The Utah Mammoth take full control of their playoff picture by surviving a track meet with the Canucks

The Utah Mammoth spent their short time in the Pacific Northwest splitting time between Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. While neither game was a critical win, every game this late in the season is pretty close to being the most critical game you can play. Seattle was still fighting for their playoff lives on Thursday, and Utah won 6-2. Tonight, Utah played an opponent who have playoff hopes in their pickleball brackets starting on April 20th.

With a bad opponent ahead, and some critically important playoff seeding games coming up at home, this could be a trap game that could cost Utah some of their leverage late in the season. It also could be a win, getting Utah that much closer to the key that unlocks the gate of the NHL playoffs.

FIRST PERIOD:
The first period was not idea for Utah, as they were down a goal early in the game for the second contest in a row. Just two and a half minutes in, Linus Karlsson put a backhander in behind Karel Vejmelka. Vejmelka, who had faced 6 shots in that opening 150 seconds, was able to be beaten because a clear up the boards jumped over the stick of Logan Cooley. Karlsson took the puck from halfway up the half-wall, and skated in towards Vejmelka. Ian Cole, who misplayed the clear leading to the jumping puck, was on the wrong side of Karlsson, and Nick DeSimone, filling in for an injured MacKenzie Weegar, didn’t challenge the shooter. This gave Karlsson plenty of time to shoot, and he put Vancouver up early. 1-0 Vancouver

Utah got a middling shot from the blue line over the next several minutes, while being beaten to the puck and outskated by a Vancouver team who suddenly found life in their game. A scary moment happened when Kevin Stenlund took a clearing attempt off the face, but he ended up no worse for wear.

The same almost couldn’t be said for Utah, who lost the face off, then nearly gave up another goal. A Mikhail Sergachev pass up the boards to Clayton Keller saw the captain turn the puck over to Vancouver, right in the slot for Evander Kane. Kane hit the spot right where the crossbar meets the post, and thankfully for Team Tusk, the puck ricocheted out of danger.

Logan Cooley gave Utah their first real chance and shot on goal at nearly the halfway mark. The play saw Cooley throwing the puck in on Nikita Tolopilo, starting instead of Kevin Lankinen. The save was easy, though, as the tip from Kailer Yamamoto missed and there was no other screen on the puck.

That 10 minute mark certainly seemed to change things for Utah, though, and the 4th line drove some solid zone pressure and play. Brandon Tanev kept the puck in the Vancouver zone after jumping a clearing attempt. Tanev was almost rewarded for it, when a pass from behind the net from Stenlund found its way to him in the slot, but he was robbed with a great save from Tolopilo. However, when rushing over to recover the puck, Tanev drew a tripping penalty on Pierre (PO) Joseph, and gave Utah their first man advantage of the night.

The power play has been extremely productive lately; they have gone 11 out of 30 in their past 10 games. That’s good enough for a 36.7% power play rate, 3rd best in the league – and it’s not even close. They’re up 7% on the #4 spot, but trail 2 teams. Want to guess what one of those teams is named? The Vancouver Canucks.

Anyway, the first power play of the game wasn’t very eventful, as the amount of fanned one timers could have created a wind tunnel in Rogers Arena. Dylan Guenther whiffed on a one timer, then Keller missed one on the opposite side, and the 2nd unit got nothing going at all. 2 minutes later, a single shot on the shot clock was added, but nothing dangerous of note.

Utah would strike within a minute of the power play, however. An odd line with Kevin Stenlund centering Dylan Guenther and Kailer Yamamoto started with a defensive draw. Stenlund won, and Yamamoto took the puck up the ice off a feed. He took the puck in the zone, dumped it behind the net, and pressured Joseph. Joseph chipped the puck to his defensive partner, Victor Mancini, who threw the puck up the boards in a clearing attempt. Cooley, however, jumped the boards for Stenlund’s 10 second shift, and jumped the play. Cooley threw the puck at the net, and Yamamoto made a fantastic redirect of the pass. With the stick blade between his skates, Yamamoto was able to get the puck up and over Tolopilo, knotting the score at 1. 1-1 TIED

The teams traded some light pressure over the next few minutes, but eventually the Canucks had a great opportunity. Coming in on a 2 on 1, that developed into a 3 on 2, Aatu Raty took a shot from the outer slot, which was blocked down by Vejmelka. The rebound, however, went to Ty Mueller who was crashing, and Vejmelka had the wherewithal to stick the pad out and seal the post, preventing a potential go-ahead goal.

The Mammoth would take the lead late in the first. After a good offensive zone shift, the Canucks were able to recover and try and break out of their zone. Right as they got into the neutral zone, Nick Schmaltz’ backcheck forced a turnover. A pass up to Lawson Crouse from Nick DeSimone saw a clean zone entry, and a drop pass from Crouse to Keller gave the captain room and a lane to operate. A fantastic wrister from the high slot caught that perfect spot between the glove and pad, beating Tolopilo cleanly. 2-1 Utah

The last 90 seconds were mostly uneventful, save for a matching minor assessed with 15 seconds to go, between Mikhail Sergachev for interference and Linus Karlsson for embellishment. Terrible first 10, great second 10, and the Mammoth go to their potty break up by 1.

Utah outshot by the Canucks of all teams, 11-8 after the first.

SECOND PERIOD:
The matching minors would last another minute and 45 seconds, so the teams would be 4 on 4 to start the period. The first minute was uneventful, but a DeSimone slip at center ice let Vancouver develop a 2 on 1 in the Utah zone. A Brock Boeser shot was turned aside by Vejmelka, but the Canucks would keep pressure up in the zone through the rest of the penalty time, and eventually the game tying goal. With nearly a minute of zone time – time spent cycling the puck, mostly – a high shot at the point by Mancini was deflected by Karlsson, fresh out of the penalty box. Yet another goal given up in about 2 minutes to start a period. Not a good sign. 2-2 TIED

The Mammoth countered well enough, with the Cooley line out there for some zone pressure, but a missed connection to Cooley in front ended a potential chance for lead.

At the 16 minute mark, Vejmelka was again forced to make a big stop off a blast by Boeser from dead center in the slot.

Roughly a minute and a half later, Filip Hronek held Schmaltz and pulled him to the ground as Schmaltz had a step along the boards in the offensive zone. The Mammoth power play had their second look for the day, and were able to get some great looks. An early shot by Schmaltz forced a high in the air rebound that Utah couldn’t put home. Then, Utah had a goal, but it was immediately waved off for being a high stick. However, after a Toronto review, the Guenther one-timer blast was deflected by Keller’s stick was confirmed as being just under the height of the crossbar. Good goal, goal #2 for the captain, and goal #3 for Team Tusk. 3-2 Utah

After puck drop, the Mammoth continued to push. They had a strong shift in the Canucks zone, but a shot hit one of the Mammoth players, and sprung Vancouver on a 3 on 1. Drew O’Connor had the puck at the near boards the whole time, but a perfectly timed slide by Nate Schmidt caused O’Connor to wait too long, giving Utah a chance to recover. O’Connor’s pass for a tip missed the mark, and Vejmelka made another great stop to keep the lead preserved.

A Kailer Yamamoto tip missed the mark, and the ensuing rush by Vancouver resulted in their first power play of the night. Ian Cole got whistled for holding Raty, giving the Mammoth their first look at a surprisingly good Vancouver power play.

The best play for either team on the power play, however, was for Nick Schmaltz. Schmaltz got the puck high in the defensive zone and rushed the Canucks shorthanded. With a defender back, Schmaltz left a drop pass for Sean Durzi. Schmaltz pulled his defender wide, giving Durzi the whole net to shoot at. With Tolopilo completely committed to Durzi, the pass back to Schmaltz missed the open cage and hit iron and out. Schmaltz, in disbelief, headed back to the bench for the PK2 unit.

After the penalty, Utah got another breakaway. This time, Dylan Guenther beat Tolopilo, but just like Schmaltz, he couldn’t beat the post. However, unlike Schmaltz, on the next zone entry, Guenther was able to bury the shot with the open cage. John Marino had a fantastic pass to Guenther, who skated past the Vancouver defense, and sat alone on the near side goal line. With Marino pulling Tolopilo out of position, and 2 Canucks playing Marino, Guenther decided that scoring was better than hitting the post. I agree, Dylan. Good choice. 4-2 Utah

So, to recap this – a post by Nick Schmaltz on an odd-man rush at about the 9:30 mark, a post by Dylan Guenther on a breakaway at about the 8:30 mark, and finally a goal in the same basic situation as the Schmaltz odd-man rush a minute earlier at the 8 minute mark. Crazy series of events.

At the 7 minute mark, a turnover by Durzi, who forgot to skate and couldn’t get to a Vejmelka pass, led to a Vancouver chance in tight, but Vejmelka was able to make the save. Alexander Kerfoot just missed Michael Carcone on a breakaway, though, so chances were missed on both sides.

Max Sasson and Durzi had some excitement for the teams at just past the 5 minute mark, with two double minor penalties assessed to each, for cross-checking and roughing. Teams skated 5 on 5. Ian Cole, however, gave the Canucks a power play, after tripping Karlsson right in front of the net. This put 2 of the Mammoth defenders in the box, with Durzi unable to leave until a stoppage.

Thankfully, it didn’t matter, as the PK unit was great to close the period. They didn’t allow a shot and kept Vancouver from setting up at all. A little carryover time into the third, however, as Utah would start shorthanded,

Utah gained on the shot clock, with 9 shots to Vancouver’s 7. For the game, Utah was down in total shots still, 18-17.

THIRD PERIOD:
The Vancouver power play wasted no time in showing Utah that it actually can be pretty lethal. Jake DeBrusk, mentioned in the pre-game writeup, was the power play specialist that Utah needed to watch out for. In the span of 20 seconds, they won the faceoff, dumped the puck deep, and got a point shot on net that was deflected in front by… Jake DeBrusk and his DeButt. Utah’s lead cut to just one, with 19 minutes and 40 seconds to play. 4-3 Utah

The push after the goal didn’t really develop, but Utah still found a way to strike back quickly. After giving up zone time to the Canucks, a tipped defensive play by Schmaltz led to a neutral zone dump that was played by Tolopilo in his end. Tolopilo had a Mammoth player coming in from both sides of the net, and Schmaltz on the far boards started to pressure him. In response, Tolopilo threw the puck up the boards in the direction of Keller. Keller was able to get the puck from the clear attempt, and fed a pass to Lawson Crouse, streaking in from the neutral zone. Crouse, with a clear line of site to the goal, and Tolopilo who had kind of-sort of set up, was unable to stop the quick wrister that Crouse delivered. Pinpoint placement, and the Mammoth regained their 2 goal lead just about a minute and 10 seconds after they lost it. 5-3 Utah

The Mammoth thought that a 2 goal lead and a penalty kill was a fun time, so they decided to do it again. Nick Schmaltz hit the ice a second too early, and the play was whistled dead with too many men on the ice. This time, there was not a split period, and it didn’t take until the last few seconds of the power play, but the results were the same for Vancouver. A point shot by Marco Rossi was potentially deflected in front of the net. The goal was credited to Boeser, though officially it was changed later on as if the puck was tipped, it apparently wasn’t from the Canuck up front. Doesn’t matter, though, since that cuts the lead back to one, no matter which of the tallest midgets got the stat boost. 5-4 Utah

After the power play goal, Utah just sort of shut things down for the game. They pressured the Canucks and limited their own defensive zone time, and in fact held the Canucks to just three more shots the rest of the period. From that goal at 15:20, one Utah shot in 7 minutes is all either team mustered. However, the most unlikely of sources is going to make me eat some crow down in the goals section.

Brandon Tanev outraced Marcus Pettersson – the one not making more than $11M a year to be a pylon – and threw on the brakes. Streaking in came Liam O’Brien, his first game in 23 years, and Tanev hit him in stride. O’Brien took the puck in alone on Tolopilo and went forehand-backhand to slide the puck past the falling goaltender. It was O’Brien’s third Utah goal in his career, and it actually didn’t look half bad. Well, kind of, since he hit the post. But hard work rewards you with good bounces, and the post bounced into the goalie, which bounced into the net. They don’t ask how, they ask “How did you let THAT guy score?” That’s a spicy take. 6-4 Utah

The Mammoth got a late power play with 5 minutes to go, and the first 20 seconds saw the Mammoth lose two faceoffs and give up a shot to Raty from a few feet in front of the net. The second unit was put out there, as a punishment to the first unit, and JJ Peterka got called for hooking Elias Pettersson. That certainly showed the first unit.

4 on 4 for over a minute, and the Mammoth controlled much of the play. Keller almost got his hat trick with a tip in front of Tolopilo but was denied. The Vancouver penalty ended, putting them on the power play, but Utah did a great job of killing off about 20 seconds of it right from the start. Once the Canucks controlled, however, they pulled Tolopilo for the 6th attacker, going 6 on 4 for about 30 seconds.

The Mammoth killed off the power play, but were struggling to get the puck out of the zone. John Marino had several clearing attempts stopped, and the Mammoth were pinned. Crouse, however, took a shot off the shin pads and got the puck out of the zone, allowing some relief for the Mammoth PK unit. Schmaltz nearly had a breakaway on an open net after his block got the puck out of the zone, but got upended on the jump to get the puck. No call, but it worked out in Clayton Keller’s favor. After the Mammoth stifled the Vancouver attack, a great defensive play by Ian Cole got the puck to Schmaltz at the Mammoth near face off dot. Schmaltz threw a pass through Keller’s legs, and from the center line, Keller buried the shot for his third goal of the game. First Utah Mammoth hat trick for the captain, and third of his career. 7-4 Utah

Utah outshot Vancouver 7-5 in the third period, outshooting the Canucks for the game 24 – 23. Clean sweep of Vancouver for the season series, going 3-0-0 and winning them all in regulation.

---

3 GOALS (THE GOOD):

Oh Captain My Captain The first Utah Mammoth hat trick by Clayton Keller came at a pretty good time. Yes, Vancouver shouldn’t have been as difficult a game as it turned out to be, but NHL teams with no pressure for the playoffs can play a simple game with nothing to lose. Sometimes, the pressure is all on the teams in the hunt, and that can be a hard thing to overcome.

Hard, unless of course you’re Captain Clutch. Keller, who hasn’t been nearly as proficient in lighting the lamp this year as his last 4, hit the 25 goal mark for the 5th straight season. He’s still 12 points off his career high, set last year, but astonishingly he’s done this on the PP1 unit and only getting 23 points on that top line. Last year, by comparison, he had 37 power play points, including 10 tallies. This year, he only has 2.

Keller’s line with Schmaltz centering it has become a stout unit that plays great on both sides of the ice. Schmaltz and Keller will put up points together, but with Schmaltz’ new center role helping provide good defensive coverage, and Keller playing smart positional hockey, that line has become one of the best two-way lines in the NHL. And it’s heavily influenced by Keller’s leadership.

Tonight’s 4 points by Keller gives him 25 goals and 53 helpers for the year. He’s now over a 1 point per game pace, the first Utah Mammoth player over 1 point per game since Nick Schmaltz fell under that pace in November after his hot start. Who was Schmaltz playing with while he was the only other Mammoth at more than 1 PPG? Oh, right.

The Lamplighters The Mammoth have suddenly become a significant offensive threat. In their last 4 games they’ve scored 7,6,6 and 4. Sadly, one of those was a loss – the 4 in there – but that’s 23 goals in 4 games, and three of those were away games. Let’s be honest – the wild card team will never get home ice advantage, so if you’re going to be a beast either at home or away, it’s probably better to be a team that wins 100% of your away games as a wild card team. Math nerds know why.

Aside from that Washington game where the Mammoth let up 7, they’ve had some defensive breakdowns which are concerning, but are far outscoring their problems … at least for the moment.

The amazing thing, though, is that in these four games, 5 different Mammoth players have 2+ goals. 12 players have at least a goal. 12 players also have 2 or more points. Every single Mammoth player other than Kevin Stenlund has a point (Daniil But played one game with no points).

That’s some serious diversity. Scoring from everyone, everywhere? That might be helpful for a playoff series, or two (or four??)

Resilient The Mammoth started the game down 1, but never trailed again. They were up 2 goals several times, when Vancouver pulled back within one, but each time Utah turned up the dial and got their lead back. The best case of this was Lawson Crouse’s response goal a minute after the power play goal to start the third period. The Sherriff didn’t panic, and his top line fed him for what would end up being a game winning goal.

Again, it’s the Canucks. But it doesn’t matter who it is at the end of the day. When you have an opponent fighting to get back there, and they pull within a single goal, holding them back and then forcing them back down 2 is what a team with a killer instinct has to do. Utah did that, and that’s the instinct that needs to be sharpened for them to be playoff contenders.

And some crow:
There is something I’m gonna have to hate saying, and that is that I was wrong about Liam O’Brien. Tonight, O’Brien showed that he is not nearly as bad as I thought – and repeatedly tell people he is. After a 2 month layoff, he played with a level of energy and passion that I didn’t think he had in him. The fact that he scored a goal in his first game back was great for him. I still consider him a “break glass in case of emergency” player, but maybe he’s a lot more serviceable than I give him credit for. Tonight for sure. We’ll see about the next few. I hope he keeps proving me wrong.

3 CHIRPS (THE BAD):

TikTok Hey, in case you didn’t know, I have a TikTok channel. I also hear tick tock every time the Mammoth get scored on early in a period. It’s happened far too many times that the Mammoth don’t show up for the first two minutes to start a period, or forget how to play in the last two minutes of one.

Tonight? 3 goals in the early minutes of the game. Normally, I give a 2 minute timer as a “start” or “end” a period mark, but the first two Vancouver goals came at 2:28 and 2:05, and that’s really close enough to be in the start of the period. That third goal, the PPG one, was 20 seconds in, and that clearly is within the start of a period.

For a team that is going to make the playoffs if everything doesn’t collapse around them, giving up early period goals is a way to have everything collapse around them. If it doesn’t collapse in the regular season, it sure as hell will do that in the playoffs.

The game starts from that first puck drop to the green light and buzzer sound, guys. Make sure you show up for all of it.

Cole Slaw Ian Cole is smart enough not to take dumb penalties. He’s gone most of the year not doing that. However, tonight he was the 2024-2025 Ian Cole, the one that I’d written an entire opinion piece that was never published by KSL. He was that “how many power plays in the third period is this guy gonna give up” version of Ian Cole.

Age is a baseball bat that incessantly beats on your knees until you fall. Cole’s been at the gam for much longer than most. He was born before I was in middle school. He was drafted before anyone heard the name “Barack Obama”.

If age is going to be a factor that hurts Cole’s play, he’s going to need to take maintenance days from here on out. Cole has been really, really good all year, but 2024 Cole will sink this team heading into the playoffs. We need to prevent that before it starts becoming a thing.

Let Maveric Lamoureux come give him a rest for a few games. Let Dmitri Simashev come tuck grandpa in for a nap.

2025-26 Ian Cole has been great so far, and the minute the team clinches a playoff spot, it’s a good time to look at running him as the 7th man as a healthy scratch for a game or two to let him be fully able to be who Utah needs him to be for the first round opponent – whomever that may be.

Cell Service There was a time that people had physical phones in their houses, attacked to wires that led to other wires that led to phone companies. Ask Ian Cole, he remembers them.

There was a phone company called V-Tech that was popular, and they were a brand of phone that was sturdy and reliable. Right now, there’s a sturdy and reliable V-Tech the Mammoth are going to need in about 1 or 2 games. The spelling is different, but the need is there.

Is giving up 4 goals bad? Yes. Is giving up 4 goals to the Vancouver Canucks bad? Very Yes.

Vejmelka wasn’t terrible tonight. The backhander to start the game was on him to cover for a bad defensive coverage. The two deflections? I don’t care what advanced stats tell you, deflected shots from within 20 feet are the hardest thing a goaltender will ever face. At the end of the day, though, it’s not the 4 goals that bothers me, its the workload and playoff management needs.

Ian Cole needs maintenance days because he’s old enough to still have 2 or 3 sets of V-Tech phones in his home. Karel Vejmelka needs maintenance days because he’s played more hockey than any other human being on Earth this season.

Karel Vejmelka has played 3416 minutes of ice time thus year. 57 hours of hockey. He’s played 150 minutes more than the next most used player in the NHL – or 7 and a half periods. Quinn Hughes plays 27:43 per game, the most of any NHL skater. Vejmelka has 1500 more minutes than that.

Let Veggie rest, guys. The second the playoffs are locked up, let Veggie rest. If Vejmelka plays more than 25% of the remaining games after the playoffs are locked up, someone should lose their job.

---

Next up:

Tuesday night, McDavid and company come for their most important visit of the year. It’s a game of potential playoff matchups at the Delta Center, ya’ll!

Tusks Up!