The Utah Mammoth had a third-period spark, but it wasn’t enough to dig out of an early hole against Edmonton.
Utah dropped a 6-2 decision to the Oilers on Saturday night in the back end of a home-and-home, with Connor McDavid driving the visitors’ attack. The Edmonton captain finished with two goals and three assists, opening the scoring just 40 seconds into the game and then sealing the night with his final tally midway through the third period.
The Oilers got goals from Zach Hyman on the power play, Mathieu Joseph, Kasperi Kapanen and Leon Draisaitl in addition to McDavid’s pair. For Utah, defensemen John Marino and Mikhail Sergachev found the net, while Kevin Stenlund and Daniil But each picked up an assist.
Utah never really matched Edmonton’s pace for long stretches, and the opening period set the tone. The Mammoth knew the challenge coming in after a hard-fought matchup 48 hours earlier, but head coach André Tourigny said his group didn’t bring the edge it needed.
“We knew it would be challenging,” Tourigny shared. “They will be ready on the other side.
I didn't like our compete at all in our battles. The kind of game it was in Edmonton, we knew it would be the same thing here tonight.
I didn't like the way we were in our one-on-one battles. The way we were with the dirty pucks.
Our physicality was not at the level…I talked about it with the team this morning; it would be a challenge for the second game in a row where we will have that level of physicality and compete. Kudos to Edmonton; they did it for two games in a row, and we didn’t.”
The Mammoth did show life in the third period. Playing with more pace and more bite, they scored twice in a span of 1:35 to trim the margin, but the comeback never fully took hold. Lawson Crouse said the group finally started to play the way it wants to play, but it came too late.
“Just playing faster, we talk all season long about playing fast, that's our identity,” Crouse said. “Obviously, not good enough in the first two periods.
We fell behind early, chased the game, and got away from what makes us successful as a group. We had a good conversation in between the second and third, and went out and tried to do whatever we could to claw back into that game.”
Dmitri Simashev pointed to the value of going through the same opponent in consecutive games, especially so early in the season.
“That's the first time we played the same team back-to-back,” Simashev said. “Next time we just need to be ready because every team, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, they will come in the next game and they want to beat you, especially at home. It's going to be a lesson for us, just the small details.”
Crouse said the response inside the room has been straightforward.
“To be honest, it's just about having open conversation, realizing there's no finger pointing,” Crouse explained. “Everyone can be better, and that's the best part about this group.
Everyone's hungry to get better, but like I said, it's just unfortunate. You can't fall asleep early in games here; it bites you in the butt and that's proof.
But like I said, that third period was a decision on our behalf, and we need that effort from the drill.”
Tourigny said the group will treat the result as another step in the learning process.
“That's absolutely the goal,” Tourigny said. “I think there's one thing our players show every time is a lot of pride and the level of care was to the roof, so it's not like that loss will fly easy in our room.
I know the guys will take a lot of pride in it. We will do like we do every day, win or lose.
We'll analyze it, talk about it, figure out what we need to be better at and sort it out…We're not looking for excuses. We're looking to assess the situation.
Make sure you find a solution, and you're better from it.”
Sebastian Cossa came on in relief with 6:12 left in the second period and stopped three of four shots over 26:12. Karel Vejmelka made 12 saves on 17 shots before being replaced, finishing with 33:48 of ice time.
There were some notable numbers beyond the final score. Utah’s defensemen have already scored eight goals in the first nine games, third-most in the NHL behind Edmonton and Buffalo, who each have nine. Jack McBain picked up his third fighting major of the season, which leads both the team and the league, after dropping the gloves with Trent Frederic in the first period.
Sergachev continued his strong run with seven points in his last six games, tying Nick Schmaltz for the team lead over that stretch. His 10 points through nine games are also the third-most on the Mammoth roster.
Utah finished with a 28-21 edge in shots and a 39-24 advantage in hits, but Edmonton made more of its chances. The Oilers went 1-for-1 on the power play, while Utah went 0-for-2. Edmonton also blocked 19 shots to Utah’s seven, and the Mammoth won 62.5% of the face-offs.
Utah’s next stretch includes Pittsburgh on Oct. 19, Seattle on Oct. 22 and Tampa Bay on Oct. 24.
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