3 Takeaways From Mammoth’s 3-0 Win Over Flyers

by

Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers was truly a statement win for the Utah Mammoth. Fresh off a blockbuster trade for MacKenzie Weegar, the Mammoth entered Thursday’s game shorthanded with Olli Määttä getting shipped off to the Calgary Flames and Mikhail Sergachev out with a lower-body injury. Yet the team played a complete and effective game, one of their best of the season.

There was a lot that went right for the Mammoth against the Flyers as they got their second straight win on this roadtrip. Here are some takeaways from the 3-0 win on Thursday.

The Top Forwards Work Their Magic

It was truly a show from the top six for the Mammoth. From their work on special teams to their clutch goals, Thursday’s performance exhibited how special the Mammoth’s offense can be.

While the Mammoth didn’t do much in the first period, the second period is where everything kicked off. It started on the power play. Seconds in, right off the faceoff, Dylan Guenther cut to the middle of the offensive zone and made a smart pass to Nick Schmaltz. Schmaltz fired it from the side of the net to score the opening goal. It was his 24th goal of the season, a brand new career high.

Make it five power play goals in the past five games. What a turnaround for the Mammoth’s man-advantage unit. What was once the biggest weakness of the Mammoth has all of a sudden looked like a strength ever since the end of the Olympic break.

“I think it’s in the mindset,” head coach André Tourigny said. “I think we’re a little bit lower, we’re a little bit more aggressive, we have more volume of shots and stuff like that. I think there’s a different mindset.”

Whatever the Mammoth are doing differently, it’s working. They are now 25th in the NHL in power play success rate, a six-spot improvement from a couple of weeks ago.

It’s not just the stats and the facts that are showing the improvement. The players are feeling the difference, too. Schmaltz mentioned how he feels the power play is operating at its most successful rate as of right now, something that feels similar to years prior when he was part of some really good power plays.

“It’s probably the best it’s been all year,” Schmaltz said. “We were fighting a little bit for a while there, and we know we were a good unit. We’ve done it in the past. The past couple of years, we’ve been really good. We knew it was gonna come. We just had to move the puck a little bit quicker. Once we move the puck, things open up for us, and then our skill takes over.”

Related: Breaking Down the Mammoth’s Trade for MacKenzie Weegar

Around seven minutes later, Guenther went racing up through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone after passing the puck to himself via the boards. He made a neat pass to Clayton Keller to give him a partial breakaway. Going forehand-backhand, Keller opened up Dan Vladar and put the puck home five-hole to score the second goal of the game.

The goal was Keller’s 11th point in the past seven games. Guenther and Schmaltz each registered an assist for their second point of the game.

Overall, it was a great showing from the top six for the Mammoth, especially the top line of Keller, Schmaltz, and Guenther. Their play on the power play and five-on-five helped drive the team to the big win.

A Big Win for Vítek Vaněček

Maybe some might’ve forgotten that Vítek Vaněček was on the team with the number of games that Karel Vejmelka has started recently. Thursday’s game was the one Vaněček desperately needed and was one of the best performances he’s had in a Mammoth jersey.

You knew it was going to be a good one for Vaněček right at the beginning. In the first period, it seemed like Bobby Brink had a wide-open net for an easy goal. However, Vaněček managed to push himself to the otherside of the net and grab the puck with his glove. It is at this point that it is, by far, his best save of the season.

“It always feels good when you make a good save, but it’s just one save, and then more are gonna come,” Vaněček said. “You have to be dialed in.”

Vaněček continued to be solid all game. It helped that the Mammoth kept minimal shots from getting to him. Final shots were 23-16 in favor of the visiting team.

With the win against the Flyers, Vaněček got his 100th NHL win. The win was also Vaněček’s first win in over two months since his last start in late January and his first shutout since Mar. 8, 2025, when he was a member of the Florida Panthers. 

Vaněček has had a very unlucky season. In 15 games started, he has only four wins and a save percentage under .900. However, it’s not a very accurate depiction of how he’s played. Vaněček has had some really good games, but his team in front of him hasn’t played the greatest when he’s started. It’s something Tourigny has seen as well.

“Since the start of the season, we lost twice, 1-0 and 2-0 with him,” Tourigny said. “We lost two games in overtime where we didn’t score enough goals to really give him a chance. I think he’s been put in a tough spot often on the back-to-back, on the back end of the back-to-back, stuff like that. He gave us a chance to win when he’s in there, and that’s what’s important.”

Vitek Vanecek Utah Mammoth
Utah Mammoth goaltender Vitek Vanecek makes a save against Philadelphia Flyers right wing Bobby Brink (Eric Hartline-Imagn Images)

It’s been hard for Vaněček to sit for so long, especially recently. Thursday was Vaněček’s first game since Jan. 27. It was hard for the goaltender to see his partner, Karel Vejmelka, start so many games in a row while the only action he got in was at practice. While he’s happy his team has won, and Vejmelka has thrived, going from practice to game action was tough for the goaltender.

“That was really tough,” Vaněček said. “I’m not gonna lie. When you come back, it’s hard, it’s hard to breathe. It’s not the same as practice. The game is always different, but you’re trying to just dial in the practice and then do what you’re doing in the games. That’s the only thing I can do. Then wait until I get the chance.”

With the win, Vaněček gets his confidence back and reestablishes himself as a reliable backup to Vejmelka. Vaněček will be a crucial part of the Mammoth going forward, as the team will try to give Vejmelka rest down the stretch for the playoffs. Winning this game against the Flyers is a huge morale booster for the goaltender and proof that he is capable of taking the reins when needed.

2-0 in the City of Brotherly Love

What a start to the trip for the Mammoth. They have now won their first two games of this five-game road trip and are at 33 wins in the season. The Mammoth now sit at 70 points and have a three-point lead over the Seattle Kraken for the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.

We’ve gone over a couple of things that helped power the Mammoth to the 3-0 win. The power play, the play by the first line, Vaněček’s stellar play. However, we have yet to talk about the penalty kill.

In total, the Flyers had three power play opportunities. They were shut down on each of those opportunities. The Mammoth’s penalty kill was flawless on Thursday. After they failed to stop most of the Washington Capitals’ power play opportunities on Tuesday, a bounce-back game was needed for the unit.

Combined with Vaněček’s great play, the penalty kill truly silenced the Flyers, barely allowing them to get any shots on net. While the unit is still in the bottom half of the league, it’s slowly getting back to where it was a couple of months ago. Thursday showed glimpses and hints of what was once one of the best penalty kills in the league.

“I think our PK was really good, so we did not allow them to get going offensively, so they had to play under pressure all the time,” Tourigny said.

As mentioned after the win over the Capitals, getting wins in these games helps the momentum grow going into the next game and then the one after that. As we inch closer to the end of the season, every point is crucial. Every game, including those against bottom-feeding teams, must be won. The Mammoth took care of business on Thursday and are now riding a two-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s game.

With another win under their belt, the Mammoth’s disastrous game against the Chicago Blackhawks nearly a week ago now looks like a one-off, just as most players predicted it would be. These two wins to start the trip distance them from that game and are showing that wasn’t the real Mammoth team. On top of that, these two wins have reenergized the locker room after that loss.

“As a one-off for us, I don’t think that was our game,” Schmaltz said. “We knew it. Everyone owned it. We weren’t happy with it, but it’s 82 games. You’re not gonna be perfect every night. We just wanted to hit the reset button and come on this road trip and try to do as well as we can.”

Now, the Mammoth leave Philadelphia with two more points and more confidence in themselves and each other. Something that will be big heading into the final couple of weeks in the season. After sweeping the season series against the Flyers for a second season in a row, that confidence and momentum are well earned.

The Mammoth will continue their road trip on Saturday as they head to Ohio to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blue Jackets are 32-21-8 and are coming off a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers. These two teams last met in January, where the Mammoth lost 3-2 in overtime.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE TO OUR UTAH MAMMOTH SUBSTACK NEWSLETTER