Mammoth 'believe in the future' despite being eliminated in West 1st Round

SALT LAKE CITY -- The easy thing would have been to focus on the pride. Instead, Utah Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny focused on the pain.

Utah accomplished so much on and off the ice in its second season in the NHL. After the Mammoth’s first Stanley Cup Playoff series ended with a 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of the Western Conference First Round at Delta Center on Friday, the fans stood, cheered and waved their rally towels.

But this was not the time to talk about the feel-good story. 

“I hate excuses,” Tourigny said. “I hate taking the easy way out. I told you all year, failure makes you stronger. You learn from it, and it makes you better. But in order to make sure that happens, it has to hurt. I don’t even want to feel good about it. I want that to hurt, and I want to learn from it.”

Utah took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series, then lost three in a row.

The Mammoth held a third-period lead in each of the first five games, but they lost 4-2 in Game 1, 5-4 in overtime in Game 4 and 5-4 in double overtime in Game 5.

“It’s a terrible feeling, and it’s only going to make us better,” Utah captain Clayton Keller said. “When you lose and you go through that pain, that’s when you learn the most, not when you win.”

What was the difference?

“I think experience,” said Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021.

Eight Utah players made their playoff debuts in this series.

Center Nick Schmaltz had played four playoff games entering the series, all as a rookie with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2017.

Keller and forward Lawson Crouse each had played nine playoff games entering the series, all with the Arizona Coyotes in 2020 with no fans at Rogers Place in Edmonton due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023 and were loaded with playoff veterans.

“They know how to win,” Sergachev said. “They won not a long time ago. They play well. Even though sometimes we were outplaying them, they were still in the game, and they were never out of it because of their experience, and in the right moments, they put the game away. So, I think maybe that’s the difference.

“But I believe in the future we’re going to be there.”

Perhaps one day the Mammoth will look back on playing the Golden Knights as the perfect building block.

Vegas has won 66 games and 13 series in the playoffs since entering the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18, tying Tampa Bay for first in the NHL in both categories in that span, at least for the moment. The Lightning play the Montreal Canadiens in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round on Sunday.

“We’re a younger team,” Sergachev said. “It took us a lot to get here, and we saw what it takes to win a series. They showed us, and they played well. They’re a great team. You saw it. In the tight moments, they prevailed, and they scored at the right moments.”

Crouse echoed that.

“Obviously, we have some things to learn, closing out games,” he said. “But Vegas, they’re a great hockey team. They’re a veteran hockey team. They’ve won previously. They know what it takes to win. They know how to win games and close them out. That’s something we can learn from.”

This still just the beginning in Utah.

This was the first season the team was known as the Utah Mammoth, after one season as the Utah Hockey Club. This was the first season with a new, palatial practice facility. Delta Center was only two phases into an ongoing renovation.

The Mammoth have young talent with more on the way.

“I believe so much in this group and the guys that we have, the character and the guys that love coming to the rink and getting better every single day,” Keller said. “It’s so fun to come to the rink with these guys.

“I’m definitely super excited about the future. We’re only going to get better. This (stinks), but we’ll learn from it. We’ll break it down, and next time we’re in this situation next year, we’ll get over the hump.”

But for now, they’ve got to feel the pain -- the growing pains.

“What we’re going through tonight, it’s important for our future,” Tourigny said. “It’s really important. You need to let it hurt. You need to let it bleed a little bit. It has to hurt, because that will be the fuel for tomorrow to bounce back and find a way to be better and to get to the next step.”