Oilers Game Notes: Sprint for Pacific crown begins with potential first-round preview in in Utah<\/p>\n
The Oilers are in control of their destiny with five games remaining in the regular season. A strong finish could result in Edmonton\u2019s first division title since the 1980s, while a stumble could send them on the road for the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
This sprint for seeding in the Pacific Division begins against the Utah Mammoth, a team trying to lock down the top wild-card spot<\/a> in the Western Conference.Edmonton Oilers @ Utah MammothDate: Tuesday, April 7Start Time: 7:30 PM MTLocation: Salt Lake City, UtahVenue: Delta CenterWatch: Sportsnet<\/p>\n 1. As things stand, Edmonton and Utah are on track to meet in the first round of the playoffs, though plenty can change over the final days of the season.<\/p>\n The Oilers, Ducks, and Golden Knights are separated by just one point in the standings<\/a> after 77 games. Edmonton and Anaheim each sit at 87 points, with the Oilers holding the tiebreaker based on regulation wins. Vegas, currently on a three-game winning streak, is right behind them with 86 points.<\/p>\n Utah has a bit more breathing room in the wild-card race. The Mammoth have 86 points through 76 games, sitting three ahead of Los Angeles, four up on Nashville, and five clear of San Jose.<\/p>\n 2. The Oilers head out on a three-game road trip this week<\/a>, visiting Utah on Tuesday, San Jose on Wednesday, and Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon. They will then return home for their final homestand<\/a> of the season, hosting the Avalanche and Canucks.<\/p>\n Anaheim is in the middle of a five-game losing streak that began with a 4-2 loss to Edmonton in late March. The Ducks have three home games this week against the Predators, Sharks, and Canucks before closing the season on the road against Minnesota and Nashville.<\/p>\n Vegas has won three straight since making a surprising late-season coaching change, replacing Bruce Cassidy with John Tortorella. The Golden Knights opened a four-game road trip with a 5-1 win in Edmonton on Saturday and will continue that trip with stops in Vancouver, Seattle, and Colorado before finishing the season at home against the Jets and Kraken.<\/p>\n 3. After finishing 11th in the Western Conference in their first season in Utah, the Mammoth are looking to clinch their first playoff appearance under their new identity.<\/p>\n The history of the Coyotes didn\u2019t carry over with the move, but there are still a few players around from Arizona\u2019s last playoff appearance in 2020. Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse each played nine games in the bubble playoffs, while a 19-year-old Barrett Hayton appeared in three.<\/p>\n Arizona defeated Nashville in the qualifying round before losing 4-1 to Colorado in the first round. The last time the franchise won a traditional seven-game playoff series was in 2011-12, when Dave Tippett and Mike Smith led Phoenix to the Western Conference Final.<\/p>\n The only player still active in the NHL from that run is Oliver Ekman-Larsson, now 34 and playing for Toronto.<\/p>\n 4. Utah ranks 13th in the NHL with 248 goals scored and fourth with 218 goals against. The Mammoth\u2019s power play sits below league average at 19.4 percent, while their penalty kill is middle of the pack at 78.8 percent.<\/p>\n Clayton Keller leads the way offensively with 78 points in 76 games, followed by Nick Schmaltz (68) and Dylan Guenther (67). An Edmonton native and former Oil King, Guenther has a career-high 38 goals this season.<\/p>\n Mikhail Sergachev anchors the blue line, averaging a team-leading 24:19 per night while producing 55 points in 72 games. The Mammoth added MacKenzie Weegar from Calgary to bolster the top pairing, though he missed the team\u2019s last game with an upper-body injury.<\/p>\n Karel Vejmelka has carried the load in net, leading the NHL in minutes played at 3,451:51 across 59 starts. He owns a 35-19-3 record with a .897 save percentage and a 2.71 goals-against average.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0Since the Coyotes won their last-ever game as an NHL club against the Oilers at the end of the 2023-24 season, Edmonton has gone 5-0 against Utah, outscoring the Hockey Club\/Mammoth 26-10 in the process.<\/p>\n