Utah Earns Hard Fought Point in Shootout Loss

SALT LAKE CITY – In the second half of a back-to-back, with five starters missing from the lineup, the Utah Mammoth brought a resilient, connected effort. However, in the eighth round of a shootout, Utah fell to the St. Louis Blues, 1-0.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” head coach André Tourigny said postgame. “We challenged them this morning. We talked about having to accept (playing) a kind of game that is a little different than when we have a full lineup. Our boys really bought into that, and they played a hard-checking game, probably the best game in our D-zone of the year. Our track was really solid. (St. Louis) is one of the best, if not the best rush teams in the league. I think we gave up one chance off the rush, something like that.

“Really good game by (Karel Vejmelka), no doubt about it,” Tourigny continued. “That was good to have (Vejmelka) at his best. I think on the back-to-back; obviously we wanted the two points. There are no moral victories in the NHL. But we lost in a shootout. We didn’t lose in a 3-on-3, we lost in a skills competition. We wanted the two points, I won’t lie, but I cannot be (prouder) of our guys.”

“I'm pretty happy with the way we played,” veteran center Vincent Trocheck shared. “I thought we played hard, defended really well. Obviously, it goes on to a shootout, but the way we responded on a back-to-back with the amount of injuries that we've had in the last couple days is definitely a positive.”

Not only is Utah missing five starters due to injuries, they’re missing key parts of the lineup. Logan Cooley (upper-body) has seven goals in his last five games and leads the team with 11 tallies. Nick Schmaltz (lower-body) is the center on Utah’s top line, and second on the team with nine goals. Dylan Guenther (upper-body, IR) has six goals this season, five of which are on Utah’s power play, which has been in the top-3 to start the season. Lastly, John Marino (upper-body, IR) and Nate Schmidt (upper-body, IR) were one of the best d-pairings in the NHL last season, and bring a consistent and strong effort every game.

Despite this, Utah stepped up as a group. The team played the game available to them and stuck to their game plan. Utah brought a strong defensive performance and held St. Louis scoreless through 65 minutes. The team can build off this dedicated and detailed effort moving forward.

“I think that we've been getting better every night throughout the course of the year, and I mean when you shut a team out, it's obviously a positive,” Trocheck said. “I just thought that the way we played, we stuck to our plan the whole game and didn't get away from it. Played hard in the D zone. (Tourigny) always talks about pace, and I thought our pace was great.”

“The way we defend, 5-on-5 (or) PK, all the time, a lot of pride, a lot of aggression,” Tourigny explained. “I’ve talked a lot about that in the past about how great we are when we have that aggression defensively. Tonight, we were rock solid defensively. I talked about (Karel Vejmelka) and how good he was; I need to talk about (Mikhail Sergachev). (Sergachev) was really, really good. Best player on the ice, in my opinion, both teams. I think he’s a big factor in why we got the point. He was at 28 minutes, and yesterday had a lot of minutes as well. Kudos to him.”

With that pride and aggression defensively, Utah’s penalty kill went 5-for-5 and held St. Louis to four shots on the man-advantage. This performance was significant and something else the team can build off of.

“It’s huge for our confidence,” Trocheck shared. “I think that’s something that we really have been focusing on, is being better on the penalty kill. And we’re working on it every day, so to go into a game like tonight, not letting up, it’s huge.” 

The last line of defense, goaltender Karel Vejmelka, had an outstanding game. He stopped all 22 shots he faced in regulation and overtime to register his second shutout of the season, and the 10^th of his NHL career. Tonight’s game was his first career shutout in a losing effort (per Utah Mammoth PR). He made key saves at key moments, and brought the team’s first shootout since Apr. 10, 2025, to the eighth round.

“He was great, he was fantastic tonight,” defenseman Zac Jones explained. “He bailed me out a few times, so that is always nice. He was great. He played out of his mind tonight, and it would have been nice to get him the win.” 

Two players made their respective returns to the NHL in their Utah debuts. Tonight was Jones’ first NHL game since Apr. 17, 2025, when he was teammates with Trocheck on the New York Rangers. Forward Ben McCartney played his third career NHL game and first since Nov. 6, 2021. Both players showed up strong in their first games with Utah, and helped the team embrace that ‘next man up’ mentality.

“I thought they were both great,” Trocheck said. “I played with (Jones) in New York a lot, and I know how good of a hockey player he is, and he put it on display tonight. And (McCartney) was great too.”

Additional Notes from Tonight (per Utah Mammoth PR)

• Utah played the fourth 1-0 game in franchise history tonight, earning a point for the first time.

• Utah won an offside challenge tonight, overturning Mason McTavish’s goal at the 14:35 mark of the second period. The team is 2-for-2 on coach’s challenges in 2026-27.

• Liam O’Brien dropped the gloves with Ross Johnston in the first period tonight, and his three fights in 2026-27 are tied with Jack McBain for the most of any Utah skater. Utah has been assessed a league-leading 11 fighting majors in 2026-27.

Final Stats

• Shots: UTA 29, STL 22
• Power Play: UTA 0/4, STL 0/5
• Hits: UTA 26, STL 12
• Blocked Shots: UTA 13, STL 10
• Face-Off %: UTA 54%, STL 46%

Upcoming Schedule

• Nov. 14: SJS vs UTA – Get Tickets

• Nov. 16: VAN vs UTA – Get Tickets

• Nov. 18: COL vs UTA – Get Tickets