On Monday night, the Utah Mammoth returned from their holiday break to host the Nashville Predators at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
Related: Projected Lineups for Predators vs Mammoth – 12/29/25
The Predators got their legs back under them on Sunday in their first game returning from the break. However, they came up short, losing 3-2 to the St. Louis Blues.
This was the second time the Mammoth and Predators have matched up this season, with the Mammoth winning the first contest 3-2 in overtime at Bridgestone Arena back in Nashville in early October.
Game Recap
The Mammoth were able to open the scoring on their first power-play chance of the game. Dylan Guenther set it up by driving the net hard from the corner and dishing the puck to J.J. Peterka, who was sitting, waiting on the doorstep for the tap-in, into the open cage.
Less than four minutes later, just before the midway mark of the first period, Roman Josi broke the ice for the Predators, evening the game back up after ripping a shot past Vitek Vanecek, who never saw it coming thanks to a flash screen from Ryan O’Reilly.
After one, the score sat 1-1 until Mikhail Sergachev wired home a point shot nearly four minutes into the second period, shortly after Sean Durzi held the puck in the offensive zone on a Brady Skjei clearing attempt. With a secondary assist on the goal, Durzi earned the 100th point of his NHL career.
However, the Predators quickly responded with Luke Evangelista scoring to even the game again off a rebound Vanecek left lying in the slot, just over three minutes after the Mammoth re-took the lead.
The second period ended in the same way the first did. But again, it would be the Mammoth who broke the tie, taking their third lead of the game on a play that started with Barrett Hayton digging a puck out of the corner, and ended with Dylan Guenther putting a move on Juuse Saros in tight.
Once again, it was followed by another Predators response with Steven Stamkos finally beating Vanecek after a flurry of great chances on the power play with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.
They finally strung together the first set of back-to-back goals with O’Reilly setting up Stamkos for his second goal in less than two minutes to take a 4-3 lead, which they held through the final seven minutes to come away with the victory.
Off the loss, the Mammoth will head out on the road for a three-game road trip, starting with the New York Islanders on New Year’s Day, while the Predators will spend New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas after a matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights.
