Utah Mammoth head coach André Tourigny has successfully predicted the outcomes of his team’s last two games. Unfortunately for him and the Mammoth, Utah came out on the losing side both times.
Tourigny’s prediction was that these games would be close. His indicator of closeness is whether one team felt the need to pull the goalie, meaning they think they have a shot at getting back in it.
Both on Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens and Friday against the Dallas Stars, Tourigny’s team found itself facing a 4-3 deficit in the dying minutes — and they pulled the goalie both times, as anyone would in that situation.
“It’s always a one-goal game,” Tourigny said in his postgame interview. “We need to stack detail over detail to find a way to win with consistency. Right now, we’re always one detail short, and (this) league doesn’t give you that liberty.”
While they have played close games most of the season, the Mammoth have yet to figure out the last-few-minutes comeback. In their 107 games as a franchise, they have never scored a 6-on-5 goal.
It’s not that they don’t have opportunities, either. Friday’s game was the 49th in franchise history in which Utah has pulled the goalie (though a handful of those have only been for delayed penalties).
They were the only team without a 6-on-5 goal last season and they’re one of eight teams without one so far this year.
As Tourigny says, most of their games are incredibly close. No team is going to score every time it pulls its goalie, but chipping in a handful of them over the course of a season can be the difference between a playoff spot and an early summer.
Penalty kill getting smoked like a Thanksgiving turkey
Until Wednesday, the Mammoth’s penalty kill was the best in the NHL in the month of November, operating at 96.6% — and it had been perfect in every 5-on-4 situation.
Something changed in Wednesday’s game against the Canadiens, wherein the penalty kill allowed three goals (though one was called back after a coach’s challenge determined that it was just barely offside).
That trend continued on Friday, as the Stars’ power play put two past the Mammoth — including the eventual game-winner.
The 5-on-3 goal is excusable, especially with two of your top penalty killers in the box. But for the third time in the last two games, they allowed a goal at 5-on-4.
“We got in trouble,” Tourigny said. “Dallas has a really good power play and they took advantage of it.”
It’s not something for the Mammoth to get down about, but it is something they urgently need to fix.
Kevin — not Wayne — Rooney
There’s one player in Utah Mammoth history who has scored in every game he’s played with the team — and his name is Kevin Rooney.
OK, he has only played one game for the team so maybe it’s not as impressive as it sounds, but props to him for being ready when called upon.
His goal came 12:17 into the first period Friday, when he accepted a pass in the high slot from John Marino and fired it past Jake Oettinger, extending his new team’s lead to 2-0.
Rooney, a 32-year-old veteran of 331 NHL games, didn’t find an NHL home until the last minute this summer. He attended New Jersey Devils training camp on a professional tryout contract, only to be released with no contract offer.
He signed with the Mammoth three days before their first game, and while he has been on the active roster for much of that time, he’d spent it all watching from the press box.
On Friday, Barrett Hayton missed the game due to illness, so Rooney jumped in.
The team has kept Rooney fresh by occasionally sending him to the minors, where he’s scored five goals and six points in eight games with the Tucson Roadrunners — but the goal is always to be in the NHL.
He played 70 games for the Calgary Flames last year, and he might be able to push his way into more games with the Mammoth now that he’s shown what he can do.
Goal of the game
Check out this masterclass from Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley. Cooley could have held onto that puck for another three seconds and Oettinger still wouldn’t have had time to stop it.
That’s Cooley’s 14th goal of the season, which ties him for eighth in the league in that category.
Love for the Keller family
Tourigny announced before the game that Bryan Keller, father of Mammoth captain Clayton Keller, had unexpectedly passed away.
The Mammoth play in Keller’s hometown of St. Louis on Saturday, which probably made his decision to play Friday a bit easier, knowing that he’d be with his family soon either way.
“It’s been an emotional 24 hours,” said associate captain Lawson Crouse. “Kells is our leader in our locker room, but also away from the rink. Thoughts and prayers go out to his mom, his brother and Kells.
“He’s done an incredible job leading us and guiding us. ... It’s really our turn to support him.”
The Dallas Stars showed their support for Keller by naming him the first star of the game.
“He loves his teammates so much and his teammates love him so much,” Tourigny said. “He drives our passion and our competitiveness every night. ... We cannot have a better example as a captain.”
