Mammoth Lose Thrilling 5-4 Game to Canadiens in Overtime Despite Red Hot Power Play

If there was any game to look forward to on the Utah Mammoth’s five-game road trip across Pennsylvania and Eastern Canada, it was definitely Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. A young exciting Canadiens team fresh off an Eastern Conference Final appearance, fired up after an embarrassing loss to the Winnipeg Jets where they blew a 4-0 lead late in the third vs another young and exciting team in the Mammoth.

It was just as good a game as many expected it to be, too. It wasn't just because the Mammoth wore their Hometown Remix jersey against the Canadiens' red home jersey, creating a beautiful color vs. color matchup. Nine goals were scored between the two teams as the game went the distance. Someone had to lose in overtime, and that ended up being the Mammoth, as Cole Caufield scored the game-winner to give the Canadiens a 5-4 win.

It wasn’t a bad game by the Mammoth either. In the first period, they found themselves actually keeping up with the Canadiens. Logan Cooley scored his ninth and 10th goals of the season to open up the game. While the Canadiens tied the game before the end of the first and outshot the Mammoth, it was only by three shots.

However, as the game went on, the Mammoth found themselves being outshot by a wider and wider margin. In the second, the Canadiens outshot their opponents 15-8. Yet, two things saved the Mammoth from losing the lead. One of those things was Cooley scoring his third goal of the game for his second hat trick of the season and on the road trip.

Cooley is now up to 11 goals in the season, which ties him for fifth in the entire NHL with Auston Matthews. He is also tied for first in the league in hat tricks with Brady Tkachuk and Cutter Gauthier. Maybe most impressive is that he is now the fastest active player to record five hat tricks, which bests Alex Ovechkin.

We are seeing the star power from Cooley that we saw at the beginning of last season before his serious injury. What’s more impressive than last season, though, is the fact that he’s doing it split from his usual linemate, Dylan Guenther. It’s showing that Cooley can play with anyone and still produce.

“I think it's just trust and instincts, trying to play with some confidence right now,” Cooley said. “When you're feeling good, you have confidence. That's when you know you feel like plays start to open up and they start to go in.” 

It’s not just on five-on-five where Cooley is scoring. He’s helping the Mammoth power play continue to be the best in the league. It was especially hot on Thursday, with the unit going three-for-five. That included what seemed to be Nick Schmaltz’s go-ahead goal in the third period that was assisted on by Cooley, making it a four-point night for him.

The penalty kill wasn’t too shabby either, going three-for-four. Part of the reason for that was the stellar play from Sebastian Cossa in his first-ever second consecutive start. While he finished with an .857 save percentage, his play was better than what the stats say. Cossa came up especially big towards the end of the second and third periods when the Mammoth were on the penalty kill.

He was the other reason why the Mammoth stayed in this game despite being outshot. Cossa at times had the Canadiens shooting at him like a shooting gallery during the penalty kills. The goaltender ended up making 30 saves on 35 shots. He does not deserve to be blamed for this loss at all. In fact, if anything, Cossa deserves to start on either Saturday against the Ottawa Senators or Wednesday against the Vegas Golden Knights.

“He was good,” head coach André Tourigny said. “Especially in the second period, he made a few big saves, allowed us to stay in the game, and was a big reason why we got the point.”

Even the overtime winner from Caufield was scored on a two-on-one opportunity that was going to be a hard one for Cossa to save. He can’t save all 35 shots that the Canadiens put up when the Mammoth only had 20.

What went wrong for the Mammoth? Five-on-five play wasn’t great. Three of the four goals scored by them were on the power play. Only 13 of the 20 shots were on five-on-five. Not to mention, the Mammoth took way too many penalties that put Cossa to work.

“You don't want to give up goals; you need to play to not give up goals,” Tourigny said. “If you play like that, you get burned. I didn’t like our mindset. I think our guys worked. That's never the problem. But we need to be better away from the puck.” 

Nate Schmidt did end up leaving during the game with an upper-body injury and didn’t return, leaving the Mammoth with just five defensemen for most of the game. We’ll see if he returns for Saturday’s game.

The Mammoth did get a point, with the Canadiens winning in overtime. It helps them stay second in the Central Division, with the Dallas Stars only a point back. That’s big.

“It's really important,” Tourigny said. “We need to keep building on that, and we need to always be angry to want more and more.”

However, the Mammoth would’ve liked to get two points. Imagine if they hadn’t surrendered that late goal to Adam Engström. Imagine if they got more shots during five-on-five play. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Yet, the Mammoth shouldn’t walk away from this one beating themselves up. The Canadiens are a good team, second in the Atlantic Division. Taking this team to overtime and getting a point isn’t bad. There were some good aspects from this game that they can take into Saturday’s game, like the power play and Cossa.

“He (Cossa) was really good in a lot of those big moments, and I thought they got a few good looks in the slot, and he was right there making big saves,” Cooley said. “The pressure we're applying up ice in the zone, when you apply pressure, and you don't give them a lot of time and space. It's hard to make plays on the power play. I think that's obviously a positive, and we’ll take that moving forward.”

It was an exciting and close game on Thursday against the Canadiens, showing some of the most exciting teams in the NHL pitted against each other. It was a very good test for the Mammoth indeed, and they showed that while there are things to fix in the next game, there is a lot to like.

The Mammoth will take on the Senators next on Saturday. The Senators are 10-6-1 and are coming off a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.