“Close” only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and the NHL preseason.
Despite maintaining a lead for most of Thursday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Utah Mammoth couldn’t escape The Fortress with a win. As much as it probably stung to give up a two-goal lead, squander a late go-ahead goal and ultimately lose 5-4 in overtime, the lessons learned should stick with those largely inexperienced players.
The Mammoth brought a mostly AHL-level squad to Sin City, while the Golden Knights dressed 16 players who participated in their run to the Stanley Cup Final in the spring. The odds were always in the home team’s favor.
Goals from Zac Jones, Liam O’Brien and Artem Duda gave Utah a 3-1 lead by the midway point of the second period, but the Golden Knights rallied back to tie it up in the third.
Tomas Lavoie relieved the weight off his team’s shoulders, scoring with a minute and a half left in regulation, but Vegas tied it up again with 28 seconds left on the clock.
Jack Eichel tallied his third point of the game as he sent a hard wrister past Sebastian Cossa from the top of the face-off circle to win it for the Golden Knights.
Including the preseason and the playoffs, Eichel is now on a six-game point streak against the Mammoth with 12 points in that span.
“I like our compete level,” said Mammoth coach André Tourigny after the game. “A lot of good stuff for us for evaluation. It’s a great effort from the boys.”
Don’t forget about Dmitri and Duda
Daniil But has rightfully received a large portion of the media coverage so far this preseason as he’s thrived on the top line with Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. On Thursday, But’s friend, Dmitri Simashev, stole some of the spotlight.
Mammoth fans saw two things from Simashev that they hadn’t witnessed before: top-pairing responsibility and the type of meanness that should accompany a 6-foot-4 frame.
Despite it being his preseason debut, Simashev managed 21:44 of ice time — the most he’s ever seen in an NHL game and significantly more than the 12-ish minutes he saw in each of his last eight games of 2025-26.
In that time Thursday, he showed the confidence of a seasoned veteran. He seemed liberated from hesitation that shackled his decision-making last season, and it resulted in crisper, cleaner plays under pressure.
That said, Tourigny still wants to see significant growth.
“He needs to keep improving on his reads and his positioning and different stuff — the game (within) the game,” the coach said. “But all the will, the intensity, the desire and all of it, it’s really good.”
As far as the physicality goes, Simashev showed just how strong he is.
In response to a big hit on Brandon Tanev, Simashev grabbed Ivan Barbashev from behind and body-slammed him to the ice. Barbashev is no pushover, but Simashev sure pushed him over.
Another young Russian defenseman, Artem Duda, had a solid game as well.
He was the only Mammoth to play more minutes than Simashev (22:59) and he scored an important goal for the team. He also blocked five shots, more than everyone except Simashev (6).
Duda did get caught out of position a couple of times, resulting in two goals against. That’s something he’ll have to work on this season.
Those who watch the Tucson Roadrunners on a nightly basis tend to be extremely bullish on Duda, who was a second-round pick in 2022. With Maveric Lamoureux projected to miss time with an injury, Duda could be at the top of the call-up list throughout the season.
Flowers for Spicy Tuna
This Mammoth forward group is the most competitive it has ever been. Someone that deserves an NHL roster spot is going to get cut, and as much as the fans love Liam “Spicy Tuna” O’Brien, his name could certainly be in that conversation.
He isn’t keen on letting that happen, though.
Through two preseason games, he now has two goals. For context, he scored just three in his 38 regular-season contests last season.
Whether that’s enough to sway the decision in his favor remains to be seen, but props to him for making the decision even more difficult for the Mammoth’s hockey operations staff.
