Mammoth’s point streak continues with win over 2nd-place Stars

If you’d asked any knowledgeable hockey fan to predict the Utah Mammoth’s wins and losses during their current seven-game home stand, most of them would have circled the last two games as scheduled defeats.

But professional athletes don’t care about odds.

The Mammoth handled the red-hot Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 on Tuesday, and then sent the Dallas Stars, the NHL’s second-best team, home with a 2-1 loss on Thursday.

Head coach André Tourigny likened his team’s momentum to a snowball.

“One lap doesn’t make a big snowball. It’s when you play another good game and another good game,” he said. “The result doesn’t come right away, but at some point when you put a lot of good action, one behind the other one, lot of good games, at some point, you become more confident.”

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Quick catchup

Utah Mammoth: 2

Dallas Stars: 1

The first two periods Thursday were tight: Neither team gave up much offense, and both goalies were equal to every task that did come their way — until the dying seconds of the second period, at least.

With seven seconds left, Nick Schmaltz tipped a John Marino rush pass past Jake Oettinger to finally crack the scoring open in Utah’s favor.

It opened the gates for both teams, though. Two minutes into the third period, Mikko Rantanen chipped a puck over the outstretched pad of Karel Vejmelka on the power play to even the score.

Two minutes later, Marino and Schmaltz combined again, this time on one of the wackiest bounces you’ll see all year.

Marino’s long shot hit Oettinger in the shoulder, bounced so high the folks in the limited-view seats could probably see it, and somehow landed in the net.

The Mammoth spent the rest of the game defending the lead. The Stars are tied for the fourth-most goals in the NHL this season, so it’s no easy task to hold them down, but despite a three-minute stretch when the puck only left the Mammoth’s zone for repeated icings, they held on long enough to secure the win.

Even with its recent success, Utah is still fighting to hold onto the first wild card spot in the NHL’s Western Conference. One team in that race is the Seattle Kraken, whom the Mammoth host at the Delta Center on Saturday.

The grind doesn’t stop here.

Tidbits and takeaways

A game of goalies

Tourigny said it best: “It could have gone in the other direction. Two deflections and whoop, we’re down by one.”

Truthfully, the Stars did have a number of scoring chances that would have resulted in goals most of the time — but Vejmelka came up big time and time again.

“You can be confident as much as you want, (but) if they take five shots and score three, the confidence goes (out) the window pretty quick. ... He knows what to expect, he knows how the team plays, I think he’s got a level of comfort about what we’re giving up and where the threat is coming from, and I think he’s doing a really, really good job,” Tourigny said of Vejmelka.

Vejmelka and Oettinger were both selected to represent their respective countries at the upcoming Olympics. Czechia and the United States aren’t in the same group for the preliminary games, but it’s absolutely possible they could meet in the knockout stage.

In other words, fans could see that same goaltending matchup at the Olympics.

The first home shutout in franchise history evaded Vejmelka once again, but his .963 goals-against average, including some big saves, was enough to earn him the first star of Thursday’s game.

It was also the Mammoth’s second consecutive game holding their opponent off the score sheet the entire first two periods.

Calmness prevails, Utah learns

At many points last season — and a few times in the early part of this one — the Mammoth seemed to get overwhelmed when defending leads. Even if they were up by several goals, you couldn’t always count on them to get to the finish line unscathed.

Their effort in the dying minutes of this one wasn’t perfect, but they remained calm and it paid off.

“I think everyone didn’t panic too much, whether the guys were out there tired, everyone on the bench, no one was screaming, shouting,” Marino said. “Everyone was pretty comfortable in the situation. We learn from that and go forward.”

He specifically mentioned his team’s willingness to block shots, back-check and play “the right way.”

As a young, skilled team, Utah’s organizational goal so far has been to develop players into guys who can win in the playoffs. You get that experience by playing hard in close games against good teams — which is exactly what Thursday’s game was.

“Maybe earlier in the season, you blew some leads there. We weren’t as comfortable as we are under pressure, but hopefully (we’re) coming together as a team here,” Marino said.

Tourigny agreed.

“You will not win every battle. I wish, but that will never happen,” he said. “But the pace we have in the battle, there’s no time and space, we don’t give time and space, we contest, always, the possession, so opponents, at some point, they have to play through our pace and we’re happy about that.”

This was not a playoff game, but the style of play resembled that which is always present in the postseason. The more of these games Utah can play now, the more prepared it’ll be if and when it does make the playoffs, whether that’s this year or later.

Goal of the game

Schmaltz finally solves Oettinger

First off, the goal of the game would have been Dylan Guenther’s Michigan, if it had worked. He scored one in junior, but despite a number of attempts he hasn’t been able to negotiate one in the NHL quite yet.

Instead, the honor goes to Nick Schmaltz for a less flashy, but just as important tip-in. Things have been working out for Schmaltz this year, and this is yet another example of that.