Mammoth Show They Can Beat Anyone in the NHL, Beat Oilers 4-2

Don’t look now, but the Utah Mammoth are third in the whole league in points, only trailing the defending Stanley Cup champions and the runner-up from last season. Their sixth win came against the Edmonton Oilers, who, up until Thursday night, had yet to suffer a regulation loss. The Mammoth changed that with a 4-2 win.

It was a standout game for Logan Cooley, who had been having a quiet start to the 2026-27 season. Similar to Nick Schmaltz in the inaugural season, the forward was putting up assists but not scoring. Across seven games, he had six assists.

Against the Oilers, that changed. Off a nice backhanded pass from Vincent Trocheck, Cooley put home his first goal of the season. It’s the second straight game where we’ve seen the Pittsburgh connection between the two. While Dylan Guenther and Cooley have found chemistry with Anders Lee, there is no debate that the offseason play between the two Pittsburgh natives has helped fuel the recent change of adding Trocheck to the second line.

“It's awesome,” Cooley said. “I think he said it, but it almost does feel like it's still summertime, and we're just out there playing around. Obviously a great pass by him, and hopefully we’ll keep it rolling.”

That wasn’t even the end of Cooley’s night. The forward’s nicest move came off an assist on Clayton Keller’s goal. On the power play, Nick Schmaltz almost lost the puck on the side of the net, but Cooley was able to gain control of it and pass it between his legs to Keller, who finished it.

It wasn’t just the points that Cooley brought on Thursday. The forward had some really good shifts that helped the Mammoth win this game. The big one was on the penalty kill when Cooley was able to drive the puck into the Oilers’ zone and almost get a shot on net, killing 15 seconds of the Oilers’ power play.

“Goal or no goal, Cooley played hockey,” head coach André Tourigny said. “A hell of a game today. He competed. He brought the puck to the net. He had speed. He was good. With and without all the puck. He was really competitive. I’m really proud of his game and his line.”

On the topic of power plays, the Mammoth’s unit went back to being nearly unstoppable. On the man advantage, the team went two-for-three, with Keller scoring and Barrett Hayton’s first of the season. If you’re keeping track, this puts the Mammoth’s power play back near the top of the NHL. It currently sits at second, operating at a 34.5% success rate.

“We're just attacking,” Hayton said. “That first unit has been so good, snapping around. They're so dangerous, and they've done a great job keeping that mindset. We just tried to do the same thing, to be honest.”

The penalty kill was pretty solid against the number seven power play in the league. The Mammoth successfully killed both of the Oilers’ power plays, pretty impressive if you consider that both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl run that unit.

The Mammoth also held McDavid’s top line to few shots for nearly half of the game. While Draisaitl scored with McDavid assisting, the two of them did not end up back on the scoresheet again.

“We like the way how hard we were to defend, how hard we were to play against, and how hard we defended,” Tourigny said. “I think we were competing. We had emotion, but we were under control. Extremely proud of the boys.”

Hayton’s first goal was assisted by Kailer Yamamoto, who now has a point in all three of the games he’s played this season. He is continuing to prove he should be an everyday NHL player regardless of whether it’s with the Mammoth or not. Yamamoto does everything right. He has great speed and skill, isn’t afraid to get in front of the net and either knock in loose pucks or provide screens, and he does a great job setting players up for goals.

Yamamoto has put the Mammoth in an interesting situation with his explosive start. When Michael Carcone eventually comes back from injury, who has also had a good start to the season, they’ll have to remove someone from the lineup if they want to put him back in. Do they put Daniil But in the press box, who has also looked good this season and was trusted by Tourigny to defend against McDavid and Draisaitl with less than two minutes left? Maybe Kevin Stenlund, whose role has been done well by someone like Vincent Trocheck?

Either way, it’s an interesting debacle that the Mammoth will have in a few weeks. You can never have too much depth in the NHL, one might say, but with the Mammoth, it will force a good and valuable player out of the lineup.

Overall, it was a good game against a very good hockey team. There are two things that will be overlooked when looking back at this game. Keller had two goals (albeit one was an empty-netter), and he is now up to 11 points in eight games. Karel Vejmelka also had a really good game, making 22 saves and posting a .917 save percentage. It’s a good stat line to see after a heavily criticized game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“We had a ton of focus,” Hayton said. “We talked prior to this game; unique situation playing a team two times in a row. They're a great team over there. They've had a great start to the season, so it was a big challenge for us, and I thought we embraced that.”

There were some very energized scrums during the game, including one after Jack McBain checked Draisaitl pretty hard. It’s a very big part of the game to remember because the Mammoth will play the Oilers again on Saturday. We’ll see if that carries over at all.

After a shaky game on Tuesday, this was the strong win the Mammoth needed to strengthen their confidence. With a pretty tough schedule to round out October, this is the type of win that shows the Mammoth can beat anyone.

“They're an unbelievable team over there,” Cooley said. “Some of the best players in the world, and when we have a showing like that, playing committed hockey, we could beat anyone in this league. That's the confidence we need and the confidence we're going to have going through the rest of the season.”

The Mammoth will play the Oilers again on Saturday. The Mammoth’s record now stands at 6-2-0, while the Oilers now have a record of 5-1-1.