After suffering three three-goal losses in a four-game home stand, the Utah Mammoth needed a win in more ways than one on Saturday.<\/p>\n
They got it against the Los Angeles Kings, finishing with a 6-2 victory. Logan Cooley and Alexander Kerfoot led the charge with two goals each, while Mikhail Sergachev ended the game with four assists.<\/p>\n
The Kings had been sneaking up on the Mammoth in the standings, so the Mammoth needed L.A. to lose almost as much as they themselves needed to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of a four-point game for us,\u201d Sergachev said. \u201cIt was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trends for the Utah MammothGoaltending<\/p>\n
In back-to-back games previous to this one, the Mammoth had to replace their starting goalie with the backup due to poor performance, and the most problematic part is that it was Karel Vejmelka one night and V\u00edtek Van\u011b\u010dek the other.<\/p>\n
When neither one of your goalies is playing well, you have a 6\u2019x4\u2032 problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Vejmelka bounced back on Saturday, making 29 saves on 31 shots.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he was in danger tonight, and he made some key stops and he played unbelievable,\u201d Sergachev said of Vejmelka. \u201cPulling or not pulling (the goalie) the previous game, it doesn\u2019t matter. We\u2019re all for Veggie and (Van\u011b\u010dek) and they\u2019re all for us. We do our jobs and they do their jobs.<\/p>\n \u201c… Most of the time, if they keep playing like that, we\u2019re going to win more than we\u2019re going to lose. We have a lot of trust in our goalies. They\u2019re amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n After Thursday\u2019s 7-4 loss to the Washington Capitals, Mammoth head coach Andr\u00e9 Tourigny stood up for his goalies, saying the entire team was at fault rather than just the netminders. On Saturday, he doubled down.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem was everybody and the success is everybody,\u201d he said. \u201cWe helped Vej today by not giving (up) a ton of quality (chances), but Vej was rock-solid when we did give (up) quality.\u201d<\/p>\n Power play<\/p>\n Last season, Utah finished 10th in the NHL in power play efficiency. This year, the Mammoth have been a bottom-five team in that regard.<\/p>\n But over the last three games, that\u2019s been trending in the opposite direction. <\/p>\n Against the Kings on Saturday, they went 2 for 3. Against the Capitals on Thursday, they were 2 for 4, and against the Oilers on Tuesday, they went 1 for 2.<\/p>\n The common denominator between those three games has been Cooley.<\/p>\n Cooley moved up to the first power play unit after Barrett Hayton got injured 17 seconds into the Oilers game<\/a>. It was the second unit that scored that day, but Cooley and his new peers have scored all four since then \u2014 including two off of No. 92\u2019s stick.<\/p>\n That begs the question: Why wasn\u2019t Cooley always on the first power play unit?<\/p>\n The answer stems from last year, when Cooley did center the first group at times. He usually played fine, but the team always had better results when Hayton was in that spot. <\/p>\n This year began the same way, but Cooley is still developing. He might now be at the point where he\u2019s ready to take on that role full-time.<\/p>\n Sergachev mentioned, too, that part of the sudden excellence has been from a shift in mindset.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a shot mentality,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything started with the shot and then it opened up and our elite players made some elite plays, and it paid off. Simplicity is the key, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n That said, the Mammoth were dominant Saturday with the man advantage even when they didn\u2019t shoot. During their last power play \u2014 the only one that didn\u2019t result in a goal \u2014 they zipped the puck around the offensive zone for what seemed like the full two minutes.<\/p>\n Tourigny and the rest of the team was just as impressed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second unit said, \u2018Wow, they\u2019re fun to watch. They should stay (out) there,\u2019\u201d Tourigny laughed after the game.<\/p>\n Confidence seems to be just as big of a factor as the things Sergachev mentioned.<\/p>\n The playoff picture<\/p>\n Most of Saturday\u2019s games went the ideal way for Utah:<\/p>\n The Mammoth beat the Kings.The Canadiens beat the Predators.The Sabres beat the Kraken (though it went to a shootout).<\/p>\n That pushes the Mammoth\u2019s lead to five points over the red-hot Predators and six points over the best non-playoff teams, the Kings and the Kraken.<\/p>\n It probably would have been advantageous to the Mammoth if the Ducks had beaten the Oilers, as most teams would rather face a team without much playoff experience than one that has been to two straight Stanley Cup Finals.<\/p>\n Tankathon<\/a> puts Utah\u2019s remaining schedule strength as the sixth-easiest in the league, and MoneyPuck<\/a> gives the Mammoth a 94.2% chance to make the postseason.<\/p>\n The Mammoth now head into a four-day break, after which they hope to come back ready to go in Seattle on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to take it really seriously in terms of making sure we manage it right,\u201d Tourigny said of the break, pointing out that the Kraken are close in the standings.<\/p>\n Gotta see it<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t know the story of Henrik and Daniel Sedin, it\u2019s well worth learning about. Identical twins drafted second- and third-overall to the same NHL team who both became first-ballot Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n