3 Takeaways From Mammoth’s 5-3 Win Over Devils

After finally getting a day of rest, the Utah Mammoth came into New Jersey facing a New Jersey Devils team looking to get a big win after a horrible 6-0 loss to the New York Islanders three days before. Instead, the Mammoth overcame everything the Devils threw at them, leaving Newark with their third win of the season.

The NHL’s current leading goal scorer, who his teammates have said they’d be happy to have on their team even with a wrong-handed stick in his hands, played a big role in dismantling the Devils along with the hottest power play in the league. Here are some takeaways from the Mammoth’s 5-3 win on Tuesday.

The NHL’s Best on Display

We should probably reserve a section in each takeaways article now to talk about how great the Mammoth’s special teams are. Once again, they thrived on Tuesday against the Devils.

Let’s start with the power play that is currently operating at a 61.5% success rate, the best in the NHL. The top unit on the man advantage with Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, and Mikhail Sergachev has been red hot. Their passing has been unreal, and it’s resulted in goals.

Keller got the game started with a power-play goal. That was thanks to a great almost fake-out shot by Sergachev. It was the captain’s first goal of the season.

Dangerous from all angles! 🤯 Kells makes it 1-0, Utah. https://t.co/WHfcHejIhU

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) October 6, 2026

Schmaltz scored the other goal on the man advantage on Tuesday. Fantastic passing by the aforementioned first unit led to the forward’s fifth goal of the season. Schmaltz has now scored in each of the Mammoth’s first four games, becoming the fourth American to start the season with a four-goal streak. Everything has been clicking for the forward.

“I’m just constantly trying to work on things, get better, get better at finishing around the net, continuously trying to do that, and when our power play is clicking as it has, I’m getting a ton of looks, so credit to the guys,” Schmaltz said. “I’m just trying to find spots, and they’re finding me, and they’re going in right now. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. I’ll just keep working.”

Schmaltzy stays red hot‼️🔥 League leading 5th goal of the season for Nick Schmaltz. https://t.co/6Qfg4n3b7U

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) October 7, 2026

However, the unit’s best performance wasn’t during any of those goals. It was in the third period. While no goals came out of it, the five Mammoth players held the puck in the Devils’ zone for the full two minutes, not an easy task to accomplish. They did a fantastic job knocking pucks down, finding each other even when the Devils disrupted the flow, and getting shots on net. If it wasn’t for Jake Allen making some great saves, the Mammoth would’ve scored.

The penalty kill was just as good. The Mammoth killed off three of the Devils’ four power-play opportunities, finding great and smart ways to clear the puck. The penalty kill is near the top of the league with a 92.9% success rate.

It’s been a hot start, but a reminder, as always early in the season, there are still 80 games left in the season. The Mammoth likely won’t be top of the league in power play by the end of the season, but the goal is to stay at least in the top 10. If they can keep doing what they’re doing, it’s very possible that might happen.

“We attack really quickly,” head coach André Tourigny said. “We don’t settle for possession. We attack, and we have a lot of guys who have a high IQ that can think quickly. When we’re on the outside, we give the opponent time to play at their pace and to sit on our option. The way we attack, shot on that right off the face-off, etc. Now we bring the game at a pace where you need to think really quickly, and our guys can do that. It will be a battle for us all year long to keep that mindset.”

A Strong Finish at the Rock

The Devils aren’t a bad team. With the Mammoth up by two going into the third period, they weren’t going to slink away and let their opponents have an easy win. Jesper Boqvist put his team within one, and the Devils were getting shots on the board.

However, the Mammoth didn’t just sit on their lead. They played hard and defended well, something that was made even harder when Sergachev exited the game with an upper-body injury due to MacKenzie Weegar accidentally hitting him with a failed clear attempt.

“There were stretches of the game with not much flow for some guys on our team with the amount of penalties,” Lawson Crouse said. “So credit to the guys for sticking in there. We just talked about playing a simple game and embracing the challenge of being up in the third period, and they made a push. We made a push. They made a push. We made a push and ultimately came out on top.”

The Devils came swinging too. After a hit on Jonas Siegenthaler, Brendan Dillon came after Jack McBain looking for a fight. Dillon was looking for energy. Instead, McBain had one of the best fights of his career and landed some fantastic punches on the Devils defenseman.

WHAT A SCRAP between Jack McBain and Brenden Dillon 🥊🥊 https://t.co/jStwi3UkWk

— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) October 7, 2026

Until the end of the game, the Mammoth killed penalties, got shots on net, and did everything they could to win. Vincent Trocheck scored his first as a Mammoth less than four minutes to go to seal the deal. 

The word for the third-period effort is mature. The Mammoth really looked poised throughout the whole period. Karel Vejmelka in net was calm and collected, and the defense looked the same around him. The Mammoth did everything they do to win games, and the result was the same as when they play that type of hockey.

“We had the right mindset,” Tourigny said. “We used our speed. We’re generating more speed through neutral zones, which helps our game either on the rush or on the forecheck. We got some momentum out of it, and we took the lead from there. The same thing in the third. We started by going to play deep in their zone and creating some momentum out of it.”

Even though the Devils outshot the Mammoth 12-9 in the final frame, it was still the best third period the team has had this season. Especially when you think about the prior game against the New York Rangers and how that third period wasn’t the best, it shows the Mammoth are learning from their mistakes. A very solid conclusion to a great win.

Mammoth on Fire

Oh, oh, oh, the Mammoth are on fire. It’s New Jersey. There had to be a Bruce Springsteen reference somewhere.

In all seriousness, the Mammoth are one of the hottest teams in the NHL. They’ve had a great road trip as they head into the final two games of the eastern seaboard swing. A 2-1-0 record after one day of rest is not too shabby.

The team’s power play is at the top of the league, the penalty kill is in the top five, Schmaltz leads the league in goals, Keller is tied for third with Schmaltz in the league in points, and Sergachev is second among defensemen in points. That is an impressive amount of accomplishments to start the season, especially the Schmaltz stats.

“He’s hotter than toast,” Crouse said. “That doesn’t surprise me one bit. He’s such a composed player, intelligent hockey player with a lot of hockey IQ and tremendous skill and such a great guy, great teammate. Couldn’t be more happy for him.”

Immediate concern does go to Sergachev, who didn’t return to the game after taking the puck to the back of his head. That is the team’s number one defenseman, and with the recent injury to Brock Faber and his skull fracture, it does create more nervousness. The Mammoth does have depth with Nick DeSimone and an NHL depth option in Zac Jones available in Tucson. However, Sergachev is a player you don’t want to be out for long.

The final two games of the trip could be the toughest for the Mammoth. They’ll play the Boston Bruins and the Buffalo Sabres; both have had a solid start to the season. There will be some rest in there, which will be nice, but especially with those games being home games for their opponents, marching into those rowdy arenas and continuing to play strong hockey could be hard.

However, the trip so far does add some fuel to the fire, especially this big win against the Devils where the Mammoth played really good hockey for a majority of the game. The win was the team’s first-ever victory against the Devils in franchise history as well. That is something the players keep track of. Being able to finally achieve something they hadn’t in the past two seasons has created a really good feeling going into Thursday’s game.

“It’s a grind,” Schmaltz said. “There are some good teams and some tough buildings to play in. It was nice to get one against these guys. We hadn’t beat them since we moved to Utah. It was nice to break that curse, and hopefully we can keep this rolling. Got two more. Got to be ready to play.”

The Mammoth will head to Boston to take on the Bruins on Thursday. The Bruins are 2-2-0 this season and are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. These two teams last met in February where the Mammoth lost 4-1.