Mammoth showcased how they can win series in Game 2
Three teams won Game 2s on Tuesday to even up their respective first-round series’ at 1-1, and while the Boston Bruins might have the most impressive among them, the Utah Mammoth weren’t far behind. The upstart Mammoth went toe-to-toe with the veteran, experienced Vegas Golden Knights, ultimately taking home the Game 2 victory by a score of 3-2 thanks to Logan Cooley’s game winner with six minutes left in the third period.
The play that led to Cooley’s game winner perfectly exemplified how Utah can use their youth and speed as an advantage over Vegas. 23-year-old forward Dylan Guenther accepted the puck in the neutral zone on a beautiful interchange with Kailer Yamamoto and attacked the offensive zone with speed, blowing past a flat-footed Shea Theodore to get a point-blank chance on goaltender Carter Hart, creating the rebound for Cooley to put home.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed what the Mammoth can take from Game 2 and carry for the rest of the series.
Tyler Yaremchuk: This is why I picked Utah in this series, because they have so many forwards. It’s not just Cooley and Guenther, it’s (Clayton) Keller as well and other names. They have so many guys that can beat you with speed, and you go “Oh man, who was the defenseman that just got absolutely walked off the rush there by Dylan Guenther?” That’s Shea Theodore. That’s supposed to be Vegas’ guy, and even he couldn’t keep up with the speed of this Utah team. Utah’s speed finally does prevail, and they even up the series 1-1, and I again will say Vegas should be very scared about how the rest of this series is going to play out.
Carter Hutton: For me, the other side of it is the (Mikhail) Sergachev turnover to tie it 2-2, where (Ivan) Barbashev gets the puck in the neutral zone and he’s able to kind of just drift through the defensemen. They kind of give him some leeway and he scores. To recover from that is very big for Utah in my opinion. To get to this situation, Guenther’s first goal is unbelievable, an absolute missile top corner. There’s a reason why he has the release he has. And then Logan Cooley, you can see on this play, he doesn’t really take a stride, he’s just using his edges to maintain speed and read where the play goes, and the forward back on that play is Jack Eichel. Jack Eichel was shutdown guy in the Olympics, he’s one of the best in the world at it. He misses his first stick check, and it’s one that just can’t happen if you’re the Vegas Golden Knights. Congrats to the Utah Mammoth, the Delta Center is going to be unbelievable.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…