Having played just seven of their first 20 games on home ice in Salt Lake City, the Utah Mammoth kick off a four-game homestand Thursday night against the Vegas Golden Knights.
It’s the first of two meetings in a five-day span between the two teams, who will also play again Monday in the Delta Center. Vegas, opening a three-game road trip, will play at Anaheim on Saturday before flying back to Utah in an odd scheduling quirk, while the Mammoth host the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Utah’s homestand ends with a Wednesday contest against Montreal.
The Mammoth enter on a three-game losing streak, but all three losses came in overtime with identical 3-2 scores, including Tuesday night at San Jose. Prior to that, the Mammoth defeated Buffalo, 5-2, at home, so head coach Andre Tourigny is taking the glass-half-full approach to the 1-0-3 stretch.
“Five points in the last four games,” Tourigny said. “We’re undefeated in regulation in the last four. Let’s put it that way. Let’s put it in the positive.”
Tourigny said the close finishes have become the norm this season in the NHL.
“If you look across the league … it’s a one-goal game every time, it’s a one-shot game,” Tourigny said. “For us, it’s three games in a row in overtime. It is what it is. You need to have the urgency all the time. You need to have the resilience, which we have, and we showed it again tonight. We found a way. But we need to close the deal.”
Utah fell behind San Jose 2-0 in the first six minutes as Macklin Celebrini scored a pair of goals, but the Mammoth rallied to tie it on two scores by J.J. Peterka in the third period. Celebrini then won it in overtime with a power-play goal to complete the hat trick after Utah picked up a penalty for too many men on the ice.
“Mixed emotion,” Tourigny said. “Proud of the guys for their effort, their comeback. … Not happy because it’s a game I felt we didn’t start on time.”
“We fought back, but it’s way harder when you chase the game,” Peterka said.
Peterka, who came over from Buffalo in the offseason, has scored four goals in the last four games.
Vegas, in a stretch of five of six games on the road, comes in off a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers in Las Vegas on Tuesday, snapping a four-game home losing streak (0-2-2).
Shea Theodore and Ben Hutton scored goals, just the fifth and sixth goals by Vegas defensemen this season, and Braeden Bowman scored his second goal in four NHL games for the Golden Knights. Akira Schmid stopped 17 shots to pick up his eighth victory (8-1-2) in 11 starts.
Hutton’s goal, which came on a wrist shot from the left circle that squirted through the pads of Igor Shesterkin and then slowly trickled across the goal line, was his first since March 19, 2024.
“It’s been a minute since I’ve scored one,” Hutton said with a smile. “Any time you can put the puck in the net and get a goal for the guys, it’s a good feeling.”
Theodore’s power-play goal midway through the third period was his second of the season and proved to be the game-winner. It was just the second regulation home win in the last seven games (2-3-2) for the Golden Knights.
“Hopefully this gets the ball rolling and we can take some momentum from it,” Theodore said.
