SALT LAKE CITY – Penalties plagued the Utah Mammoth on Friday night as they gifted the New Jersey Devils five opportunities on the man advantage and were eventually punished.
Despite a commendable effort through the first four penalty kills, the fifth was the difference as New Jersey finally cashed in.
Here are the key takeaways from Utah’s narrow 2-1 loss to the Devils.
Danil But was cheesin’ from cheek to cheek after scoring first NHL goal for Utah
It happened.
After 10 games in a Utah Mammoth sweater, rookie forward Daniil But’s hard work finally paid off as he scored his first goal in the National Hockey League against the New Jersey Devils.
How’d he do it?
By playing his game, putting himself in high-danger situations and releasing a silky-smooth backhander to beat Jacob Markstrom top shelf.
First @NHL goal for Cheeks!!! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/yO76rMD9H4
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) December 20, 2025
This goal was a long time coming for No. 19.
Through all 10 games he’s dressed for the Mammoth, But has worked his tail off by continuously going to the net, battling in the dirty areas, digging for loose pucks and offering a complete performance in all three zones.
Eventually, he was rewarded for his efforts and immediately smiled from cheek to cheek after lighting his first NHL lamp.
LOOK AT CHEEKS GO!!! pic.twitter.com/KF6JvMa7Lk
— Cap’n Cook 🦣 (@JazzePinkman) December 20, 2025
“Awesome moment for him,” Alexander Kerfoot said. “He’s a young kid who is going to score lots of goals in this league. He’s had some looks. It was nice for him to see one go in and hopefully the floodgates open for him.”
“He’s been around the puck, around the net, it was just a matter of time before he got one.”
Like Kerfoot said, But is going to score a lot of goals in the NHL.
Given his size, silky mitts, vision, awareness, approach and laser beam of a shot, he’s built to be a goal scorer.
“It was a matter of time,” Head coach Andre Tourigny explained. “He’s playing good hockey. I had no doubt it was coming.”
Once he’s able to master a complete 200-foot game consistently, he’ll likely be a very influential top six forward in Utah for many years to come.
For now, as long as he continues to play in a similar fashion, it’s hard to imagine that he’ll head back to Tucson anytime soon.
The Utah Mammoth took too many penalties against New Jersey, and it cost them
Killing four power plays in the NHL on any given night is wildly impressive.
However, when a team commits five penalties, their PK unit will undoubtedly wear down and all it takes is a single goal to overshadow what would’ve been a commendable performance.
Such was the case on Friday night as the Utah Mammoth refused to stay out of the box and eventually, the New Jersey Devils punished them for it.
Knock knock. Noesen’s there.#NJDevils | @Mikes_Amazing pic.twitter.com/FqkWFWwKiv
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 20, 2025
Through the first four penalties, Utah’s PK remained impenetrable as they held their shape, disrupted passes with active sticks, clogged shooting lanes and received stellar play between the pipes from Karel Vejmelka.
But after committing their fifth, the Mammoth were simply begging to be scored on as roughly half of the power play units in the NHL score on 20 percent or more of their opportunities.
As one of those teams, the Devils were statistically bound to light the lamp.
Now, to be fair, the PK was still really good against New Jersey.
Killing four penalties is tough, especially considering that one was a five-on-three.
But any night a team takes five trips to the box; it’s going to be a challenge to win no matter how good their PK has been.
Following another one-goal loss, Utah needs to find ways to stay in the wild card race
One-goal games have not been overly kind to the Utah Mammoth this season.
Through 16 matchups decided by a single goal, Utah has won just seven and only two of those have come over the last six weeks.
Meanwhile, the loss to New Jersey marks their eighth one-goal loss over roughly the same period of time.
That needs to change.
As of right now, the Utah Mammoth find themselves in the third spot of the Wild Card race in the Western Conference with 37 points.
The two teams ahead?
The San Jose Sharks (37) and Los Angeles Kings (39).
The good news for Utah is that they’re still within striking distance which is the goal for these next seven weeks.
Do whatever it takes to remain relevant and within three or four points of the race.
The bad news, however, is that both the Sharks and Kings have several games in hand which provides an opportunity to create separation.
That puts a little more pressure on Utah, especially in these one-goal games where they’ve had an abundance of chances to tie things up or take the lead themselves.
What it boils down to is executing on those opportunities.
Scoring more goals on the power play, finding a way to finally score in some six-on-five situations and giving just a little bit more to secure precious points.
If not, things could go south fairly quick.
The NHL is an unforgiving league and the teams ahead of them have a chance to put Utah in a really tight spot.
So, while the overall effort against New Jersey was good, it needs to better and borderline desperate in certain situations.
If they can execute, they’ll hang around just enough to push for a spot down the stretch.
If they can’t, points will quickly slip away along with any playoff hopes.
What’s next for the Utah Mammoth?
The Utah Mammoth will continue their two-game home stand against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night at 5 p.m. MT.
The game will be available on Mammoth+.
All Mammoth games will also be broadcast live on the KSL Sports Zone (97.5 FM/1280 AM).
Cole Bagley is the Utah Mammoth insider for KSL Sports. Keep up with him on X here. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.
Take us with you, wherever you go.
