The Utah Mammoth’s home opener is 63 days away. That’s still more than two months, but it’s significantly shorter than the 90 days it’s been since their last playoff game.
To tide Mammoth fans over to Oct. 1, relive the most exciting moments of the Mammoth’s 2025-26 season.
Cooley’s 4-goal game
The Mammoth hosted the Vegas Golden Knights twice in five days in October (which would end up being a precursor for the playoffs). Emotions ran high in the first one, with Logan Cooley right in the middle of it.
Vegas took the first game by a 4-1 score, but Cooley stepped up in the second game with four goals and five points to give Utah a 5-1 win.
7-0 win over Ducks in But’s NHL debut
Vyacheslav Buteyets ended his NHL career this summer, signing in his native Russia. He saw just one period of NHL action and was lit up for three goals on 13 shots.
Buteyets wasn’t the only Russian making his NHL debut that night. Daniil But suited up for the Mammoth, and although he didn’t find his way onto the score sheet, it was a game he’ll always remember.
The Mammoth took that one by a score of 7-0, with JJ Peterka leading the way in goals (two) and points (four).
The Ducks recovered quickly from their biggest loss of the season, immediately earning a three-game win streak — including a 7-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. They made it to the second round of the playoffs, where they got bounced the same way the Mammoth did: in six games at the hands of the Golden Knights.
Comeback win vs. Flyers — and Clayton Keller’s stick toss
Through their first 131 games as a franchise, the Mammoth couldn’t score a single 6-on-5 goal. When they pulled their goalie with a 4-3 deficit against the Philadelphia Flyers in January, nobody expected anything to be different.
It almost wasn’t.
Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway found himself with a partial breakaway on the empty Mammoth net, but Nick Schmaltz hustled back and lifted his stick before he could get the shot away. A few moments later, Clayton Keller scored the franchise’s first (and to this point, only) extra-attacker goal.
Keller would go on to score the overtime winner as well, ending the night with an iconic celebration: tossing his stick over the glass to a lucky fan. Cam York, who watched that celly from the Flyers’ bench, did the same thing after scoring an overtime winner in the playoffs.
Cooley shushes the crowd in Columbus
Another celly Mammoth fans won’t soon forget came at the hands — and lips — of Cooley.
Every game ever played between the Utah Mammoth/Utah Hockey Club and the Columbus Blue Jackets has gone to overtime. Playing in different conferences makes it difficult for a rivalry to form, but those matchups have always been intense.
Their meeting at Nationwide Arena in March was no different. The lead changed hands over and over again, eventually requiring extra innings.
Cooley plays the game with raw emotion, and that emotion spilled over after he scored the overtime winner, pressing his finger to his lips to shush the Blue Jackets crowd.
Guenther’s New Year’s Day hat trick
Somehow, Dylan Guenther had never scored an NHL hat trick until this season.
Perhaps he made it his New Year’s resolution, because he accomplished it for the first time on Jan. 1 in an away game against the New York Islanders — a 7-2 Mammoth win.
The third of those goals was his 20th of the year. That would mark a great season for most players, but it was only the halfway point for Guenther. He’d finish the year with 40.
First playoff game at the Delta Center
In Utah’s inaugural season, the first game was an explosion of pent-up excitement. Most of the locals never thought they’d see an NHL team call Salt Lake City home.
Season 2 had a similar explosion, but this time it wasn’t because the team simply existed. It was because the team was good.
Fans packed the Delta Center to capacity. Flashing blue lights combined with a turbine of 16,000 white towels waving ferociously gave off the chilly ambience of a mammoth’s cave.
When the Mammoth went up 4-0 in the first 30 minutes of the game, the home crowd knew it was getting the win it came to see.
What did we miss?
Plenty of big Mammoth moments didn’t make the list. Drop your favorites in the comments of the article or on social media.