DENVER — The Utah Mammoth’s second season opener looked different from its first in just about every way except one.
A warm home reception at the Delta Center was swapped for a hostile road environment in the Colorado Avalanche’s home opener, and Utah scored just one goal in Thursday’s 2-1 loss instead of five a year ago for a 5-2 win over Chicago. But Dylan Guenther still got the first goal of the season on both occasions.
The 22-year-old Mammoth star followed up Ross Colton’s Colorado opener in the first period with an equalizer at the 17:48 mark of the second period on a rocketing one-timer off the assist from Clayton Keller.
Guenther is the 11th player in NHL history to score in each of a franchise’s first two season openers and just the fourth player to do so since the 1967-68 season.
Former NHL most valuable player Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winner for Colorado less than three minutes into the third period, becoming the only NHL player with a game-winning goal against all 31 teams.
Utah was unable to find another equalizer as the club’s 6-on-5 goal drought continues into its 83rd game after failing to convert once in its inaugural season.
“Guenther had a couple of good looks there and, obviously, he’s an elite shooter,” alternate captain Lawson Crouse said of the late-game attempts. “So, you know, if one goes in, we’re in OT and it’s anyone’s game.”
Both goaltenders came up big in a low-scoring early-season affair; however, Colorado’s Scott Wedgewood got the better of Utah’s Karel Vejmelka with 32 saves to his 25 and a .970 save percentage to .926 for Vejmelka.
Funny enough, the Colorado crowd’s chant for Wedgewood, “Wedgie,” sounded shockingly similar to Utah’s for Vejmelka, “Veggie.”
Utah’s youth and lack of depth at the center position were evident in Thursday’s opener, as Colorado won 68% of the faceoffs, with the Mammoth’s second-line center, Barrett Hayton, held out due to an upper-body injury that has kept him on a day-to-day designation.
The team will look to rapidly improve both its health and on-ice play with another road game less than 48 hours away against the Nashville Predators.
“We expect to be better every game,” head coach Andre Tourigny said. “So looking forward to Saturday for the next one.”
Puck drop in Nashville is set for 6 p.m. MDT on Mammoth+.
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