As determined as ESPN’s play-by-play announcer seemed to be to get hit with the commentator’s curse on Thursday, Utah Mammoth goalie Karel Vejmelka stayed strong to blank the Vegas Golden Knights.
The curse, of course, revolves around the word “shutout” — just like “no-hitter” in baseball. Hockey fans cringed as the commentator said it over and over again throughout the third period, but Vejmelka proved to be more impactful than a superstition, posting his second shutout of the season for a 4-0 Mammoth win.
And don’t buy into the theory that luck was the only reason for Vejmelka’s big game. As Hall of Fame goalie Tom Barrasso once said, “Do you want me to stop the ones that are going wide, too?”
“I just trying to help the team get points as much as I can,” Vejmelka said after the game. “It (was) a big team game tonight.”
A number of Mammoth fans made the trip out to the desert for this game, unleashing the “Veggie” chants in Vejmelka’s honor when he came up big.
“It’s always nice,” Vejmelka said with a smile. “We had so many fans here tonight, so they gave us a special energy. We’re thankful.”
At the other end of the ice, Akira Schmid also played a perfect game. The difference was that he came into the contest in relief of Adin Hill, who allowed goals on all three of the shots he faced. Ironically, Hill was honored as the cover athlete of the giveaway posters at T-Mobile Arena for this game.
It was the Golden Knights’ third game in a row involving a shutout. They beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 on Saturday before losing 2-0 to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday and 4-0 to the Mammoth on Thursday.
Clayton Keller led the way offensively for Utah, scoring twice in the first 6:05 of the game. Jack McBain added another shortly thereafter, and Barrett Hayton fired one into the empty net to seal the deal in the final minute.
“I like that fact we played four lines all night,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny after the game. “We got a big two points on the road.”
A “Golden” nugget
I want to draw attention to a strategy the Golden Knights employed. In the nearly 200 NHL games I’ve watched this season and the thousands over the previous 20-something years, I don’t recall ever seeing this.
With a three-goal deficit, Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t want to risk pulling the goalie too early. At the same time, though, playing it too safe could be just as dangerous.
So, instead of replacing the goalie with an extra attacker, he started pulling defensemen in favor of forwards.
Mitch Marner, who has received Selke Trophy votes (the award given to the best two-way forward) in seven consecutive seasons, got the bulk of the extra ice time, as he can score with the best of ‘em while holding his own defensively.
It’s much less risky than pulling the goalie, because not every shot on net will turn automatically be a goal, but it’s risky enough that you don’t want to rely on this strategy unless you have to.
In this instance, it didn’t produce the result Cassidy wanted, but that doesn’t mean it’s an ineffective strategy. Pulling the goalie has a low success rate, too, but the one time it works makes up for the 10 times it doesn’t.
Playoff-style hockey
The playoffs are less than a month away. Barring a major fumble, the Mammoth’s first-round opponent will be one of the teams they face this week.
This is the second time this season the Mammoth have beaten the Golden Knights by four goals — Logan Cooley tallied four in a 5-1 outing at the Delta Center in November — but that may not have much impact on a playoff series if that’s who Utah ends up meeting.
Vegas has seen a lot of playoff hockey in its eight previous seasons — including two Stanley Cup Final appearances, one of which ended with a championship — and the more experienced playoff team typically has the upper hand in postseason meetings. Additionally, the two most recent showdowns between these clubs will surely impress upon the Golden Knights that they can’t take the Mammoth lightly.
Next up are the Anaheim Ducks, whom the Mammoth host on Friday. If the playoffs were to begin today, those teams would meet in the first round.
“Tomorrow is a huge game for us at home,” Tourigny said of the matchup. “Really good opponent, so we need to just keep the ball rolling.”
Like the Golden Knights, the Ducks haven’t had the easiest time getting around the Mammoth this season. In fact, Vejmelka’s other shutout this season was a 7-0 blowout in Southern California.
The Ducks as a whole don’t have the playoff experience of the Golden Knights, but their coach does. Joel Quenneville is third all-time in Stanley Cup Playoff wins, and after sitting out the last four seasons after being banned by the league, he’s surely hungry to prove that his team is more than sitting Ducks.
Next Tuesday, the Mammoth host the Edmonton Oilers for the first of two remaining Delta Center matchups between these teams. The Oilers lost in the Stanley Cup Final in each of the last two years, and the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl only get better in the postseason.
Mammoth fans can rest a little easier knowing that Draisaitl is out for the remainder of the regular season, but he has played plenty of playoff games with significant injuries, and it has never stopped him from dominating.
Needless to say, you don’t want to visit Edmonton in April — and not just because of the weather.
Vejmelka said the team needs to continue playing each game like it’s “Game 7.”
“We are already in the playoff mode and we just need to keep going the same way,” he said. “Play simple, play hard, be strong in front of the net and just (battle).”
