Cooley breaks franchise single-game goals record, Mammoth avenge themselves against Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights’ 4-1 win over the Utah Mammoth last Thursday stung the home team. But they got the chance to make up for it on Monday, where they one-upped the Golden Knights by a score of 5-1.

Here’s the story.

Quick catchup

Utah Mammoth: 5

Vegas Golden Knights: 1

This one was all about Logan Cooley.

The 21-year-old phenom set up the first goal with a burst of speed followed by a pass to Dylan Guenther, who changed his angle mid-shot to beat rookie goaltender Carl Lindbom.

A minute and 17 seconds later, Guenther returned the favor, setting Cooley up for a back-door tap-in.

The Mammoth struggled through a tough second period, where they allowed a goal and got out-shot 16-4. But they didn’t let it get away from them.

1 of 29

2 of 29

3 of 29

4 of 29

5 of 29

6 of 29

7 of 29

8 of 29

9 of 29

10 of 29

11 of 29

12 of 29

13 of 29

14 of 29

15 of 29

16 of 29

17 of 29

18 of 29

19 of 29

20 of 29

21 of 29

22 of 29

23 of 29

24 of 29

25 of 29

26 of 29

27 of 29

28 of 29

29 of 29

Four minutes into the third, Cooley took advantage of a misplay by Jack Eichel at the blue line, sending himself on a breakaway. He inadvertently knocked the rebound in with his skate, which stands as a goal because he didn’t intentionally kick it.

He topped it off with not one, but two empty-net goals, becoming the first NHL player to score four goals in a game this season.

Takeaways

Cooley is back

Before this game, Cooley had just four points in the month of November. In this game alone, he had five.

It hasn’t been the easiest stretch of games for him, but all it took to get him going again was a bit of confidence.

“Any time you can score early or get chances early, your legs start to feel a little lighter,” Cooley said after the game. “Your body just feels better and that’s when you’re feeling good and allowing yourself to get chances offensively.”

He’s not going to score at this rate every night, but if Cooley can even out the highs and lows and consistently contribute offensively, he’ll be an ultra-successful player in this league for a long time.

“When he gets on the board early, it changes games as well,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny after the game. “It’s a little bit of a maturity and, like I often talk about, how competitive he is. When he gets the monkey off his shoulder, he’s a different player. He’s a difference maker.

“He just needs to be a little bit less tough on himself and allow himself to have a period once in a while where he doesn’t have a point. That’s just normal in (this) league.”

First passes from defensemen

Nate Schmidt tallied a pair of assists against the team with which he first rose to league-wide popularity. That’s the latest chapter of a trend that has spanned Utah’s entire season thus far: defensemen getting on the score sheet at an incredible rate.

Schmidt, Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino and Ian Cole already have a combined 38 assists this year, despite the fact that Sergachev is the only one who has ever achieved even a 40-point season in the NHL.

After morning skate on Monday, Cole — who also registered an assist in the game — offered an explanation for his position’s offensive contributions.

He explained that a main focus of the defensemen this season has been to get the puck to the forwards as quickly as possible, which allows speedy players like JJ Peterka and Cooley a better chance at beating the opposing defenders in foot races.

That was the case on all three goals where defensemen tallied points: They moved the puck up the ice as soon as they could, which allowed Cooley more space to work his magic.

You’ll often hear that defense is a team responsibility — it’s not up to just the defensemen. But aside from the goalies, everyone is also responsible to create offense.

Keeping the emotions out of it

There’s a difference between playing with a chip on your shoulder and playing frustrated. The Mammoth did the latter on Thursday and the former on Monday.

The scoreboard indicates the difference.

“In the second period, they were coming,” Tourigny said. “There were emotions, there was stress, you don’t want to lose the game, you don’t want to lose the lead, etcetera, etcetera. I think we did a pretty good job at staying composed. We did not do a perfect job ... There (are areas where) we can be better, but that’s why there’s 82 games.”

Tourigny also praised his team’s battles — an area where he thought they’d struggled in recent games.

Goal of the game

Dylan Guenther’s snipe

Ironically, the most dominant goal of the game was the only one Cooley didn’t score — but he was instrumental in setting it up.

Pay close attention to Guenther’s stick on this one. He could have shot it right away, but he took a half-second to curl, changing the angle completely. That’s a pure goal scorer’s goal.