{"id":553898,"date":"2026-04-16T14:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/553898\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T14:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:50:08","slug":"utah-mammoth-set-for-historic-first-playoff-series-against-vegas-golden-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/553898\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah Mammoth Set for Historic First Playoff Series Against Vegas Golden Knights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The stage is officially set for the Utah Mammoth\u2019s first-ever trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs \u2014 now it\u2019s just a matter of when the puck drops.<\/p>\n<p>Utah learned late Wednesday night that it will square off against the Vegas Golden Knights in the opening round, with the series expected to begin this weekend. Vegas will hold home-ice advantage after capturing the Pacific Division, meaning the Mammoth will open their postseason journey on the road in what promises to be a hostile environment.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Game dates and start times are set to be announced Thursday, adding one final layer of anticipation to what is already a historic moment for hockey in Utah.<\/p>\n<p>The matchup became official after Vegas handled the Seattle Kraken 4\u20131 on Wednesday night, locking in the first-round pairing nearly a week after Utah clinched its postseason berth. For the Mammoth, it\u2019s been a steady buildup \u2014 the kind where excitement simmers before finally boiling over.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s reason for confidence, too. Utah took the regular season series against Vegas, finishing 2\u20131\u20130 against the defending contenders. But playoff hockey rarely follows the script of the regular season, and the Golden Knights are entering at full throttle. Vegas closed out the year on a scorching 7\u20130\u20131 run, looking every bit like a team gearing up for another deep postseason push.<\/p>\n<p>That contrast \u2014 Utah\u2019s breakthrough moment versus Vegas\u2019 battle-tested core \u2014 sets the stage for a compelling first-round clash.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Before shifting its full attention to the playoffs, Utah will wrap up its regular season Thursday night at home against the St. Louis Blues. It\u2019s one last tune-up, but more importantly, one last chance for fans to soak in what\u2019s already been a landmark season.<\/p>\n<p>After that, it\u2019s all eyes on Vegas \u2014 and the beginning of something entirely new. Rock on.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Image\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b4eaa6d0d6faba8a0901ea2abfacb1ab.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stage is officially set for the Utah Mammoth\u2019s first-ever trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs \u2014 now&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[149,5,4,234,84,104,51,5290,232,3154,5291,5289,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-553898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-hockey-club","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-seattle-kraken","12":"tag-st-louis-blues","13":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","14":"tag-utah","15":"tag-utah-hc","16":"tag-utah-hockey-club","17":"tag-utah-mammoth","18":"tag-utahhc","19":"tag-utahhockeyclub","20":"tag-vegas-golden-knights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116414947764012983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}