Mammoth end Stars’ 15-game streak with 6-3 win
· Yahoo Sports
The odds heavily favored the Dallas Stars as they hosted the Utah Mammoth on Monday.
They were on a 15-game winning streak, dating back to Jan. 22, while the Mammoth had lost four games in a row. It was a bit of a scheduled loss for the visitors, starting backup goaltender Vítek Vaněček to give Karel Vejmelka some extra rest.
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But on-ice play doesn’t care about odds.
The Mammoth scored in just about every situation: on the power play, short-handed, at even strength and on an empty net.
With a 6-3 final score, the Mammoth far exceeded the expectation that head coach André Tourigny’s set after morning skate, when he said a singular goal that goes in off the post would likely determine the winner.
“Someone told me that we hadn’t lost in 55 days,” said Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan. “But whenever you lose, it still feels the same.”
That said, it wasn’t the Mammoth’s smoothest game.
Nate Schmidt scored their second goal, which came on Utah’s third shot of the game — and that was just 2:40 shy of the game’s halfway point. The floodgates remained open after that, though, as the visitors finished the game with 22 shots on net.
“We got opportunistic early in the game — we know that — but still, our game got better during the game, throughout the game, against a really good team," Tourigny said.
The win couldn’t have come at a better time for the Mammoth, whose recent blunders had tightened the gap in the standings between them and everyone on their tail. Winning on Monday restores their lead to five points.
Holding down the fort
In the 1923 Stanley Cup Final, Ottawa Senators goaltender Clint Benedict took a rather nasty slashing penalty on Edmonton Eskimos defenseman Joe Simpson. In those days, goalies had to sit in the box when they took penalties, meaning the Senators had to play without a goalie.
Eventual Hall of Famer King Clancy recalls Benedict’s message to him as he skated off the ice.
“You take care of this place ’til I get back,” he said.
And that’s exactly what Clancy did, fending off a pair of shots en route to a 1-0 victory to capture the Cup.
The stakes for the Mammoth on Monday may not have been quite that high, but you’d imagine Kevin Stenlund, who has played more short-handed minutes than any other NHL forward this season, had a similar message to his teammates when he was forced to sit out against the league’s second-best power play team.
Not only was Utah a perfect three for three against the league’s most dangerous power play scorer, Wyatt Johnston, and the Stars — they also scored short-handed, thanks to Jack McBain.
Bainer with the shorty! pic.twitter.com/q3g4jFxCy3
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) March 17, 2026
“Sometimes, when you miss a key player like Stenny, who’s, in my book, a top-three penalty killer in the league (and) our best face-off guy, I think that raises the awareness and the urgency of everybody,” Tourigny said.
“I like the way the guys responded. I think that was a really, really tough power play to play against, and the boys, they grabbed the challenge. They were ready for it. Really proud of them.”
What’s next?
If things continue to hold the way they have for the last few months, the Mammoth’s first-round playoff opponent will be the winner of the Pacific Division. Three of their next four games are against teams that are in the running for that crown, which means this is likely a sneak-peek for mid-April.
First up are the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, against whom Utah has had some wild games over the last two seasons. The following day, they return home to host the Anaheim Ducks, followed by the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers with a one-day break separating each contest.
So, what’s next for the Mammoth? A war of attrition.