Utah Falls in Close Contest

CALGARY – In the final game of a six-game road trip, the Utah Mammoth fell 2-0 to the Calgary Flames. Despite 27 shots on goal and some close chances, Utah was unable to get past Calgary’s goaltender Dustin Wolf, who recorded his second shutout this season. The Mammoth end their longest road trip of the year with a 2-4-0 record and fall to 14-13-3.

“Not the start we were expecting,” head coach André Tourigny shared postgame. “I think the rest of the game we played solid 5-on-5. But offensively, if you want to score in that league, you need to get in the eyes of the goalie, you need to disturb the defense a little bit more, and we were a little bit too perimeter.”

“We quick up the puck quite a bit in the third period,” Schmidt explained. “I thought we caught him a couple times and had some sustained o-zone time. But sometimes you just need to get into the game a little quicker. I think that’s something that you look at tonight’s game, we’re on top of it right away, we have a good start, you never know what’s going to happen. I think we played really well. Give up one goal on the road, that’s something that you can look at and say that’s something you can do positively with the game and now you just got to find a way to get inside a little bit more on the offensive side.”

Sharangovich’s goal 16 seconds into the game gave the home team a 1-0 lead. After Joel Farabee’s initial shot was stopped by Utah's Vítek Vaněček, Sharangovich capitalized on the rebound. The Mammoth trailed the Flames, 1-0, until the final three minutes of the game. Connor Zary’s empty net goal gave Calgary a 2-0 lead with 2:14 left in the third period.

It was a tight contest for the majority of tonight’s game. As the Mammoth move forward, there’s lessons and areas of improvement that Utah is focused on.

“There's a brand of hockey that needs to be played,” Schmidt reflected. “There's a brand that needs to be played in order to win this time of year and when you get down to the end of the year right? There's a certain style you need to play in order to do it, and it just takes the commitment in order to do it. You just have to find whether you want to do it or not.”

“Well, there's a ton of room for improvement,” Tourigny said on how the forwards and defensemen can play more connected. “The puck has to move. That's the kind of forwards we have. We have forwards with speed, and if we hold onto the puck, that slows down our forwards. But we know that. We got better during the game. We've gotten better since the start of the season, but it's a work in progress for us to have that speed, execution, moving the puck quick and moving the puck into speed. That's where we're at our best.”

The team returns to Utah for a three game homestand. Up first, a Monday night matchup against the Los Angeles Kings.

Additional Notes from Tonight

• Logan Cooley did not play against the Flames. The forward has a lower-body injury and will go through further evaluation back in Utah.

• Barrett Hayton played in Cooley’s place on a line with Daniil But and Dylan Guenther.

• The power play units shifted with Cooley’s absence. Nick Schmaltz went back on the first power play unit while Kailer Yamamoto joined PP2.
• The Mammoth finished their sixth of 11 back-to-backs sets this season with tonight’s game.

Upcoming Schedule

• Dec. 8: UTA vs LAK
• Dec. 10: UTA vs FLA
• Dec. 12: UTA vs SEA