The Utah Mammoth look to extend their winning streak to four games when they host the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday in Salt Lake City.
The Mammoth picked up their most recent triumph on Friday with a 4-2 victory against the St. Louis Blues. It’s the first time they’ve won three games in a row since reeling off seven straight from Oct. 15-26.
“I think the guys, they’re even-keeled right now,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “They really focus on the process, on what they have to do. They were just in the right frame of mind and humble, urgent every shift, even when we took the lead, we did not change the way we played.”
Nick Schmaltz led the way on Friday with two goals and an assist, with his tallies opening and sealing the scoring.
The Mammoth twice held a two-goal lead that was cut in half. Their 2-0 advantage lasted all of 10 seconds before the Blues got on the board, and St. Louis narrowed it to 3-2 late in the second period.
“We’ve talked about it the last little bit here about maintaining pressure when we’re up,” Schmaltz said. “I thought earlier in the year we gave up some leads and kind of sat back and watched teams kind of dictate the play, and I thought tonight was another big win. We kind of shut it down and scored a big goal, and it mattered. So it shows a lot about this group and we’ve got to keep it going.”
Schmaltz’s 16 goals and 40 points each rank second on the team, behind Dylan Guenther (21) and Clayton Keller (41) respectively. He’s seven goals shy of his career high of 23, set in 2021-22 when the team was known as the Arizona Coyotes.
Keller had three assists on Friday, with two of those coming on Schmaltz’s goals.
“We know where each other are at all times on the ice and we’re always looking for each other. It’s been a heck of a ride playing with him, and hopefully we have many more great memories ahead.”
Things haven’t been nearly as rosy for the Blue Jackets of late.
Columbus has lost four straight games (0-3-1) following a 4-0 setback against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.
“I really like the way we played,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “There’s bad losses and losses you can be upset about, and rightfully so. But I feel like today against a team like that, outside of not scoring for us, I feel like we played hard. If we play hard like that, that’s our standard. We just have to score now. It (stinks), obviously, but I like the way we worked.”
Columbus has been outscored 19-9 during its slide, allowing at least four goals in each game.
“I know it sounds crazy, but we saw a lot of good things (against Colorado),” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “… Did we make some mistakes? Sure. We did some good things, and I know it sounds kind of silly when you lose 4-0, but obviously that’s a great team. And we think we can build on some stuff. We need to, obviously, continue to do that.”
–Field Level Media
