Eventually they had to lose in New York, but why did it have to the the Rangers?

The Utah Mammoth had a quick back-to-back, traveling to the world famous Madison Square Garden, after silencing the Columbus Blue Jackets. The game, an hour earlier start than usual, plus travel time wasn’t ideal for the Mammoth; couple that with the emotionally charged reunion between Vincent Trocheck and his former home of 4 years, as well as Sean Durzi and his revenge game and this game had everything indicating it was going to be rough.

Could Utah counteract all these outside influences stacked against them?

FIRST PERIOD:
The Mammoth and Rangers started out with low event hockey to start the game. Overall, the first three minutes of the game were a back and forth affair filled with cleared pucks, zone entry denials, and just a slog of play. No fatigue seemed to affect the Mammoth early, as they finally started to generate a little offensive pressure about 4 minutes in. Andrew Peeke drove the net from a great cross-ice feed, but Trocheck took a big cross-check in the crease to draw the game’s first power play.

Utah’s PP units have been white hot lately, so this was a good opportunity to draw first blood. Unfortunately, however, the puck was immediately cleared in the first 10 seconds of the PP, and Utah struggled to get zone time. Dylan Guenther had a rip about 45 seconds in, but the shot missed. As a result, the Rangers counterattacked – a running theme for the night – as Joseph Veleno got in a shot that was turned aside by Karel Vejmelka. The remainder of the power play had no noteworthy events, save for a big hit from the swapped players, with Durzi laying a bit hit on Trocheck in the neutral zone as time wound down.

The penalty expired as Daniil But misplayed the puck at the blue line. Marcus Pettersson, called for the interference call (not a cross check I guess) collected the puck from a discombobulated But, and led a 3 on 0 back on Vejmelka. Pettersson chipped the puck up to Eeli Tolvanen, but somehow Vejmelka held proper positioning and Tolvanen found himself unable to beat the Wasatch Wall.

Side note: A 3 on 0 attempt like this was marked as a less than 0.25xGA attempt, while a shot that was a fairly routine save against Sebastian Cossa’s shoulder was nearly a full point. xGA has been absolutely wretched of a stat this year.

An energized Rangers squad kept pressure on despite the miracle save, and Alberts Smits had a solid chance against Vejmelka, which was swallowed up to stop momentum.

The Mammoth spent the next few shifts deep in the Rangers end, with solid zone entries leading to sustained zone time. However, the Rangers forced everything to the boards. Utah would battle, more successfully than not, but continue to be forced to the fringes of the zone. The Rangers, when they did get possession, had rush chances the other way. None of the rush chances developed this time, and Utah had one rush chance when But went wide on a 2 on 2 zone entry, but that was to change soon.

The Rangers had extended zone time pressure about the 12 minute mark. The Mammoth had a hard time getting the puck cleared, leading to several shot attempts and blocks. Team Tusk survived the push as the teams went back to the perimeter and neutral zone clogging play through the halfway mark.

The Mammoth would face their first penalty kill when Mackenzie Weegar tripped Alexis Lafreniere during another rush attempt. On the kill, the Mammoth did a solid job to prevent much play development; when the plays did develop, big Mammoth bodies jammed shooting lanes and deflected pucks away. Then, a shorthanded chance by Nick Schmaltz ended without any attempts, as the 2 on 1 break was defended by Rangers defenseman Adam Fox who broke up the obvious pass going to Logan Cooley.

The PK did their job, holding the Rangers shotless, and play continued along their pace so far. There was a slight opening up, as a turnover in the neutral zone ended up on Cooley’s stick, who fed too Guenther for a one-timer, but he missed. Instead, the Rangers got a breakaway the other way; Simashev had joined the rush with Guenther and Cooley for the 3-on-2 chance, and Peeke was unable to account for the play the other way quick enough. Lafreniere, alone against Vejmelka, was denied as Guenther backchecked hard to potentially disrupt the shot.

Again the back and forth with little pressure, until the 5 minute mark. Lawson Crouse made a solid play to steal the puck deep in the Rangers zone, and his cross-ice pass to Andrew Peeke led to a grade A scoring chance, which was windmilled down by Igor Shesterkin. The draw was lost, but Utah had another great chance when Trocheck got the puck in deep to Keller, who missed wide.

An icing led to a defensive zone draw with 3 minutes to go, and the Rangers capitalized. A terrible clear attempt by Anders Lee was picked up by Vladislav Gavrikov after a tip. Gavrikov wired a shot that Vejmelka seemed not to pick up, and just like that, the Mammoth faced their first deficit of the year. 1-0 Rangers

A scrum on the center ice drop occurred when Barrett Hayton dumped Noah
Laba as Laba was cheating the system. Will Cuylle took exception, and Cuylle and Hayton both had a 2 minute timeout. Shortly after, Schmaltz got called for one of the softest cross-checking penalties I’ve seen, giving the Rangers a power play with less than 2 minutes to go.

Weegar blocked several shots, as the Rangers ramped up pressure, but ultimately the Mammoth kept any pucks from officially being on net, and the period closed with a few seconds left on the PK, and a 1 goal deficit.

Utah led the Rangers in shots 6 to 5, the first period this year the Mammoth had fewer shots than their opponent for more than half the period. Somehow, they still ended up with more.

SECOND PERIOD:
The second period saw a few seconds of PK time get killed off, then the teams returned to the quagmire that had controlled much of the first period. The Mammoth got some good zone time about 3 minutes in, with Cooley controlling play, and a few missed shots between Peeke and Guenther, but ultimately nothing of high value transpired.

At the 16 minute mark, Sean Durzi got a slick pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand but missed the net wide. Weegar was whistled for interference back behind the play, which seemed to be somewhat mutual, but it’s the Rangers in NY so they ended up with the power play. Imagine getting the Original Six benefit of any call…

Lafreniere had a shot miss and one saved, Pavel Dorofeyev rang iron and was saved a little later on, as the Mammoth bent but did not break in giving up some decent looks to the New York power play.

The Mammoth almost had a fluky goal, when the puck bounced on or was tipped by Lee and almost over Shesterkin’s shoulder, but ultimately the puck bounced back out after it hit the crossbar.

Just before the 12 minute mark, Mikhail Sergachev barely broke up a 3 on 1 rush chance with a good defensive play, as the Rangers continued their counterattack odd-man rush opportunities. The Mammoth did get one opportunity with Schmaltz in close, but the shot was kicked aside and out of danger.

About 40 seconds later, after some zone pressure, a point shot came out to Crouse, who tried to beat Shesterkin in close. The shot was blocked, but it sprung a 4 on 2 counterattack the other way, and Laba missed his shot on Vejmelka; about 2 minutes past that, the Rangers had some zone pressure, but a point shot by Dorofeyev was swallowed up easily.

Utah kept trying to force play, but the Rangers would just dump the puck down the ice, forcing Utah to reset. The Mammoth were getting chances, but no pressure was sustained as no follow up chances were really available. The Rangers ended up icing the puck like 5 times while just playing a zone denial game.

With 6 to play, Cuylle boarded Dylan Guenther with an absolutely cheap hit. Guenther went face first into the boards, and Weegar and Sergachev went after Cuylle. Sergachev got 2, Cuylle got 4… instead of a major somehow… and the Mammoth would get their second power play of the game.

The ensuing power play struck paydirt, again, though on a fairly chaotic sequence. Cooley had a breakaway, which was stopped by Shesterkin. The puck ended up in the corner, and a giveaway by the Rangers up front to Keller all alone let the captain take a shot, but it was denied. However, NHL scoring leader Nick Schmaltz buried the rebound in behind Shesterkin, knotting the game at 1. 1-1 Tied

The Rangers went up 2-1 on a bouncing puck that went past Vejmelka… wait they didn’t? Somehow, John Marino got the puck off the goal line and was able to clear it out with no damage done. Fantastic defensive awareness there.

Carcone drove play late, as he seemed to fool the Rangers squad, but Shesterkin was able to keep the game tied. On the other end, Vejmelka was able to dive on a loose puck that was deflected, keeping the Mammoth from falling behind.

The Rangers continued to play calm, defensive hockey and turned away the Mammoth chances before they developed. Meanwhile, the Rangers got another breakaway attempt when Lafreniere got behind the defense, but Vejmelka was able to withstand that try as well.

Nothing eventful in the last 80 seconds, and the teams would skate to the tunnel still tied at 1.

Utah up 9 – 8 on shots for the period, and up 15 – 13 through two periods of play.

THIRD PERIOD:
The Mammoth had a little opening pressure to start the period, but the fireworks happened a minute in. Jack McBain decided that if the NHL wasn’t gonna make Cuylle sit for 5 minutes, he was. He laid a solid beating in, sending a message and standing up for Guenther in the process.

The Rangers, again, had an odd-man rush against the Mammoth resulting in a goal. Just under 17 minutes to go, Keller, Schmaltz, and Trocheck were up high when the Rangers chipped the puck by. Nate Schmidt was unable to get to the carom, and Mika Zibanejad got the puck behind him. Zibanejad and Lafreniere’s 2 on one was foiled by a great save by Vejmelka – only for Gabe Perreault to get the rebound and the wide open cage. Schmidt was unable to cover Perrault, Keller and Trocheck were out of the play, and the Rangers take the lead back on another broken and sloppy play by the Mammoth. 2-1 Rangers

The game went right back to the slow and clog style for the Rangers, as they gave up some zone time to the Mammoth but continued to force play out to the perimeter and refused to allow anything but low quality shots or passes.

The Rangers got, surprisingly, another 3 on 1 rush against Vejmelka when a Simashev dump in was knocked out of the air in the defensive zone. Cuylle led the Rangers, but opted to shoot himself, with a Vejmelka kick save keeping Utah within one. Two minutes later, want to guess what the Rangers did? Took another 2 on 1 back in against the Mammoth, broken up by Simashev before a shot got off.

Carcone got the best chance of the period for the Mammoth at about the 10 minute mark off a rush chance, though Shesterkin was able to reject the puck and blocker it out to the far boards. And on the counter attack… a 2 on 1 for Cuylle for the 3rd odd-man rush against in less than 3 minutes.

Clog and attack lasted, but a sustained zone pressure and overaggression by Peeke sunk the Mammoth. Peeke ran into Vejmelka on a backcheck, the Mammoth were hemmed in, and Gavrikov had a shot from the point that J.T. Miller buried behind Vejmelka. What else can I say? 3-1 Rangers.

Anders Lee and Andrew Peeke redeemed themselves from the earlier goal against flubs by playing beastmode in the corner and converting a fantastic shot from the slot. Great execution in an otherwise sloppy game. 3-2 Rangers.

The Rangers added an empty netter, for the final score. Surprise, our 6 on 5 hasn’t changed. 4-2 Rangers.

Game.

Utah takes the shot clock again with 15 shots in the period, compared to 9 for the Rangers. Again Utah outshoots their opponent, 30 – 22 for the game, but it didn’t matter much.

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3 GOALS (THE GOOD):

Veggie in the Garden

Karel Vejmelka stats tonight are terrible. His save percentage? Awful, His xGA? Abysmal. I have no reason why. He stopped, by my count, 8 shots on odd-man rushes. The total xGA for those rushes was about 2 goals worth. That’s… not right.

Regardless, Veggie held this team in the game for far longer than they deserved. This was the ultimate team sport loss – his herculean effort was wasted, and it’s a damn shame. However, if Veggie can play like this, he can definitely steal games we have no reasonable chance of winning otherwise. That’s great news.
Magic Squares

4 sides to a Madison Square Garden is the exact number of players the Mammoth need to face against in order to score. Going 1 for 2 (though, let’s be honest, they deserved 2 other calls, and the Cuylle call was… something), the power play unit remained far above expectations so far. The Mammoth generate in the bottom 8 in terms of power plays, despite their speed and aggression, mind you. With that said, the Mammoth have the most total number of PPGs in the league with 6.

More Square?

4 isn’t just good to play against, but the Mammoth are also playing significant when only having 4 on the ice. The Mammoth shut down the Rangers power play 4 times. Utah has been on the PK 9 times, and has given up a total of 0 goals.

The PK was solid for parts of the year last year, far better than the PP was. However, wit both clicking, the combined power play and PK score is an unfathomable 166.7%.

10 out of 10, no notes according to my daughter.

3 CHIRPS (THE BAD):

Discipline

The boarding hit on Dylan Guenther was disgusting. Boarding is a play that may not be “intent to injure” but sure as hell does injure people and derail careers. I’m tired of watching boarding plays like what Cuylle did, only to hold my breath that the Department of Player Safety (DOPS) is going to give a $5000 maximum fine.

Hits like that deserve either an automatic major or minor with a game misconduct. Boarding is something that we need to seriously revamp if player safety is an issue, and this is true if it’s for us or against us. The NHL needs to figure that out.

Triangles

Unlike a square, a triangle has uneven sides. Uneven like, say, the number of odd-man rushes the team gave up. By my count, the Mammoth gave up one 3 on 0 rush, one 4 on 2 rush, two 3 on 1 rushes, and five 2 on 1 rushes. That doesn’t include the total rushes that were barely broken up in the neutral zone.

The Mammoth did not adjust their gameplay as the game wore on. The Rangers were playing a neutral zone game. They wanted the puck out of their zone, and iced it a massive number of times in the process. Their goal was to keep play defensively focused – which suits their current roster structure and game. It also is designed to counterattack if, and only if, opportunity arises.

Utah let opportunity arise at least 9 times. Decision making was bad, slow, and something they need to forget happened. I hope I can.

Just Bad
I am not gonna be clever, it’s late. The game tonight was simply bad. A combination of a late game yesterday and earlier start today, travel time, and the emotional reunions of several players all played a part in this game. Coaching wasn’t ideal either, aside from special teams.

Utah’s speed burned them, because they pinched too hard and never adjusted. Utah’s decisions were poor, and they got torched for them. The Mammoth tried to force play past the defensive shell the Rangers played, and it kept costing them time and time again. And yet, they persisted.

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Next up:

A much needed night of rest in the Big Apple, with a game on Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils. Utah looks to reverse their streak in the Garden State, and with their first loss in New York, what better way than to get their first win in Jersey?

Tuesday, 5PM start, on Utah16 and SEG+

Tusks Up!