Hometown Heroics From Logan Cooley Leads Mammoth to Overtime Win Over Penguins

The final minute of the Utah Mammoth’s Thursday night game against the Pittsburgh Penguins might’ve been more exciting than the 59 minutes that preceded it. If you still don’t believe that the Mammoth don’t care for the dramatics, this will certainly change that.

What looked like a surefire 3-2 win for the Mammoth heading into the third period turned into a 4-3 overtime win in Pittsburgh. It’s their second overtime win in the past three games.

Yet, the biggest story on Thursday wasn’t even the player who scored the overtime winner. It was the player who scored the other three goals. Logan Cooley returned to his hometown on a mission: to do whatever he could to help his team win this game.

Less than five minutes into this game, Cooley struck first, sniping a shot from the faceoff circle. His next goal came nearly 10 minutes later when he knifed his way through the middle of the ice, keeping the puck away from Erik Karlsson and Spencer Statsney while finishing off the play to score.

Yet, as impressive as that goal was, the biggest one came with one second remaining in the game. With a Vincent Trocheck shot hitting Artūrs Šilovs and bouncing off him, Cooley swept it out of midair and into the back of the net to tie the game at three.

“That's big for us,” head coach André Tourigny said. “Not because we won the game, not because we tied. We were able to refocus on the emotional situation where we just gave up the lead. We felt we had a lot of chance to separate ourselves. We did not. There was frustration. We're capable of making the big play at the key moment…It was a big play, a key moment, and we'll take it.”

It was special that Trocheck, who is also from the Pittsburgh area and has skated with Cooley most offseasons, assisted on that goal. What else was special was the goal being the third six-on-five goal with the goaltender pulled in Mammoth franchise history. Two of those have been in the past two games.

Before this game, Cooley had never scored a goal against his hometown team. With his family in attendance, he made sure to change that on Thursday. The hat trick was the fourth of his young career but arguably the most special.

“It means everything,” Cooley said. “Growing up here and having the support of my family and everything they've sacrificed, it truly means so much to me. Without them, I'm not here. It’s nice to pay them back a little bit and have them all come together and just watch a game and keep cheering me on. I got such a supportive family, and I’m happy to have them.”

The game was also one of the most dominant games of Cooley’s career so far. It felt like every time he was on the ice, he had some sort of scoring chance. The forward finished with five shots on net, prompting Mikhail Sergachev to comment that he channeled his inner Connor McDavid against the Penguins.

“He's one of our top players who's supposed to be doing that, but I'm happy for him,” Sergachev said. “He had a little bit of a slow start, but he's going to show everyone what kind of player he is. He's an unbelievable skater. He defends hard. He does everything right. When he puts it all together, he's what he is tonight.”

Speaking of Sergachev, he also played hero on Thursday night for the Mammoth. In overtime, after a Dmitri Simashev giveaway, multiple chances for Cooley and Clayton Keller to score, and more than three minutes of thrilling action, Barrett Hayton tried to score, but it was a rebound opportunity off his chance, collected by Sergachev, that wound up ending the game.

Sergachev had a good game, playing north of 26 minutes and registering five blocks. He’s been impressive all season offensively, but over the past couple of weeks, his defensive play has really been on display.

With all the excitement late, it does mask some of the bad that went on in the first 59 minutes that drove the Mammoth to this point. The team had one power play opportunity, and while they didn’t score on it, they did allow the Penguins to score on it and tie the game. Not a great showing.

The Mammoth also faltered a little bit in the second, allowing Erik Karlsson to score again for the second straight game against the Penguins. While they did have their normal dominant third period, it has become a common occurrence for the Mammoth to be outshot in the first two periods and follow it up with a comeback third.

Give some credit to Šilovs. While his stats don’t look the best, he battled hard on Thursday after giving up two early goals. 

On the topic of goaltenders, Sebastian Cossa had a great game himself. With one minute to go, he stopped a cross-crease shot by Sidney Crosby. It was an excellent save on a play that looked like it was going to end with the puck in the back of the net.

“He was in the right spot all the time, not giving up rebounds, and just covering the puck or playing the puck behind the net,” Sergachev said. “It gives you a lot of confidence when your goalie starts a game like that. I thought we played pretty well in front of him, blocking a lot of shots.”

Sergachev is right. In the first period alone, the Mammoth blocked 11 shots. They ended up blocking 20 in total. It was a great performance by the blueline.

The win also creates a special moment for the newest member of the blueline. Artem Duda, who played his first NHL game, had a very solid debut. In 15 minutes of playing time, he had four shots, two takeaways, and one block. Duda was even close to scoring a goal in the third period, something that would’ve really gotten the Mammoth bench hyped.

“I would have loved that,” Tourigny said. “He played in an assertive way. It's good for Dudy. I'm really happy about the way he jumped in that game. He did not dip his toe. He did not hesitate. He looks assertive. He looks confident. Really like his game.”

Sergachev doubled down on Tourigny’s comments, saying he has all the tools to be a great defenseman. Coming from a top NHL defenseman like that, you can’t help but be happy if you’re Duda.

After a close loss to the Minnesota Wild coming into a five-game road trip, this was a win the Mammoth needed. They probably didn’t need the wild waves of emotions they faced in the third period, but they managed to ride through it and got the two points they needed. At the end of the day, that’s what matters.

“There's going to be adversity throughout each game,” Cooley said. “I thought we did a great job of staying with it. We're up, we give one up on the power play, they score one there, and the resiliency to come back with 22 seconds left and find a goal- it's huge. You're going to need that in some of these moments. That was a big time moment for sure.”

The game showed off the Mammoth’s resilience and ability to come up big in big moments. It showed off how good Cossa can be, how elite Cooley can be, and how the Mammoth’s blueline can really lead the charge offensively. Credit that to whoever you want, but Cooley has his own reasoning for the win.

“It’s that Pittsburgh air,” Cooley said.

With a performance like he had, you can’t argue with that.

The Mammoth will play the Philadelphia Flyers next on Sunday. The Flyers are 3-8-4 and are coming off a 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals.