It seemed like the Utah Mammoth were about to win their 11th game of the season. With 4.2 seconds left in the game, they were up 2-1 over the Anaheim Ducks. In just one millisecond, that changed.
A late collapse led to a horrible overtime effort that led to the Mammoth’s ninth loss of the season. After a poor effort in overtime against the New York Islanders the game before, the loss on Monday just seemed like more salt in the wound. Here are some takeaways from the 3-2 overtime loss.
It’s Getting a Little “Cooler”
The weather isn’t the only thing getting cooler. Logan Cooley is getting back to his normal self, and his goal against the Ducks only kept his recent hot streak going.
The play started with a great individual effort from Nick Schmaltz, who managed to get the puck behind the net and pass it to Cooley. The young center then slid the puck over to Mikhail Sergachev near the blueline.
Knowing Cooley was trying to get back into position, Sergachev held onto the puck for a couple of seconds before returning it to his teammate. Cooley unleashed a one-timer to score the Mammoth’s second goal of the game for the lead. It was the first and only lead for the team during the game.
Logan Cooley for the lead! pic.twitter.com/LbbKTl6vY4
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) November 18, 2025
The goal is Cooley’s third point in the past four games. It was also his first goal since Oct. 28 against the Edmonton Oilers. After a good stretch of games where he didn’t look like himself, it seems like Cooley is heating up again.
Related: ‘I’ll Always Be Thankful’: Josh Doan and Michael Kesselring Make Emotional Return to Utah
Getting points and goals out of the younger players like Cooley is exactly what the Mammoth need. Not every goal can come from the bottom six. Production needs to come from guys like Cooley and Dylan Guenther, who are being paid the big bucks to help guide the Mammoth to wins with their offense.
“I like Cools (Cooley), the way he played both sides of the puck,” head coach André Tourigny said. “I think he stayed with it. He was composed, and I think he played a really good game. I’m happy for him; he got a reward. And then Gunner (Guenther) played good in the last couple of games, and it was no different today. He won battles, and he played with a lot of intensity, so it’s good for him to get a reward as well.”
Speaking of Guenther, he too scored on Monday. It was off a great Nate Schmidt pass that set him up in his office on the right faceoff circle. It’s the second straight game where he’s scored a goal from that spot.
Similar to Cooley, Guenther was also on a cold stretch, going pointless in five of the six past games before the Mammoth’s Friday game against the Islanders. As you can see, the Mammoth are a better team when those two are playing at their best. If they want to win, it’s something they need to see more often from Cooley and Guenther.
A Late Collapse Leads to an Embarrassing Loss
All it took was a Cutter Gauthier shot to the net for the Ducks to end any chance of the Mammoth winning. The goal sealed the Mammoth’s face and set up one of the worst defensive efforts that the team has put out.
When Gauthier’s shot got to the net, Chris Kreider tried to ram it home. With the puck loose, all Troy Terry had to do was chip it into the empty net on his backhand to tie the game up at two.
Throughout the final couple of minutes of the game, the Mammoth had plenty of opportunities to deposit the puck into the Ducks’ empty net. They didn’t, and the Ducks mounted an onslaught of great chances on Karel Vejmelka. They ended up outshooting the Mammoth 11-5 in the third period.
In overtime, it was all Ducks. Even more noticeable was an embarrassing defensive effort from the Mammoth. Clayton Keller tried passing the puck to Guenther, but a stick deflected the puck away. Guenther went to retrieve it, but was outplayed by Alex Killorn.
The goal led to a two-on-one. Killorn opted to pass the puck back to Beckett Sennecke, who was outpacing Keller. Sennecke slid it over to Owen Zellweger. The defenseman tucked it into the open net for the overtime winner.
🚨 OLEN ANDRE ZELLWEGER!!!! 🚨
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) November 18, 2025
WHAT A PLAY BY KILLER AND SENNECKE!
WE WIN!!! #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/Kji15FgDbN
What was glaringly horrible about the play was that Keller and Mikhail Sergachev looked like they were just watching the play unfold rather than trying their best to defend. Guenther was on Sennecke, but Keller lost Zellweger and showed no effort in trying to get to him.
“That was a tight hockey game, a lot of back and forths, a couple of mistakes at the end, we’ll learn from it,” Keller said. “It sucks. We were up with 10 seconds left. It’s frustrating. I got to get back faster.”
It’s understandable what Sergachev was doing, trying to get into position to prevent a potential Sennecke shot. However, he was facing Zellweger, watching him receive the puck and then tuck it into the wide-open net. Not to mention, he had the opportunity to try to get the puck all the way back in the Ducks’ zone when it was deflected away from Guenther’s stick.
It was all preventable. If the Mammoth had just put the puck into the empty net, the poor defensive effort in overtime wouldn’t even be a discussion. However, that’s not what happened. Now the Mammoth find themselves reeling after one of their worst losses so far this season.
Is It Time to Be Concerned?
With the 20th game of the season coming up on Tuesday, the question of whether fans should be concerned is a valid one. There are certainly a couple of things to be worried about.
Goaltending hasn’t been great. Vejmelka hasn’t been reliable and only has two games in the past five where he’s recorded a save percentage over .900. His overall save percentage sits at an abysmal .883. That’s not good enough.
It’s not like Vítek Vaněček has been any better. His save percentage sits at .875. Goaltending needs to improve. It’s as simple as that. If the Mammoth can’t get a save, what are they supposed to do?
The Mammoth’s power play needs to start producing. They have scored once on 20 opportunities in the month of November. That is terrible. With players like Guenther, Keller, and Cooley on the man advantage, there is no excuse to have that bad of a power play.
The offense also needs to be more consistent. Getting Cooley and Guenther going in these past two games has been great, but then they need support from Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and the bottom six. It can’t just be one line or the other. It needs to be a complete team effort.
This is the fourth game in the past five where they’ve scored two goals or fewer. You need more if you want to win consistently.
“We didn’t have our A execution,” Tourigny said. “We had a lot of possession, a lot of opportunity where we didn’t connect, and our players didn’t execute.”
In the past nine games, the Mammoth have lost seven of them. The only two wins in that mix of games were both against the Buffalo Sabres. That is not good. That type of effort doesn’t get you into the playoffs.
Is it time to panic? No, not yet. It’s still early in the season. The Mammoth are still tied in points with the Chicago Blackhawks and the Winnipeg Jets. It’s not like they’re at the bottom of the division. However, if they can’t start getting wins quickly, those teams will pass them.
The ship needs to start turning around. If that doesn’t happen by the end of November, expect conversations about jobs to start popping up. There’s an expectation of playoffs for this group. They went out and made some big moves to acquire big players. They signed big players to big contracts. They’re not playing like a team that did all of that.
It can’t be repeated enough. This cannot go on. This is not good. Winning needs to come soon. Owner Ryan Smith and general manager Bill Armstrong aren’t scared to make changes. It’s better for everyone to start winning and play the exact opposite of how the Mammoth played at the end of Monday’s game.
The Mammoth will be right back in action on Tuesday as they travel to Northern California to take on the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks are 8-8-3 and are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken. These two teams met back in October, where the Mammoth won 6-3.
