BOSTON - Utah’s fifth game in eight nights ended with a heavy thud Thursday, as the Mammoth dropped a 6-1 decision to the Bruins and never found a way to wrestle the night back.
Jack McBain scored Utah’s only goal, with Dmitri Simashev and Barrett Hayton picking up the assists on the third-period tally. By then, Boston had already built a cushion it wasn’t about to give away.
David Pastrnak was the headliner for the Bruins, piling up four points and scoring twice on the power play. Morgan Geekie added a goal and two assists, Matthew Poitras finished with a goal and an assist, and Casey Mittelstadt also scored for Boston.
Special teams told the story in a hurry. Boston went 3-for-4 on the power play, with two of those goals coming in the second period just 3:17 apart. Utah, meanwhile, came up empty on seven power-play chances.
Head coach André Tourigny said Utah had some good early moments, but Boston made the most of its opening and the game tilted from there.
“Tough night,” Tourigny said following the game. “We had a good start.
We had good pucks deep and (a) few good scoring chances, but they capitalized early on their chance and from there, it was tough for us to come back. Their goalie (Jeremy Swayman) played well.
Obviously our special teams, (which) were really good since starting the season for us, tonight was not the case. They won the battle and I think that’s what tipped the scale.”
Captain Clayton Keller echoed that assessment, saying Utah never really got in sync.
“We just weren’t connected,” Captain Clayton Keller explained. “Just not a good game.
The (power play) as well. I don’t know what it was tonight, but we got to flush it (and) be confident.
We’ll learn from tonight. Not (going to) be smooth all year long.
We’re a confident group and we know how good we can be, so we’ll learn from tonight and be ready to go against Buffalo.”
Utah’s goaltending situation changed after Sebastian Cossa allowed three goals and was pulled. He finished with five saves on eight shots. Karel Vejmelka took over and played 43:49, stopping 11 of 14 shots.
For Cossa, Thursday marked his second career NHL start and third NHL game, and Tourigny framed the outing as part of the learning curve.
“It will be a great learning experience for him,” Tourigny said about Cossa. “What’s important is he cannot beat himself up.
There’s a tip, there’s a screen, there’s stuff happened. It’s not Cossa or anybody in particular (with) our team.
I think it’s a team effort, coach, player, everybody, we need to look at what we can do better.”
The Mammoth now have a little more than a day to reset before facing the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, the final stop on this road trip. Tourigny said the loss should be allowed to linger for a bit before the team turns the page.
“The first thing I think is to let it sting a little bit,” Tourigny said. “I think we need to sit on it and let us think before reloading anything. Need to think about what we can take from that game, and coaches will look at the tape and make a better assessment tomorrow than we can do with emotion tonight.”
Keller said the message is simple: learn from it, then move on fast.
“We’ll watch some clips from things that we can learn from,” Keller explained. “You (have to) have a short memory in this league.
You can’t get too high. There’s so many good teams and there’s no easy night ever.
(We have to) be ready for Buffalo, for sure.”
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Utah Faces An Early Test After A Loss Fans Wont Ignore
Utah heads into its next game with a reminder that shot totals do not always tell the whole story. The Mammoth were active enough to outshoot their opponent, but the result still turned into a lopsided loss that exposed problems at both ends of the ice, especially when the defensive structure broke down and the goaltending couldnt steady things.
Now the focus shifts quickly to Buffalo, where Utah will try to clean up the details before the setback becomes a trend. The Sabres offer an early chance to reset, but the Mammoth know the fix has to start with sharper coverage and a calmer night in net if they want to get back on track. [Read more 🡒]