Did you know, playoff hockey is the best hockey? Utah decided it wants the best hockey this year.

The Utah Mammoth – correction, the PLAYOFF BOUND Utah Mammoth, punched their ticket to the dance tonight at the Delta Center. While the team didn’t technically clinch at the conclusion of tonight’s game, scoreboard watching the California showdown put Utah in a prime position for good news. Before the players could finish showering, though, it was clear that the Utah Mammoth would be playing late-April hockey.

The Utah Mammoth, 4th in the Central Division with 90 points, have clinched a playoff spot before any teams in the Pacific. The 90 points so far exceed last year’s total (89) and there’s still more hockey to play.

Note – Utah has the same number of points as current division leader, Edmonton, and would be playing for home ice throughout the first 2 rounds of the playoffs had they been aligned there. They run the risk of having a better record than the entire division of opponents, yet play on the road for the first 2 rounds.

Anyway, we’re locked up and that’s all that matters. Everything from here is gravy. They played a complete game, up and down the ice tonight to earn their spot. How did we get there? Let’s recap.

FIRST PERIOD:
The first period started out 100% in Utah’s favor, as the Mammoth came out knowing this game could clinch them a playoff spot. Starting right from the drop, Utah had great puck control and plenty of zone time and pressure. In fact, the first 4 minutes saw great drives – first with an early shot by Dylan Guenther that just missed a window by Jusse Saros’s ear, then a shot by Kevin Stenlund that missed the net so good the bounce came off the end boards almost back on his stick for a tap in, a slap shot from the high dot by MacKenzie Weegar that was saved, and finally by Clayton Keller, with a move from behind the net to try and make a play, only for a borderline slash to keep the game scoreless.

Michael Carcone got Utah an early advantage by driving to the net around Brady Skjei. To prevent a forehand-backhand try on Saros, Skjei had to slash Carcone, which prevented the goal but also put the Predators down a man just 4 minutes into the game.

Pregame, I mentioned that the Predators have been red hot on the PK, killing off 12 of 12, while getting 2 shorthanded goals to boot (since April 1st). Well, Mikhail Sergachev must be one of the 15 of you who read my pre-game report, because he was able to read a clearing attempt / pass that the Predators do. Just 15 seconds in, Sergachev had backed out of the offensive zone to play the clear, ahead of Ryan O’Reilly, who tried to sneak by unnoticed. Great play that didn’t show on the scoresheet, but was a potential turning point averted by a heads up play.

The unit had a lot of cycle time on the power play, but not many good open looks. A cross-ice one-timer opportunity from Logan Cooley to a wide open Guenther was denied by a good defensive play in the passing lane. Nick Schmaltz got the puck in the high slot for a one-timer, but it was deflected away by the Nashville defense. A goal-line play by Cooley to hit the back-door pass failed, and Nashville killed off their 13th consecutive power play in April.

Moments after the power play, the Mammoth had a similar problem that they had against Edmonton. A 3 on 2 was well defended by Nate Schmidt, and the Nashville pass was defended by Alexander Kerfoot. However, the pass was played back into the slot, where Steven Stamkos got possession, all alone in front of the net. Stamkos had O’Reilly alone in front of the other side of the net, behind Karel Vejmelka, but the pass was defended by a rushing John Marino, to catch O’Reilly off-guard. Stamkos got the puck back at the goal line close to the near boards, which was denied as the first official shot of the game.

Just past the 12 minute mark, Schmidt again stymied an eager Stamkos, swiping at, and ultimately getting the puck out of danger just ahead of the Nashville superstar. Utah went on the attack, and a skillful pass from Marino to Lawson Crouse saw a shot just miss wide, as Crouse couldn’t get the puck to settle down for an accurate shot. That rebound was contested by Keller, but unfortunately Keller’s stick caught the skates of defenseman Adam Wilsby. Wilsby went down, Utah went down a man.

The Nashville power play has been really strong lately, so this was a dangerous position to be in. The Predators move the puck well, and despite several clearing attempts, Utah was unable to get pressure relief from the pressing PP1 unit. A cross ice pass to Stamkos nearly saw him put Nashville on the board, but the shot wasn’t clean and Karel Vejmelka was able to get enough of it to deny Stamkos.

At the 9 minute mark, the Predators had a golden opportunity when Fedor Svechkov got a puck that was played from behind the Utah net. Svechkov was just inside the high slot, and his shot forced a wide kick save by Vejmelka to keep the game scoreless.

A Carcone wrister made its way to the Nashville net, and a Kerfoot tip caused the puck to just drop to the ice, laying in the paint for a tantalizing second or so. Saros was able to recover before any Mammoth player could play the puck, though. On the other side, a Weegar turnover led to shot that Vejmelka stopped, but couldn’t find. It was loose in the crease, but Crouse helped defend a rebound attempt from Zack L’Heureux, while Vejmelka was able to get the puck directed out wide.

Immediately following the ensuing faceoff, Utah had a great rush opportunity stopped when Stamkos bullied Cooley off the puck at his blue line. The Predators started to pinch, but Cooley recovered, and passed over to Dylan Guenther. Guenther and Kailer Yamamoto had a 2 on 1 break the other way. Guenther feathered a pass over to Yamamoto deep in the zone for a redirect. Initially it looked like Saros got over to get it, but Yamamoto’s stick was so close to the net that Saros dropped in almost on the stick blade, as the puck was already on its way to the back of the net. Finally, after a period that saw Utah up 5-0 in shots, survived a Nashville power play, and required some great Vejmelka saves, the ice was broken and the good guys were up. 1-0 Utah

With 3 minutes to play, Brandon Tanev had his second great chance of the day. Snake bitten this season, Tanev missed a tip on Saros earlier in the game, and this time his tip hit the post. Man, Tanev needs a break.

Utah kept the pressure up, and with just under 90 seconds to play, a pass from Kerfoot to JJ Peterka could have doubled Utah’s lead from a shot on a wide open nnet, but the pass didn’t connect.

The last minute of play didn’t see anything explosive on the scoresheet, but Logan Cooley laid a massive hit at the blue line, taking down a Predator and a linesman all in one go.

Utah outshooting the Predators 9 – 7 after the first 20.

SECOND PERIOD:
The second period started out with a lot of intensity from both sides, with Keller taking a long range shot in the first 15 seconds that Saros saved, and Eric Haula on the other side a minute later forcing a blocker save from Vejmelka.

The 4th line had a good pressure shift about 3 minutes into the period, with a sharp angle shot from Liam O’Brien forcing Saros to be honest at the post. Brandon Tanev missed his second opportunity for a chance at the side of the net with an errant pass he couldn’t collect.

Cooley took on 3 Predators on a rush, and almost pulled off an inside-out move to get free, but ultimately couldn’t make it through. On the other end, Vejmelka had great positioning to completely shut down a shot by Stamkos.

Carcone got Utah another gift about 5 minutes in. On a rush up the wing, in a similar play from his first period push, Carcone got upended driving from the lower dot towards the goal. In the first period he got slashed doing that. This time, Justin Barron upended him and drew a tripping penalty. To the time out box you go, Barron.

On the ensuing power play Mikhail Sergachev was able to get in the way of a Nashville clearing attempt, allowing Utah to keep the offensive pressure. Good puck movement kept the Predators moving, and ultimately Keller got the puck fairly deep. From just above the goal line on the far side, Keller found Nick Schmaltz, who smartly took a stride backwards. That gave Schmaltz some room to take a pass, and Skjei didn’t key in on the move. Keller to Schmaltz, like so many times before, and number 8 got Utah their second goal of the game from a back-door tap in right behind Saros’ pad. Hey, Nashville’s not perfect on their April penalty kill anymore! 2-0 Utah

Tyson Jost singlehandedly almost brought Nashville within 1, with a rush similar to Carcone’s in on Vejmelka. Veggie was forced to make two quick saves in succession, preserving the 2 goal lead.

Carcone, playmaking again, drove the net at the 12 and a half minute mark. Initially stripped of the puck, he stole it back right in the middle of the slot, all alone. He tried to pick a spot on Saros, but went just a little too far and missed wide.

This miss sparked a 6 minute run of Nashville trying their best to solve Vejmelka. L’Heureux was dead center of the slot, but Vejmelka kicked out the pad to make a giant stop. Ryan Ufko walked around a few Mammoth players to throw a backhander on net, in tight, to no avail. Skjei had a big blast from the blue line that caused a rebound, but the cross-seam back-door pass to Filip Forsberg was intercepted and cleared by Schmidt, almost certainly saving a goal.

Stamkos had a shot tipped by O’Reilly in close that Vejmelka saved. Wilsby came in with a big blast that forced a rebound, but Yamamoto collapsed in on O’Reilly with a stick lift, preventing the golden opportunity for Nashville to get on the board.

Utah survived the Predators onslaught, and regrouped with about 5 minutes left in the period. Keller nearly banked home a rebound from a Schmaltz tip in front that was loose that itself barely missed the mark. Schmaltz had a shot that missed, slightly deflected by Wilsby.

Nashville countered, as Jonathan Marchessault missed a shot wide, but O’Reilly had a wrap-around disrupted by Carcone, forcing him to move early as his shot hit the post. Carcone nearly scored on the other side, getting a pass from Marino at the near face-off dot, but going high on Saros.

Guenther took a clear by Schmidt in with Cooley late; it was nearly a 2 on 1, but Nick Perbix caught up with Cooley. The shot by Guenther was low off Saros’ pads with a probable intention to cause a rebound. Cooley’s skate caught the puck, but it just went about a foot wide.

L’Heureux had the shot of the game on Vejmelka to that point, taking a pass from Svechkov all alone in the slot. He pulled the puck backhand, attempting to get around Vejmelka’s right pad. The Wasatch Wall, however, got the leg out to deny the chance and keep his shutout preserved to that point. Amazing stop.

Marino got tackled at the blue line, springing the Predators on a break. He laid out a solid hit getting back up to the bench, bringing cheers down from the upper bowl. However, Wilsby had a 2 on 1 in front of Vejmelka with Crouse defending. Wilsby went far side, and Vejmelka was able to steer the puck out of danger.

The last two minutes saw little action, marred further by a delay of game penalty on Weegar. However, in the Delta Center, the replay was shown over a dozen times. Weegar pled his case, and great video work for Andre Tourigny led to a challenge on the call. After 12 days, the refs finally made the decision. No penalty.

Pivotal point of the game, too. Nashville scoring late – or worse, having a 2 man advantage late – could have changed the outlook of the game. Instead, the last minute was uneventful and the teams went to the locker room with Utah’s 2 goal lead preserved.

Nashville pushed hard, doubling up Utah on shots 12 – 6. Utah now trailing in shots, 19 – 15 after two.

THIRD PERIOD:
The Mammoth came out to start the third with a lot of energy. JJ Peterka had a solid shot that was saved, follow up 30 seconds later by a high shot by Carcone that almost caught Saros’ mask. Ian Cole laid the body out on Joakim Kemell to keep the puck in the zone momentarily, bringing more cheers.

A weird bounce from the boards hit the side of an empty Utah net, as Vejmelka was behind to play the puck, but that was really the only good news for Nashville for almost the first half of the period.

Meanwhile, continued pressure from the Mammoth kept the Predators on their heels. A streaking Keller, coming off the bench, was spotted by Sergachev. Charging full speed towards Saros, the Nashville defenders didn’t cover Lawson Crouse well from his spot on the near side dot. Crouse, had an entire yawning cage to shoot at, as Saros fully committed to Keller’s drive. Skjei, once again the victim, got down on his knee to block the shot. He actually deflected the puck a little bit, but not enough, as the puck hit just inside the far post. Beautiful pass, fantastic finish, and a much more comfortable 3 goal cushion. 3-0 Utah

Nashville’s push after the goal never materialized, and Utah continued to push play. Cooley had an end-to-end rush that ended up saved, but was still extremely impressive. The Captain, then, got an outlet pass and rushed up the near side boards with Guenther on the far side. Keller got a step on Jordan Oesterle because he was able to chip the puck off the boards to himself. That efffectively left Utah in on a 2 on 1. Ufko tried to defend the pass halfheartedly, and failing, allowing Guenther to rip a one-timer. Ufko tried to block that too, halfheartedly, failing a second time in 1.5 seconds. From a few rows in front of me, Guenther went high, knowing Saros had to dive across to make a play, and hit nothing but net. 4-0 Utah

The Mammoth had the game wrapped, with the only thing left to try and play for was a Vejmelka shutout. Unfortunately, that failed on a Nashville power play at the 11:30 mark to Sergachev. As the penalty wound down, Erik Haula was able to find a puck in the crease to bury. The puck squirted through Vejmelka’s pads, as he tried to make a play on L’Heureux’s shot that went wide. Sadly, no shutout for Veggie, but the 3 goal lead still seemed insurmountable for the Predators. 4-1 Utah

The last 9 minutes were basically some back and forth, with Utah effectively controlling play and not allowing high danger chances against. As time wound down, so did the fight from Nashville. The expected goalie pull never even happened, as Saros sat there at the 4 minute mark, 3 minute mark, and then just never moved. Nashville was resigned to their fate, while Utah just needed the fates to smile on them in Anaheim.

Utah outshot the Predators 12-11 in the final frame, but were out attempted for the game 30-27.

After the game, the fates smiled on Utah. Anaheim beat the Sharks, giving Utah their first ever playoff berth.

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3 GOALS (THE GOOD):

A full team win No jokes here, this was a full team win. The players on the scoreboard and stars on the ice were clear. Karel Vejmelka helped steal that game – the one goal let up was a goal that more than 80% of the time a goaltender doesn’t stop. Other than that? He made all the saves he needed to make, and more. He ended the night with a +2.13 goals saved above expected average, meaning that if Vejmelka played a game like an average goaltender (which I mentioned on the pregame writeup), Utah could have potentially lost this game. This was a game Vejmelka borderline stole for us.

On the other side? Logan Cooley was straight up impressive. The early steal to set up the Dylan Guenther and Kailer Yamamoto break? Fantastic defense and vision. His big hits tonight? Massive boost to team morale and shows some sandpaper to his style. Keller with 3 helpers, taking him to 57 on the year? He’s now just 3 shy of his career best assist record, and he’s suddenly just 7 points away from his career best 90 points.

Oh, and offensive milestones? Got those too!
Nick Schmaltz got his 31st goal and 72 total point of the year – padding his career highs in both categories – and 11th special teams goal. This matches his career high as well. 2 SHGs (already a career best, thanks to Edmonton) and now 9PPGs (a team high) matches the 10PPG/1SHG campaign he had the last year he was with Arizona/ Guenther? Sitting at 39 goals – an improvement of nearly 50% over last year, and a lot more primary assists this year versus last already? He’s been consistently the best offensive threat on the ice, either on the first line, Cooley’s winger, or the power play.

Defensively, Nate Schmidt and John Marino keep showing off their defensive skillset, though Marino keeps showing flashes of brilliant hockey IQ in his offensive plays too. He helps direct when he’s pinching, making sure he has forward support if he does. When he drives, he makes sneaky great passes. With MacKenzie Weegar allowing for better top line defense, the shut-down line of Schmidt and Marino are starting to get a little more relaxed and show some better overall creativity too.

Oh, and defensively, let’s make sure we call out that Keller (+24) is having his best ever season statistically there by +21 points. Schmaltz? +21 is his best by +18 points now. Now THAT’S an impressive turnaround.

And then there’s the unsung heroes. Michael Carcone tops my list. He didn’t score tonight. His offensive ratings weren’t great – 2 shots and 0 goals, below expected goals totals and a 0% shooting percentage. Those are stats nerds like me look at on paper. They’re what contracts are based on a lot of the time. Yet, he drew 2 critical power plays himself. The first against Skjei was him flat out beating him with speed and a move to the net. The second was a mirror image of the first, using his speed to try and get around Barron to get to the net. That power play scored, giving Utah a more comfortable 2-0 lead. Neither penalty happens without play that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. Let’s also call out his pressure on O’Reilly on a wrap around late in the 2nd period to keep Utah up by 2. A goal there changes the momentum of the game, and we’ll gladly never know how that could have gone wrong.

I can’t single anyone out last night that had a bad game. Even my current whipping boys in Liam O’Brien and Sean Durzi had solid enough games that I can’t call them out. That’s a good sign in my book – if I can’t scapegoat one of the guys I don’t like for bad play, we didn’t have any bad play.

4th Defensive Pairing OK I can pretty much call out everyone on the ice tonight. Some of these performances mirror the scoresheet – how can they not when, say Keller scores a hat trick, or Vejmelka has a tremendous game? Sometimes, I like to go off the board, because there’s a lot I see that may not be seen on the stat sheet.

Tonight, I’m going way off the board by going way up to the board. The Jumbotron operator got the crowd fired up last night. The MacKenzie Weegar penalty that wasn’t drew such a massive crowd reaction that it nearly forced Andre Tourigny’s hand in challenging that play.

Does Tourigny challenge that penalty if the play wasn’t replayed 20 times to get the fans riled up? Probably not. Challenging that call could put Utah down 2 men against a team with a strong power play. The juice may not have been worth the squeeze if the call was borderline. However, the crowd reaction was the tipping point. That reaction doesn’t happen if that replay isn’t played over and over, 30+ times, slow motion, zoomed in.

That turned a potential power play from a team with a really good scoring rate into no penalty at all, a crowd that was into it with even more energy than before, and mentally gave MacKenzie Weegar that little bit of extra confidence that coaching had his back, and much more that the fans had his back.

Nothing bad comes from good vibes from an energized fanbase. That was fueled from great video work from the team production team. That team never gets called out, and they deserve the kudos after yesterday.

Playoffs What can I say, folks? The biggest goal of the year was yesterday – make the playoffs. We achieved that, and we achieved that with time to spare. In 2024-2025 we were in the mix for much of the year, and a run by St. Louis late made us irrelevant. This year, there were runs going on behind us, but it really didn’t ultimately matter. We had our own destiny in our hands this year.

Tonight was the first taste of actual playoff atmosphere in the Delta Center. I was fortunate enough to move from my upper bowl seat downstairs, and I’ll tell you that the energy down there was beyond anything I felt last year. It was palpable upstairs before I’d moved, and you bet the team felt that.

If tonight’s game was any indication of what the playoffs will do for this team and the energy we’ll bring? I don’t know how this team doesn’t move heaven and earth to get as many home games as they can moving forward.

3 CHIRPS (THE BAD):

Delay of Game The coach challenge against the delay of game penalty took more time than the penalty itself would have lasted. I am glad the referees chatted to make sure that they got it right. I’m glad replay worked out in our favor. However, a replay shouldn’t take 8 minutes for something that they could have easily seen on the Jumbotron.

It’s 2026. Consumer electronics are fairly cheap. Can’t you get someone to connect an iPad to a 72 inch TV monitor behind the scorer’s table? I mean, they have 200 camera angles of, when the puck crosses the net, and if there’s a fraction of an inch of off-side. They couldn’t see that call? Is there a lack of high-definition playback or something?

It worked out for the best this time. But it leads to two points:
1) Why should a coach be forced to challenge a black and white call like that, when a ref can make a quick review? Having a referee call review for things like DoG if there are questions about it would certainly give them more power and less pressure to get it right immediately.

2) Why can’t a call be made far more quickly than that? Do we need to implement a 5th referee in-house just watching video to make these calls faster? Sure they “have Toronto” to help, but the line was busy – or they were too busy trying to figure out who to throw under the bus for this year’s failure.

Either way, glad it was right, mad it took half a period to fix, and hopefully these types of calls are handled quickly come playoff time. Did I mention we might have the ability to complain about these kinds of calls come playoff time?

Doh’nut Karel Vejmelka earned that win. Tonight, Vejmelka made fantastic stop after fantastic stop. Positioning was solid all around, rebound control was handled well, and the defense had him covered and helped kill high-danger chances against. It was the exact opposite of the Edmonton game just two days ago.

Wait, if all that is so good, why is it a chirp? Simply put – Vejmelka deserved a shutout. With such a complete game, with such good support around him, to lose a shutout with 9 minutes to go, after holding on for so long, so effectively, to lose it on a bad power play goal was just disheartening.

It doesn’t change the win, and it doesn’t take away from the clinch. Perhaps I’m being greedy for Vejmelka, but man I really wanted that for him tonight.

Couch Clinch The Mammoth took care of business tonight in convincing fashion. After the Keller interview, they showed the score of the Ducks – Sharks game. With such an important game, one that if the Ducks win and we’re in – it would have been an amazing experience to allow as many people as possible to stay in their seats and watch the last period.

Perhaps there were some weird blackout rules. Perhaps the DC is contractually obligated to end games and empty capacity at a specific time. Either way, having at least half of that rowdy crowd lose their mind every minute that Ducks victory inched forward would have been electric.

The DC and team missed on this one, a rare loss in a season that marketing and fan engagement has had so much go right.

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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!