some give and go passing saw Hayton try for a deflection in tight on Gibson, but his attempt went wide. Detroit would then score to cut the lead in half…

… except not legally. A shot hit the curved glass out of play, but ricocheted back onto the ice. Vejmelka, out behind his net to play the puck, couldn’t get back there to stop it, but it didn’t matter. The hundreds of Detroit fans in attendance were angry. Sucks to be them.

JJ Peterka had a shot from the high slot that was kicked aside, and Crouse was absolutely robbed on a reaction save by Gibson. A great play by Keller saw a pass from behind the net to the low slot, but Gibson just simply threw up the glove and made the stop.

With 6 minutes left, DeBrincat took a shot on Vejmelka, just their 4th shot of the period and by far least dangerous. A breakaway shorthanded and follow up shot, a rush chance by Patrick Kane, and now DeBrincat were all that Utah gave up in the first 14 minutes. Kane followed that up seconds later with a spinning backhand, which was also gobbled up.

Hayton would take an offensive hooking penalty with 5 minutes left to play, giving the Red Wings their first power play attempt. The Wings power play has been good lately, so Utah’s PK would be tested fairly hard. And right off the drop that was evident, as a failed clear led to a back-door chance by DeBrincat, who missed the tap in. Utah’s PK was aggressive, though, and when they gave up passing lanes – for example, to Kane at the far dot, the passes were rushed and not clean enough for one-timers or quick tic-tac-toe movement. Nate Schmidt had a big block late in the kill, and a final clearing attempt by Jack McBain ended the power play threat. Fresh out of the box, Hayton and crew led a 3 on 2, but Hayton’s shot was blockered away and out of play.

With less than a minute to play, Guenther got Utah’s last chance of the period as he got a step on Ben Chiarot, but Gibson was able to stick aside the attempt. A little bit of physical display in front of Gibson, but the period ended uneventfully.

Utah outshot Detroit 9-6, though those 6 Detroit shots were fairly dangerous.

SECOND PERIOD:
The second period didn’t quite start out as well for Utah as the first period did, as overall play was tight for about the first few minutes. The Mammoth had a chance to get something early, as Michael Carcone tried to throw a pass from behind the net, but Gibson covered. Vejmelka was tasked with stopping a deflection, and was able to get the shaft of the goalie stick on it, denying the Red Wings their ice breaker.

Kailer Yamamoto drew a tripping penalty from Travis Hamonic with about 17 and a half to play. The bumper play that the Mammoth ran on the 5 on 3 nearly worked again, as Utah moved to more of an Umbrella look. Schmaltz was the recipient of a Guenther pass from the side of the net, but his gorgeous one-timer look was blocked by Gibson. Schmaltz was involved with another in-tight chance, but just couldn’t get past the pads of Gibson. Sergachev hit the crossbar from a blue-line blast, but the puck bounced down and out and Gibson was able to pounce on the loose puck. The power play ended, and Peterka had a bad angle shot go wide as the Wings got back to full strength.

Carcone had a step past the defense for a rush chance but was defended well and couldn’t get a shot off. Shortly after, Brandon Tanev ran Hamonic into the boards, which caused a fight – which really wasn’t much more than Tanev getting his sweater pulled over his head and taking a few punches.

With 13 to play, Keller, Schmaltz, and Crouse had a 3 on 2, and the captain elected to shoot. He wasn’t able to beat Gibson, and the rebound attempt from Schmaltz was flubbed for an easy cover.

With just under 10 minutes to play, Hayton had a chance in close on Gibson, but was denied. At this point, I mentioned to my wife that shots were 15 – 9; Detroit was on pace for just 18 shots at this point in the game. Over the next about 4 minutes, not much transpired, but then Detroit came to life in the last 6 minutes of the period.

Copp got around Durzi for a rush chance against Vejmelka, the first real test of the period for the Czech Olympian. Vejmelka got his big glove out to deny the cutting Copp, keeping the far side of the net from being exposed. After that save, Veggie was under siege for a bit. A few missed shots, and a post hit by DeBrincat kept Detroit scoreless, but Guenther got called for a hook on the DeBrincat chance. Down a man for the second time, the PK would step up.

Lucas Raymond walked in and had a great shot attempt against Vejmelka. The initial save provided a rebound, which was whacked at to no avail, as Vejmelka was just too dialed in. Off a defensive zone win, a Crouse clear was deflected in deep, and the puck was recovered by Larkin. Alone in the slot with time, somehow he aimed high, and out of danger momentarily for Utah.

Moritz Seider ripped a slap shot from the blue line that went wide, and the rebound came directly to Raymond at the side of the net. However, sliding over to prevent Raymond’s chance, Veggie made a highlight reel save, preserving his shutout.

After that save, the remaining three minutes saw zone time but nothing significant. However, right at the minute mark, Schmidt got called for a hooking penalty, giving the Red Wings a late power play. Ian Cole got the puck with 30 seconds to go, but his clearing attempt was a tape-to-tape pass to Detroit, who had a good look by Raymond with the zone time, but Vejmelka again stood tall and preserved the 2 goal lead.

Detroit nearly doubled their shots for the game in the last 6 minutes of play. As a result, Utah was outshot for the period, 11-9 but Utah leads the shot clock after 40 minutes of play, 18-17.

THIRD PERIOD:
The penalty kill didn’t allow pressure or a shot in the minute they had left to kill to start the period. After the kill, the Peterka and Yamamoto line got a pair of good looks, but were unable to get past Gibson. Vejmelka was also forced to make a pretty save on Larkin, through traffic, and the score was unchanged.

5 minutes in, Guenther would pad the lead for Utah. After extended offensive zone time, with a Detroit player with a broken stick, Detroit would get a clear. However, with the tired defense on the ice, the clear wasn’t far enough out of the zone for a line change. Guenther, who was responsible for the Detroit clear, fought for the puck and with the help of a McBain check, regained it right outside the blue line. On a 2 on 1 with Carcone on the wing, defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka was forced to play the pass. This opened up space for Guenther to charge the net, and cut across the slot. Trying to move with him, Gibson opened up the 5 hole, and Dylan was able to sneak the puck in between the pads. While Gibson did get a piece of it, the puck angled inside the far post and past the goal line. Goal good guys, and an extremely needed and deserved goal from Guenther, who was on a bit of a slide. 3-0 Utah

Detroit pushed hard after the goal, desperate to break the shutout and get back into the game. A minute after the goal, Raymond again had a great chance. Trying to get under his blocker, Raymond’s shot was caught up in the elbow of Vejmelka and kept out of the net.

The third line tried to get another +1 each when Carcone streaked down the left side of the ice. Going towards the boards, he threw a back pass to McBain, who couldn’t beat Gibson. A tip high by McBain led to a rebound to Carcone… who did the exact same play to McBain in the slot, with the exact same result. While you can be frustrated McBain didn’t score, two grade A chances in the slot are something you’ll take all day from that unit.

Marco Kasper got a shot off with 11 minutes to go that caused Vejmelka to topple over during his save, energizing the crowd who were trying to will him a shutout. A whiff on a clearing attempt by Nick DeSimone led to a surprise one-time shot in the mid slot by James van Riemsdyk, but Vejmelka had drifted over to a position to make the reflex save.

Utah played conservatively, but did not turtle over the next several minutes. While Detroit had some low value chances, Utah smartly kept play ahead of them and didn’t allow mistakes to hurt them. Until….

With 5 minutes and 30 seconds to go, Nick DeSimone hit the puck out of the air and over the glass. The Detroit power play had 3 bites at the apple, and late in the game they’d get their fourth. Pulling Gibson with more than 5 minutes to go was a risk, but a 6 on 4 power play to break the shutout was what Detroit needed more.

Despite a heroic attempt by the PK to preserve the shutout for Vejmelka, it was not meant to be. A shot by Seider from the point was wide, but the puck caromed off the boards right through the crease. It ended up on Larkin’s stick and with Vejmelka out of position, Larkin deposited the puck right into the open net. Shutout bid? Over. And, with 4 minutes to go and an empty net guaranteed, a 2 goal lead isn’t a guarantee anymore. 3-1 Utah

With 3 minutes to go, an amazing defensive play by Sergachev sprung a 2 on 1 with McBain and Guenther. With an empty net, and one defender, McBain’s pass to Guenther should have been able to seal the deal. However, Guenther passed back to McBain. From the blue line, McBain sent the shot wide and missed the wide open net and guaranteed 2 points. So, more stress to follow as Utah still had to fight off Detroit for 3 minutes in a 6 on 5 scenario.

No need to worry, though, as captain Keller would seal the deal for Utah. Another won board battle in the defensive zone led to the goal. Sergachev’s kick was perfectly timed, and the puck caught Crouse’s stick. A touch pass to Schmaltz at the blue line saw Keller and Schmaltz lead a 2 on 1 with the net a tantalizing target. With DeBrincat – a forward – back to defend against two of Utah’s top goal scorers, it was inevitable. Keller, unlike McBain, is a goal scorer and from the red line hit a bullseye, dead center of the net from 90 feet out. 4-1 Utah

With the restored three goal lead, both teams played out the final two minutes. The Mammoth, to the standing ovation and boisterous cheers of the crowd, head into the Olympic break with a 2 game win streak – and momentum and good vibes on their side.

Utah survives a Red Wing onslaught in the final period, 13 shots to just 7, and were outshot for the game 30-25.

3 GOALS (THE GOOD):

All the Schmaltz Things No one on Utah is hotter than Nick Schmaltz, and while he’s crushing his numbers this year – tying his career best in goals, and on pace for close to 35 goals for the year. 53 points is just 10 points off his career best, and he’s on pace to hit 75 points. Amazing.

What Schmaltz has perfected in the center role, however, is his defensive awareness. He’s always had an OK defensive presence, but as a center his awareness has hit a level not before seen in his career. Tonight, with another +1, he’s running a +21 for the year to date. That’s more than 2 times better than his best year previously.

Defensively he’s sound. Offensively, he’s unstoppable. Contractually, he’s… an enigma for what will happen. But that’s a problem for tomorrow’s Mammoth. Today’s Mammoth can enjoy Schmaltz powering this team forward through the roughest stretches without their top center.

Bring Cat? While Utah doesn’t have a DeBrincat, they have a Sean Durzi. Durzi opened the scoring as fast as he took a penalty two games ago. And against a Detroit team that lives and dies by first goals, this was a critical win for Utah.

Over the next several minutes, Utah was able to continue momentum building, and with a 2 goal lead, repeatedly frustrated the Red Wings. While they gave the Wings life late in the game, with a 6 on 4 goal to break the shutout and bring the game back to two, Utah was able to shut the door.

As I mentioned in the pre-game, Utah would win if the game got out of hand for Detroit, and with a 3+ goal win, Utah continued the trend with Detroit’s wins and losses. They win 1 goal games, but when they lose – they lose big.

Thanks for reading the blog, Sean, and for not being afraid to throw pucks on the net (instead of over the glass) early!

Vitamin K Vegetables are packed full of minerals, and the goaltender known as Veggie is packed full of denial. According to MoneyPuck who tracks expected goals against (xGA), Vejmelka faced 3.14 goals worth of shots today. With one goal against and 30 shots, Vejmelka earned his first star of the night by saving 2 more goals than expected. His performance singlehandedly turned a 3-3 tied game an average goaltender would have faced, into a 4-1 win with an empty netter.

Now with a league leading 27 games won, he’s all but erased his poor November stats. He took time off late December for an injury. Since he’s come back? 11 wins in 15 starts, 2.33 goals against, and an over .915 save percentage.

Veggie was a workhorse in 2024 for Utah, but they fell short of the playoffs. Will Veggie help provide the nutrients to allow this team to feast in the post season?

3 CHIRPS (THE BAD):

They tried, right? The power play got a goal today, and I’m not complaining about that. They got a solid shot from Schmaltz from the slot for a second power play chance, a goal that should have gone in, but even though it didn’t, I’m not complaining about that.

You know what I am complaining about? The fact it’s taken this long to hybridize an Umbrella and a 1-3-1 look.

With 2 players down low, the bumper in the middle becomes more of an accessible option. The shot from the point needs to be respected more, because you have 1 – 2 players in a spot for a rebound versus none before. Hayton, who I think would be a good trade piece, has been doing well in getting in front of the net for the rebounds and screens lately.

Why has it taken so long to get to this formation?

NOTE: I have decided to do an article over break as to why the power play is so bad. There’s a few observations I’ve got that may be helpful for newer fans, or for more seasoned fans that don’t look at the same numbers or layouts the same way. It’ll be a bit more in-depth, but I’ll have a little free time with the Olympic break!

DeSigone A late delay of game penalty by Nick DeSimone gave life to a team that was nearly dead. Again, bad and stupid power plays given up are going to be the death knell for this team if they miss the playoffs.

I can forgive a hooking if you’re beat in your zone, especially if it’s preventing a scoring chance. While a penalty is always bad, some penalties are less bad than others.

A delay of game with 5 minutes left? Inexcusable. You aren’t sure what to do? Eat the puck at the wall and wait for help. Ice the puck if you need to. Find an outlet somewhere. At worst case, giving the puck away gives up one scoring chance against you. While you may give up that goal, you may not. But giving up another power play late? You’re putting even a 3 goal lead in jeopardy. Tired penalty killers are usually your best defensive players. Playing 6 on 4 taxes them even more. Plus, as a defenseman, you’re not available to help for a few minutes.

This team takes the worst and most unnecessary penalties at the worst times. It didn’t bite us today, because Detroit isn’t able to claw back from multi-goal deficits well, but this is the kind of play that saw the team implode against Carolina.

In a perfect world, DeSimone would be a trade deadline casualty to a contender in the East. On an expiring contract, a deal can be made for picks, which then could turn around and provide Utah with more ammunition to go after a 2C. However, the way Schmaltz has been playing, perhaps we have a solution at center that we never knew we had before?

Vitek Vanecek. I’m not going to bag on a guy that didn’t play today. I will, however, discuss quickly that it’s starting to be a little bit of a concern that we don’t have a coaching staff that trusts their backup goaltender to provide a spell of relief for their starter. With 44 of 57 games played, Vejmelka is tied for most overworked goaltender in the league. Juuse Saros, the only other goalie with 44 under his belt, is also going to play in the Olympics. The two most overworked goaltenders in the league are going to play games while everyone else rests.

This could be problematic for Utah. Last year, with Connor Ingram out, Vejmelka was tasked with an extreme workload. This year? More of the same. While he’s come on strong since the calendar flipped, he can’t be relied on for another 22 of 25 games, and needs a breather.

If the team can’t trust Vanecek to give him at least 5 games of rest towards the end of the year, they need to figure out who can. Vejmelka is the goaltender of now and the near future – but if they want a playoff future, they need to make sure he’s not completely burned out come May.