If you blinked during the first period of the Utah Mammoth’s game against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, chances are you missed a goal or two.
In a span of less than 11 minutes, Logan Cooley had scored three times — and he assisted on an Ian Cole goal, too.
That wasn’t enough to win the Mammoth the game, but it put them on a trajectory that would help them earn their fifth consecutive victory.
Here’s the story.
Quick catchup
Utah Mammoth: 7
St. Louis Blues: 4
The four first-period goals were a whirlwind.
After the third one, the Blues pulled goaltender Joel Hofer in favor of Stanley Cup Champion and 4 Nations Face-Off winner Jordan Binnington, but he’d end up allowing one before the end of the period, too.
The Mammoth dwindled a bit in the second period. Aside from Tuesday’s game, that has been a theme for this team. Goals from Pius Suter and Pavel Buchnevich pulled the Blues within striking distance, but Clayton Keller struck in the final minute to restore Utah’s three-goal lead.
The third period started exactly the same as the second, with the Blues scoring two goals. At 5-4, the Mammoth were definitely conscious of the fact that no lead is safe.
They were relieved when a Nick Schmaltz power play bid found its way into the back of the net with half a period to go, and Keller scored on the empty net to seal the deal for the Mammoth.
Takeaways
Jim Montgomery’s comments
In his press conference on Wednesday, Blues head coach Jim Montgomery said he’d put his three best forwards (Buchnevich, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou) on a line in an attempt to combat Keller’s line, which he noted was “on fire.”
One Mammoth fan on X predicted that it would open up space for the Cooley, Guenther, Peterka line to work some magic. With 10 points between the three of them, that’s exactly what happened.
Ironically, Keller’s line, which has almost always had great success in Keller’s home town of St. Louis, still combined for seven points, including the game-winning goal.
A few Cool(ey) stats
Let’s have some fun here. Here are some interesting data points from tonight’s game.
As mentioned, Cooley had four points 10:55 into the game. Per the Mammoth’s PR department, he’s the 21st player in NHL history to score a hat trick in that span of time to open a game.
And, as Dominic Moore pointed out on the broadcast, Cooley did that with just six seconds of offensive-zone possession time. He was on pace for 16.5 goals and 22 points at one point in the game, though it was obviously not expected for him to achieve that.
This was the quickest Utah has ever scored four goals in a game, it was the first natural hat trick in franchise history and it was even Cooley’s first-ever multi-goal period in the NHL.
It was only the Mammoth’s eighth game of the season, but it was their second hat trick of the year, as Schmaltz had one against the San Jose Sharks last Friday.
It was also the first Utah hat trick that wasn’t against a California-based team. The Mammoth had just one hat trick last year: Barrett Hayton against the Los Angeles Kings.
Cooley is due for a new contract, and while all parties understand that a game like this is an outlier, the increase in his goals and points totals will absolutely factor into negotiations.
There were a few franchise records broken here, too:
- Longest winning streak (5 games).
- Most points for a player through eight games (Schmaltz, 13).
- Most consecutive multi-point games (Keller, 4).
Keller also scored his 200th goal in the NHL and his 100th point with Utah. That’s the third-fastest anyone has reached 100 points with a new franchise since the 1967 expansion, behind only Mike Rogers and some guy named Wayne Gretzky.
Guenther needs to shoot more on the power play
Before the season started, Dylan Guenther said he was going to try to score in a number of different ways. Most of his goals last season came off his signature one-timer.
While that is a good objective to have, it doesn’t mean he should stop doing the thing that has brought him so much success. In this game and the previous one, there were several golden opportunities to take one-timers on the power play, but he didn’t even consider shooting.
Passing on those every now and then will keep defenders honest, but he should still take the golden opportunities when they come his way.
A rule change proposition
One goal during this game rekindled a controversy that has surrounded the NHL for years.
A shot from Robert Thomas disconnected a strap from Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka’s mask, causing it to fall off during play. Seeing another shot coming and fearing for his well-being, Vejmelka put his arms up to protect his face (which was once featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine).
That shot, taken by Pavel Buchnevich, went in the net. The current NHL rules permit that goal to stand because there was an immediate scoring chance. The whistle only gets blown when there’s a lull in the play.
The rationale is that when facing a scoring chance, a goalie could intentionally take off his mask or glove to stop play. Even if he gets a penalty for it, it’s much better than a sure goal.
The obvious issue is the players’ safety. No goalie wants to risk his health — potentially even his life — to make one more save. There needs to be room for the officials to make judgement calls.
Here’s my proposition.
If the officials deem that a goalie intentionally took off a piece of equipment to negate a scoring chance, it should be an automatic goal.
That’s what happens when a goalie intentionally knocks the net off its moorings during an opposing breakaway, so it wouldn’t be the only rule of its kind.
This would allow accidents to be blown dead with no repercussions on the goalie, because players should never have to choose between being team players and their own safety.
Of course, there were several decades in which goalies simply didn’t wear masks. but that was before the invention of the curved stick. Players back then didn’t shoot nearly as hard as they do now, and they didn’t raise the puck off the ice as consistently as they do now.
And even back then, goalies required stitches on a regular basis to mend the damage from their saves.
Goal of the game
Logan Cooley’s pond hockey move
It takes confidence to pull of flashy moves in the NHL. Consider Cooley a confident guy.
Streaking down the middle of the offensive zone Thursday, he accepted a pass through his own legs to avoid veteran defenseman Cam Fowler (who has been playing in the NHL since Cooley was six years old). Once he got through, he made no mistake tucking it under Hofer’s pad.
“Cools is one of my favorites,” Keller said after the game. “Just the way he plays, his speed, skill, he can really do it all, and I believe in him so much.”