PREVIEW: Oilers at Mammoth

The Edmonton Oilers travel to Salt Lake City to rematch the Utah Mammoth on Saturday at Delta Center.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Mammoth

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – A chance to bounce back in the Beehive State.

The Edmonton Oilers will rematch the Utah Mammoth on Saturday, but this time the battle will be waged at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, with the two clubs poised to close out a home-and-away series after Utah took two points in Alberta on Thursday.

The Oilers fell 4-2 to the Mammoth after giving up two power-play goals in the first period to Barrett Hayton and Clayton Keller, but never recovered despite tallies from Leon Draisaitl and Shakir Mukhamadullin, who cut the lead to 3-2 early in the third period before Keller's empty-netter and second goal of the night ended things late.

Ultimately, it was Cooley's goal on a back-door play set up by Vincent Trochek off the rush only 23 seconds after Draisaitl made it 2-1 in the second period that proved the difference in a hotly contested meeting with two of the NHL's most in-form teams.

Thursday was the Oilers' first regulation loss of the year, falling to 5-1-1, and their first 60-minute defeat to the Mammoth in franchise history after starting 5-0-1 against the 2024 expansion side, which has started equally well with a 6-2-0 record after Thursday.

The Oilers are an unbeaten 4-0-0 on the road this year, the first time in franchise history they've accomplished the feat, but the Mammoth are a stern test at home with a 2-0-0 record while outscoring their opponents 11-4.

Goalie Tristan Jarry will get the start, while the Oilers could be bolstered by the returns of Zach Hyman, Colton Dach and Jake Walman, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jason Dickinson could be options during their upcoming homestand next week to give the Blue & Orange some much-needed reinforcements after a plethora of early injuries.

Edmonton went 0-for-2 on the power play and were limited to only two shots with the man advantage, while their big guns of Connor McDavid (25:52), Leon Draisaitl (23:00), Vasily Podkolzin (22:13), Evan Bouchard (27:03) and Mattias Ekholm (22:34) were relied on to do the heavy lifting by commanding heavy ice-time totals in the absence of some of their regular contributors due to injury.

Head Coach Mike Babcock has leaned on his stars out of necessity due to the Oilers still missing a handful of names in the short-term and longer-term options in Mattias Janmark, Matt Savoie and Frederik Andersen that are still a ways away from returning.

Jason Dickinson was a late addition to the absentee list on Thursday after leaving the morning skate early, which led to Max Jones filling his spot in the lineup and Filip Hallander moving into the top six to play centre on the second line.

Babcock said the short-term opportunity for the team's depth contributors has been positive amid a difficult injury situation for the Oilers, while the relaxed early-season schedule has given them more time to get more bodies healthy.

But the bench boss hopes it'll be enough, and luckily for him & the Oilers, help appears on the way as soon as Saturday's rematch with the Mammoth to relieve some of the big minutes being played by their star players, who've been doing the heavy lifting over the first seven games of the season.

"I'm real lucky the way the games have been spaced out and that we've been able to do that a little bit," Babcock said. "But that's not the NHL. It's impossible. We'll give those guys a day off [Friday] and get back at her for the next game. But it has to stop. I look at it every night and I go, 'What the heck am I doing?'  But I'm also trying to survive right now.  So that's what we've been doing.

"A lot of our other guys have done a phenomenal job for us. We're in a good spot right now, and I'm just hoping that we bought enough time to get some guys."

Zach Hyman has a good chance of being back on Saturday in Utah, having been out since finishing the first game of the season in Vancouver, while Colton Dach is a possible option after suffering an upper-body injury in the win over Seattle on Oct. 3.

Jake Walman is also anticipated to return after all three of them were participants in Thursday's morning skate, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jason Dickinson are eyeing returns on the upcoming five-game homestand at Rogers Place next week.