Vejmelka Delivers in Utah’s 4-1 Win Over Vancouver

VANCOUVER – The Utah Mammoth withstood momentum swings and delivered a solid performance with a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Utah’s goaltender Karel Vejmelka stood strong in net with timely saves. His performance held Vancouver to one goal.

“Really good job by (Vejmelka),” head coach André Tourigny said after the win. “Power play (came up) with a big goal at (a) key moment. I like our battle around the net. They put a lot of pucks at the net, and they put (up) a fight in the blue paint, but we battled really hard and our goalie (stood) tall, but we were hard around the net. We were hard in our battle; I like that a lot.”

Vejmelka picked up his second straight win and improved to 12-7-2 through 22 games. The netminder stopped 31 of the 32 shots he faced in the win and ended the night with a .969 save percentage. His saves in the opening minutes of the game, and throughout pushes in the second and third periods, were key in the win.

“I think it’s important to (have) the right start and play good hockey right from the beginning of the game,” Vejmelka said of the challenge early. “Sometimes the boys need help, sometimes I need them. It’s a team win.”

“A couple backdoor plays, I think they had two in the first period, and he made key saves,” Tourigny said of Vejmelka’s quick start. “Even in the second, we did a good job to battle in the blue paint, but they put a lot of pucks with a lot of traffic. So, he was really good on his tracking, finding pucks, and you never know if that puck will deflect or not, so he did a really good job with his tracking tonight.”

Utah’s power play opened the scoring for the Mammoth 16 minutes into tonight’s game. After a faceoff win, the Mammoth held the zone and worked the puck around. Mikhail Sergachev’s shot from the point hit off a Vancouver player on its way in. Utah’s power play has scored in two straight games, and the Mammoth capitalized just 13 seconds into the man-advantage tonight. Clayton Keller and Dylan Guenther picked up assists on the play.

“It was tough for us to get over the hump,” Tourigny explained. “When you have one, sometimes two power plays a game, you have a power play for 30 seconds … It was tough to get some traction. I think the boys did a good job to, in the last couple of games even with the low number of minutes, find a way to dig deep and to get two big goals, one (Wednesday) and one today.”

Nick Schmaltz’s goal 14 minutes into the second period doubled the Mammoth’s lead and it was the forward’s 11th of the season. Schmaltz showed his strong hand-eye coordination when he redirected Sergachev’s shot to put Utah ahead, 2-0. In addition to Sergachev, JJ Peterka picked up an assist on the tally.

Arshdeep Bains got the Canucks on the board when he redirected in Aatu Räty’s shot in the first five minutes of the third period. The Mammoth weathered the momentum change and defended a one-goal lead. With 2:08 remaining in regulation, Kevin Stenlund’s goal increased the Mammoth’s lead to 3-1 and gave the visitors a cushion going into the final minutes.

Utah was shorthanded for the final 1:41 of the game; however, John Marino’s shorthanded, empty net goal increased Utah’s lead to 4-1 and secured the win. The Mammoth improved to 14-12-3 and have won two-straight games.

Following the win, players and coach Tourigny discussed the improved mindset that has helped the Mammoth to these recent wins.

“I think we changed our mindset a little bit,” Vejmelka reflected. “We just talked about it (in) the meeting. Set the right mindset, be sharp no matter what, don’t really (look at) the score and just play our game.”

“It’s a tough schedule,” Tourigny explained. “So, you get tired mentally and all what everyone (is) talking about is mental. It’s tough to be on top of our game mentally all the time when you’re tired, we can feel a little bit of fatigue here. But that’s the challenge for us, is to stay strong mentally, and make sure we manage the game the right way. And the team (that) will do it the best will take advantage of it.”

Utah wraps up its six-game road trip tomorrow night with a game against the Calgary Flames.

Additional Notes from Tonight

• With a goal and an assist against the Canucks, Sergachev has posted his fourth multi-point game of the season.
• Nick Schmaltz (1g) has now tallied three points (1g, 2a) in his last four periods.
• JJ Peterka (1a) has extended his point streak to three games (12/1-12/5: 3g, 3a).
• Clayton Keller (1a) has extended his assist/point streak to three games (12/1-12/5: 1g, 4a).
• Utah finished 1-for-2 on the man-advantage at ANA on Wednesday and has now scored power-play goals in back-to-back games for the first time since October (6 GP from 10/17-10/26).

Upcoming Schedule

• Dec. 6: UTA at CGY
• Dec. 8: UTA vs LAK
• Dec. 10: UTA vs FLA