Don’t look now, but the Utah Mammoth have a six-point lead over the best non-playoff teams in the Western Conference. With 21 games to go in the regular season, that’s not a bad place to be.

Their positioning comes with their 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday. Dylan Guenther got things started with an early goal, followed by another from Mikhail Sergachev shortly thereafter.

Pierre-Luc Dubois got the Capitals on the board before the end of the first period, but the game of catch-up never ended. JJ Peterka and Ryan Leonard each scored before game’s end and the Capitals made a strong push late, but it wasn’t enough.

“Loved the response, loved the speed of our game, obviously power play came (up) big,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny after the game. “(Karel Vejmelka) made key saves at the end, so there’s a lot of positives in our game.”

Tidbits and takeawaysPower play consistency

This section writes itself.

All season long, the Mammoth have been among the worst power play teams in the NHL — despite finishing in the top 10 in that category last year.

But with PP goals in five of their last six games, things are looking up.

Tuesday was the first time since Jan. 1 that the Mammoth scored multiple power play goals in a game. Their success rate since the beginning of February is now 33.3%, which would lead the league if they could have maintained that the entire season.

What’s been the difference for Utah’s power play recently?

You’ve probably heard the answer in every hockey player interview you’ve ever watched: “Putting pucks on net.” It’s that simple.

On so many occasions this season, Utah has opted to make the extra pass instead of shooting, and while there is value in holding out for quality scoring chances, good things happen when you put pucks on net.

“When you want to attack quickly, you cannot be complicated,” Tourigny said. “… When you’re too slow to attack, the opponent gets inside, and now there’s not really anything clean open, so now, because of that, if you want to get something, you need to force it.

“So, I think the fact we put more pucks at the net, that created some seams, created some holes on the next play because they have to get out of their structure. The fact (that) we don’t let them get too set in their structure, that helps.”

Clayton Keller, who tallied two assists on the night, agreed.

“I think when we’re moving it quick — myself included,” he said in response to the question of what Utah’s top power play form looks like.

“There’s been parts of the year where I’m holding it too much. I think, just, everyone having that attack mindset, just not letting the PK get set up, just snapping it around.”

The ‘line blender’ strikes again

Whenever the Mammoth hit a slump, Tourigny is not afraid to “throw the lines into a blender” — switch up the combinations, in other words.

Sometimes it takes a game or two to find the right permutation, but it always seems to make a difference eventually. In this instance, the effects were instantaneous: two goals in less than 14 minutes of playing time.

Lines from today:

Keller – Schmaltz – Guenther
Peterka – Cooley – Crouse
McBain – Hayton – Yamamoto/O’Brien
Kerfoot – Stenlund – Carcone/Tanev

Sergachev – Durzi
Schmidt – Marino
Cole – Maatta
DeSimone#TusksUp #AllCaps

— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) March 3, 2026

“Obviously, Gunner got a goal, but Cooley’s line (was) really good,” Tourigny said. “I was looking (at) the expected goals at the end — I think they were above 90 percent, so that is pretty awesome.

“I think (Barrett Hayton’s) line worked really hard. They’re heavy on pucks and they played well defensively. I did like (Michael Carcone’s) line the previous three game and I did like them again tonight.”

Little bit of tidying up to do

As refreshing as it is to see the Mammoth succeed on the power play, the once-dominant penalty kill is starting to recede.

Both of the Capitals’ goals on Tuesday came during Mammoth penalties, marking five straight games in which they’ve allowed a power play goal. If your special teams cancel each other out, they aren’t working to your advantage.

There doesn’t seem to be a recurring theme to any of their recent PK blunders, so it’s hard to pinpoint what has changed since their near-perfect month of November, but cleaning it up just a bit more would help them immensely in their playoff push.

Goal of the game

Dylan Guenther’s snipe

We’ve discussed the special teams ad nauseam, so we’ll turn the attention to the game’s only 5-on-5 goal here.

In the 1990s and earlier, a high percentage of NHL goals were scored on long-range shots with no traffic in front. Since then, goalies have evolved to the point where they’re nearly perfect in that type of situation, so it takes a special player to be able to consistently beat them one on one from range.

Guenther is one of those special players — and he displayed it in full on Tuesday, besting his career high in goals with a quarter-season to go.