Utah Falls to Vegas, 4-1

SALT LAKE CITY – A three-goal second period propelled the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-1 win over the Utah Mammoth. Nate Schmidt scored his first goal as a Mammoth. Ian Cole and Captain Clayton Keller recorded assists on the play. Jack Eichel scored twice while Ben Hutton and Braeden Bowman each added a goal for the Golden Knights.

The Mammoth have an opportunity to grow from this game and learn as they move forward in the season.

“The game’s a good teacher right now,” head coach André Tourigny explained. “That game is an example for our group. We have good leadership in that group. We have good guys with experience, guys who’ve been through stuff, so that will be a good discussion we need to have together. That group shows when they want to fix things, they put their mind at it. They do it. So that’s something that’s really important.”

“There’s going to be adversity,” Keller shared. “It’s a long season, it’s hard. It’s the best league in the world and I think our group has continued to stay motivated and confident, still going through tough stretches. There’s something that we want to attack and get better at, and we address it, we usually do and respond right away.”

“Hockey’s an emotional game,” veteran defenseman Ian Cole said postgame. “If we play to the point in the season in which we want to play, (the games are) going to be very emotional. The swings are going to be emotional. The highs are going to be great. Lows are going to be the opposite … we need to find a way to be even keel through those (emotions).”

Neither team was able to score in the opening frame; however, Vegas’ offense took control in the second period. 3:09 into the middle frame, Jack Eichel scored his ninth of the season and Ben Hutton’s second of the year increased Vegas’ lead to 2-0 just 19 seconds later.

Six and a half minutes into the second period, while 4-on-4, Schmidt’s goal cut Vegas’ lead in half. After Cole lost his coverage, the defenseman passed to Schmidt, who found space, shot, and scored with help from Barrett Hayton’s screen in front of Schmid.

Ten minutes later, Eichel converted on a breakaway on a delayed Mammoth penalty and extended the visitor’s lead to 3-1. Bowman added to the Golden Knights’ lead with his third goal of the season just 45 seconds into the third period.

It’s right back to work for the Mammoth who will practice on Friday and work on reestablishing their game ahead of Saturday night.

“Tomorrow we’ll have a good practice, we’ll break down the game tonight, talk about it, figure out how we can better,” Keller shared. “That’s the good thing about sometimes losing. That’s when you learn the most about your team and yourself and it makes it even that much better when things do go your way and you get out of it.”

“Adversity can be the best teacher if you take it the right way,” Tourigny said. “If we just move on from that game and we don’t learn anything, well that’s a good recipe to lose. I think in hockey, I always say, you either win or you learn. If you just lose instead of learning that doesn’t work, you stay still. So, we need to learn from what happened.”

Additional Notes from Tonight

The Mammoth’s penalty kill continues to dominate in regulation. Not only did Utah keep the sixth-best power play from scoring, Vegas only had one shot total through all three power plays. The Mammoth have killed off 23 straight penalties in regulation.

“They’ve been great all year,” Keller said of the PK. “They have good sticks, (assistant coach John Madden) does a great job communicating with the kill, what the other team's tendencies are and what they try to do. They’ve done a heck of a job, and special teams (are a) big part of the game.”

The Mammoth’s homestand continues Saturday night with a game against the New York Rangers. Saturday is also the organization’s Hockey Fights Cancer night.

Upcoming Schedule

• Nov. 22: UTA vs NYR
• Nov. 24: UTA vs VGK
• Nov. 26: UTA vs MTL