How the Vegas Golden Knights rallied back from an early series deficit to eliminate the Utah Mammoth

The clock has struck midnight for the Mammoth.

Utah’s second NHL season came to a bitter end Friday night at the Delta Center, as it suffered elimination at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup playoffs’ opening round.

In conquering the Mammoth, Vegas will keep on dancing for a second round date with the Anaheim Ducks, now having reached the Western Conference semifinals in three of the past four years.

“The thing I loved about the team is they just kept their head down through the momentum swings against a really good hockey team we were playing against,” Vegas head coach John Tortorella said postgame.

“(Utah is) a very well-coached hockey team, but we just found our way.”

Photo Gallery: 1 of 22

1 of 22

Photo Gallery: 2 of 22

2 of 22

Photo Gallery: 3 of 22

3 of 22

Photo Gallery: 4 of 22

4 of 22

Photo Gallery: 5 of 22

5 of 22

Photo Gallery: 6 of 22

6 of 22

Photo Gallery: 7 of 22

7 of 22

Photo Gallery: 8 of 22

8 of 22

Photo Gallery: 9 of 22

9 of 22

Photo Gallery: 10 of 22

10 of 22

Photo Gallery: 11 of 22

11 of 22

Photo Gallery: 12 of 22

12 of 22

Photo Gallery: 13 of 22

13 of 22

Photo Gallery: 14 of 22

14 of 22

Photo Gallery: 15 of 22

15 of 22

Photo Gallery: 16 of 22

16 of 22

Photo Gallery: 17 of 22

17 of 22

Photo Gallery: 18 of 22

18 of 22

Photo Gallery: 19 of 22

19 of 22

Photo Gallery: 20 of 22

20 of 22

Photo Gallery: 21 of 22

21 of 22

Photo Gallery: 22 of 22

22 of 22

It was far from a comfortable operation for the Golden Knights, who came dangerously close to letting Utah take firm control of the series on two different occasions this week.

The Mammoth held third period leads in both Monday’s Game 4 and Wednesday’s Game 5. Winning the former would have given them a 3-1 series advantage, while a victory in the latter would have set up a clinching scenario at home in Game 6.

But Utah never secured that third win.

Vegas rallied for an overtime upset in Game 4, then knotted the score in Game 5’s final minute of regulation before netting the killshot in the second bonus period.

“We’ve been here before. We don’t have the panic that maybe some other teams do,” Golden Knights right wing Mark Stone said.


“We calm ourselves pretty quickly. You look at Games 4 and 5, they got away from us a little bit, but we were able to calm ourselves down, tie the game and win in overtime.”

Perhaps flustered from the pair of tight heartbreakers, the Mammoth folded for a 5-1 loss in Friday’s do-or-die Game 6, allowing three Golden Knights goals in the third period alone.

But as much as the extended drama and intensity may have hindered Utah, Vegas fed off of it to further thrive.

“I think it helps having a mature group,” Vegas right wing Mitch Marner said. “This group has been through some adversity in past few years that doesn’t really slow them down or doesn’t back them off. We just try to go in there with the same confidence.

“We know that we’re a great late period team. We gave up a couple leads (during the series) that we’re not very happy with, but you just get right back to work whenever it happens and trust who’s going out there next, trust you’re going to set up the next line after you. I think that’s what we did a lot of times in this series when we got down, we just trusted in the next line up.”

The Golden Knights likely don’t get past Utah without their outstanding penalty-killing performance, as they held the Mammoth to just a single power play goal across 17 total attempts in the series.

Even more impressive was Vegas scoring two shorthanded goals during Utah power plays — the Golden Knights had better success with fewer men on the ice than the Mammoth did when they had an extra skater.

“Johnny Stevens, our coach who runs (power play defense), had a really good game plan for them,” Tortorella said. “We blocked some shorts, (goaltender) Carter (Hart) made some key saves all through this series. We gained momentum off of it and we stayed with it.”

While Vegas got the best of Utah this time around, Tortorella offered plenty of praise for the Mammoth and expressed high optimism for their future.

“It’s been a hard-fought series. I have tremendous respect for (head coach) André (Tourigny) and his staff. That’s a good hockey team,” Tortorella said of the Mammoth.

“... That’s a team that’s going to be reckoned with for quite a while, as far as some of the kids, skill and speed that they have. We’re fortunate moving on, but I think Andre and his staff have done a fantastic job with that team.”