3 Takeaways From the Mammoth’s 2-1 Win Over the Stars

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The homestretch that the Utah Mammoth have needed and dreamed of has continued to bear points. Everyone knew that Thursday’s game against the Dallas Stars was going to be the toughest matchup in the seven-game homestand. The Mammoth knew that too, especially after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

In a close game, the Mammoth continued playing a great 60 minutes of hockey like they did on Tuesday and took down the Stars 2-1 in one of their biggest wins of the season. Despite the Stars not playing well recently, upsetting one of the best teams in the NHL is no easy feat. Here are some takeaways from Thursday’s win.

John Marino’s Weird Goal Comes Up Clutch

For the first 39 minutes of the game, the Stars and the Mammoth shut each other down offensively. Despite the Mammoth having a solid first period, outshooting the Stars 10-5, they couldn’t get past Jake Oettinger, who even stoned Dylan Guenther on a lacrosse-style goal attempt.

Ditto for the Stars in the second period. Karel Vejmelka continued making big saves, including on the power play, where it looked like Mikko Rantanen had an easy goal to gift a teammate in front of the net. However, Vejmelka shut it down with a great save.

With seven seconds remaining in the second period, it was the Mammoth who broke the scoreless tie. John Marino sent the puck ahead to Nick Schmaltz, who tipped it in to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Mikko Rantanen scored early in the third period on the power play to tie the game up once again. It felt like a goal from him specifically was coming. The Mammoth could’ve easily crumbled under the pressure. Instead, they kept pushing.

“We knew they were gonna have a push,” Schmaltz said. “They make plays. It’s the NHL, they’re gonna have to push back. We didn’t let it faze us, and we were able to respond pretty quickly after that.” 

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The Mammoth responded two minutes later. The goal, though, came in the weirdest way possible. 

Off the faceoff, Marino received the puck back near the blueline. The defenseman shot it right at Oettinger’s left shoulder. The puck hit it and went up in the air only to drop right behind the goaltender and into the back of the net. It was definitely one of the strangest goals in Mammoth history, but the team certainly wasn’t complaining. 

Speaking of Marino, he’s had an underrated season. He’s now only two goals away from tying his career high in goals in a season and three points from tying his career high in points. Defensively, he’s been a beast. Marino has been a big reason why the Mammoth have done well at keeping their opponents from scoring. His plus-minus statline shows that. It’s currently at plus-26, tied for seventh best in the NHL.

With the lead now in their hands, the Mammoth had a clear path to getting their sixth win in January. The only thing they had to do was stop the Stars in the final 16ish minutes of the game.

Karel Vejmelka and Maturity Helps the Mammoth Big Time Down the Stretch

Everyone who has consistently watched the Mammoth this season knows that the team has sucked at times at defending the lead. The final couple of minutes in Thursday’s game, shutting down one of the best teams that features offensive superstars like Jason Robertson and Rantanen, was going to be the ultimate way to dispel that trait.

It certainly wasn’t easy. The Stars did their best to do whatever they could to score, including pulling Oettinger pretty early. However, the Mammoth did a couple of things to stop them and secure the win.

One of those things was Vejmelka playing a great game. Throughout the game, the goaltender came up clutch with some impressive saves. The biggest one was in the third period, where he snatched a shot from Sam Steel with his glovehand. It was a highlight reel save and one that, as the announcers said, showed shades of Patrick Roy.

The defense in front of him did well throughout the third period, too. Players like Marino were blocking shots and playing a great two-way game.

“Veggie (Vejmelka) has been unbelievable for us here down the stretch, so you’ve got to give him credit when credit is due,” Marino said. “Besides that, it’s a whole team effort out there, guys blocking shots, sacrificing themselves, backchecking, just playing the right way. You get rewarded for it.”

The Mammoth also did a good job at pressuring the Stars into making mistakes. Despite sometimes having long shifts, the team remained relentless and did a great job of sticking together, avoiding penalties and making no dumb plays.

“They’ve got a lot of good players over there, so just pressure them, try to make them make plays under pressure,” Schmaltz said. “Veggie (Vejmelka) made some big saves for us down the stretch, and Stenny (Kevin Stenlund) and those guys were stuck out there for a while, but they did a great job. We won some big draws, and it was a heck of a team effort.”

As Schmaltz said, the Mammoth won quite a few key draws. It wasn’t just those important draws like the one that Marino scored on that the team won. The Mammoth dominated in the faceoff circle on Thursday, winning 67.2% of them.

Of course, it helps when you have a guy like Stenlund who thrives on winning faceoffs. However, it’s truly impressive what the Mammoth did on Thursday. Every single player on the team who took a faceoff had a win percentage higher then 62%. That shows how well the Mammoth operated as a team, not just one individual.

“Mads (assistant coach John Madden) did a really good job to prep the guys on faceoffs,” head coach André Tourigny said. “We knew Dallas was a top team in the league, top five on faceoffs, and they run a lot of plays through it, and they generate a lot of possessions. I think the guys were tuned in and did a really good job.”

Utah Mammoth Celebrate
The Utah Mammoth celebrate a goal by center Nick Schmaltz (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)

Perhaps the biggest thing the Mammoth did well in the third period to hold onto the lead was that they didn’t get flustered. They stayed poised and never gave up.

The team looked mature and in control. There was no stress, arguing, or panic. It’s exactly how the Mammoth needed to look against a successful team like the Stars.

“I think everyone didn’t panic too much, whether the guys were out there, tired, everyone on the bench, no one was screaming, shouting, everyone was pretty comfortable with the situation,” Marino said. “So we learn from that and go forward.”

With Oettinger pulled, the Stars put some good shots on Vejmelka, but the goaltender kept making saves, and the Mammoth, in turn, kept shooting the puck out of their zone. There was no chance for the Stars as the Mammoth held on to get the 2-1 win.

The maturity, poise, and focus from the Mammoth in the final couple of minutes of the game were some of the best we’ve seen from this team. It shows a lot. They’ve seemed to learn how to close out games without blowing leads, and they’re able to shut down a great team like the Stars.

“I think we were poised, but had intensity,” Tourigny said. “It’s always that you want to be calm, but you want to be intense. You want to be patient, but you want to be aggressive. It’s the same as wanting to be poised, but you want to be urgent. I think we achieved that. The boys were in control, but really intense. They were urgent, but in control with some good poise.”

Taking Down a Goliath in the Division

Despite being 2-5-3 in their past 10 games, the Stars are still second in the entire NHL. That was a great team on the other side of the ice on Thursday. Yet, the Mammoth didn’t get blown out. They didn’t lose. They played a really good game and came out with a tight yet impressive win.

At this point, the Stars are pretty much locked into a top-three playoff spot in the Central Division. More than likely, the Mammoth won’t even touch their playoff spot, along with the other two. Points are even more important with that in mind because their only entrance into the playoffs will be the wild card spot, and they’ll be battling it out with the Pacific Division teams for the spot.

With the win, the Mammoth also take back the first wild card spot from the San Jose Sharks (despite their win over the Washington Capitals) and increase their lead over the first team out of the wild card, the Los Angeles Kings, by three points (granted, the Kings have two games in hand).

Stealing two points from their division rivals in the Stars makes the win even sweeter. While the Mammoth won’t play an opponent as tough as them until the end of January, they showed they can keep up with the big boys of the league. It’s exactly how they need to play consistently going forward, even if they don’t play great teams every day.

“We needed two points, we need to keep winning,” Tourigny said. “Against our division, it’s always bigger, but I don’t think we’re at the point yet where Dallas is. For us, we need to keep focusing on what we have to do, keep performing. We played a good game on both sides of the puck, offensively and defensively. That team was tough to play against. The process was good. The performance is good. Let’s bottle that up and keep going.”

Tourigny is right. As said after every game win or loss, the Mammoth need to move on quickly. While they’re pretty much out of the “condensed” part of the schedule, there’s a game almost every other night for them, which means another two valuable points on the line. The Mammoth know how bad it is to take your foot off the gas pedal. They can’t do it, especially when they are starting to finally rack up points.

That all being said, Thursday’s game was nothing short of big. The Stars have been to the past three Western Conference Finals. They are a very successful franchise that is well-run. To beat a team with that much pedigree gives the Mammoth even more momentum going into Saturday’s game.

“They’re stingy, they don’t give up much,” Marino said. “Got to play a patient game out there. Obviously, they’re a great hockey team, and they have been the last couple of years. So to be able to get that win, kind of have that confidence as a team going forward.”

From individual performances to the overall team, it was a great night to be a Mammoth. The team is now 6-1-1 in January and has a six-game point streak. They’ve also collected nine of the 10 available points on this homestand alone and have a 24-20-4 record. The team’s win against the Stars shows how well they’ve course-corrected after a middling November and December. Plainly put, Thursday’s win was awesome for the team.

“That was awesome,” Schmaltz said. “We talked about stringing together wins, especially on home ice, and I thought those last two games on home ice were some of our best of the year. I think the way we competed, no matter what the score is, if they get one, whatever, we come back and respond, and (we) played hard right ‘til the end, so huge win.”

The Mammoth will play the Seattle Kraken next on Saturday. The Kraken are 21-16-9 this season and are coming off a 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins. These two teams last met in December, where the Mammoth won 5-3.

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