‘It hurts’: Mammoth eliminated from playoffs in 6 games

There’s an old adage — maybe even a cliché by now — that describes the Utah Mammoth’s sophomore season: “Either you win or you learn.”

The Mammoth lost 5-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday, closing out their first-round playoff series in six games — a 4-2 defeat.

“It hurts,” Mammoth head coach André Tourigny said after the game. “I didn’t have that on my bingo card. I was really confident we would go back to Vegas tomorrow.”

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Going into the season, the Mammoth’s goal was simply to make the playoffs. Teams usually fail a few times before they really become playoff threats, so this was a necessary step toward the team’s ultimate goal.

“Your failure makes you stronger,” Tourigny said. “You learn from it and it makes you better, but in order to make sure that happens, it has to hurt, and I don’t even want to feel good about it. I want that to hurt and I want to learn from it.”

Mammoth defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who went through this process early in his career with the Tampa Bay Lightning and now has two Stanley Cup rings to show for it, offered an explanation for his team’s loss after the game.

“(The Golden Knights) know how to win,” he said. “They won not a long time ago. They play well. Even though sometimes we were outplaying them, they were still in the game and they were never out of it because of their experience — and in the right moments, they put the game away.

Having been through this type of loss before, he offered words that should give Mammoth fans a world of hope.

“I believe in the future we’re going to be there — and it’s not going to be 4-2,” he said.

Tourigny and most of Utah’s players didn’t feel they could give adequate analyses of the series with the emotion of the moment, but they promised to break it down more at exit interviews in the next few days.

Among the things that stand out the most, though, are:

• Going 1 for 16 on the power play (which is precisely how the Mammoth began the regular season).
• Allowing two shorthanded goals.
• Struggling to hold leads, especially in the third period of games.
• Losing both overtime battles.

Despite their shortcomings, Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella, a veteran and a Stanley Cup champion, concluded his remarks with high praise for the Mammoth.

“That’s a good hockey team,” he said. “… That’s a team that’s going to be reckoned with for quite a while now, as far as some of the kids and skill and speed that they have.”

What’s next for the Utah Mammoth?

In a February interview with the Deseret News, Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong detailed the next phase of the team’s build.

“There’s a lot of patience that goes in, you know? Most clubs that become championship clubs have to go through some pain,” he said.

“I’m not saying we’re going to be immune to that pain. I mean, you’re asking me what comes next — probably pain. Growth and pain, growth and pain."

As of this moment, the team hasn’t spoken on a concrete goal for Year 3 in Utah, but don’t expect management to go all-in quite yet. As Armstrong has said more than once, their best team is “not here yet.”

What is certain is that the sights for next year will be set a little higher.

“One thing I know about this team is this is a resilient group and we always come back stronger,” Sergachev said. “And if we set our goals, we reach them. I have no doubt we’re going to come back and do some damage next year.”

Focus now turns toward the CHL playoffs, where top Mammoth prospects Cole Beaudoin and Caleb Desnoyers are both in the Conference Finals of the OHL and QMJHL, respectively.

If either or both teams win championships, they’ll face fellow top prospect Tij Iginla for the Memorial Cup, the top prize in junior hockey.

All three of those players, along with Desnoyers’ fellow Moncton Wildcats teammate Gabe Smith, are eligible to play in the AHL next season — and it’s likely that they’ll be high on the call-up list for the NHL squad next year.

Additionally, Utah’s current NHLers have plenty of time to attend the World Championship this year. That’s the international tournament to which Clayton Keller captained Team USA last spring, alongside Logan Cooley.

The only thing that can give players experience is, well, experience. Tournaments like the Memorial Cup and the World Championship have the potential to accelerate the development process for Utah’s young players.