The Detroit Red Wings headed into the Olympic break on a sour note, falling 4-1 to the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday night at Delta Center. It was a game that got away from them early-and one they never quite managed to reel back in.
The trouble started almost immediately. Just 57 seconds into the first period, Utah’s Sean Durzi found twine with a sharp-angle shot from the right face-off circle that slipped through John Gibson’s pads.
Not the kind of tone-setter Detroit was looking for. Things got worse minutes later when the Wings found themselves down two men.
Utah capitalized quickly-just 21 seconds into the 5-on-3-when Nick Schmaltz buried a feed from Barrett Hayton in tight to make it 2-0.
“We had a disappointing start,” said head coach Todd McLellan. “You don’t want to give one up right off the bat, and then the 5-on-3 puts us in a hole.
I thought we had chances to climb out of it, but their goalie was sharp. That might’ve been the difference.”
McLellan’s not wrong-Utah netminder Karel Vejmelka was dialed in all night, turning aside 29 shots and frustrating a Detroit offense that, while not dominant, generated enough looks to make things interesting. On the other end, Gibson made 21 saves for the Red Wings, who now sit at 33-19-6 with 72 points heading into the break.
Captain Dylan Larkin scored Detroit’s lone goal, a power-play tally that momentarily gave the Wings some life. But the finishing touch just wasn’t there-something Larkin acknowledged postgame.
“Their goalie played really well and seems to have our number,” Larkin said. “We had chances on the power play, we had looks, but we couldn’t finish. That’s what it came down to.”
Lucas Raymond echoed the frustration, pointing to the early deficit as a momentum killer.
“First one was kind of a bad bounce,” he said. “Then the 5-on-3… not the way you want to start. From there, we’re chasing.”
And chase they did. Detroit pushed back, especially in the second period, but couldn’t break through.
Vejmelka stood tall, swallowing up rebounds and tracking the puck through traffic with confidence. Utah, meanwhile, added two more goals to put the game out of reach.
For the Red Wings, this one will sting a bit-not just because of the scoreline, but because it closes out the pre-Olympic stretch on a down note. Still, there’s a silver lining. Despite the loss, Detroit remains in a strong position in the standings, and the Olympic break offers a chance to regroup, reset, and come back ready for the playoff push.
The effort was there. The execution, not quite.
But if this team has shown anything this season, it’s resilience. And they’ll need plenty of it when the puck drops again after the break.