The Utah Mammoth continue their push for a playoff berth as they host the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.
This will be the third and final game between these teams this season. The Oilers won the first two meetings of the season and have won five straight in the overall series.
The Mammoth (40-30-6, 86 points) sit fourth in the Central Division and currently occupy the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference playoff race. They have won three straight and six of their last nine as they shoot for their first playoff berth since the franchise relocated to Salt Lake City in 2024. The franchise made the playoffs once in its final 12 years as the Arizona/Phoenix Coyotes, getting booted from the first round in the truncated 2019-20 season.
Utah should be full of confidence after its last time out, a 7-4 win against the Vancouver Canucks. In that game, captain Clayton Keller had his third career hat trick and added an assist. Dylan Guenther and Lawson Crouse each had a goal and an assist, Logan Cooley had two assists and Karel Vejmelka made 19 saves.
Liam O’Brien also found the back of the net after not being in the lineup since Feb. 4.
“We have a deep lineup, and anyone that steps in is a great player, and someone that knows our systems well and can contribute,” Keller said. “We reacted good to a little adversity. Great effort by everyone and heck of a goal by ‘OB’ there, too. That was unreal. He’s such a great teammate, great guy, and he grinds every single day, so that’s awesome to see too.”
“Everybody’s winning, so we need to win,” Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny said. “At the end of the day, we want to play game 83. In order to do that, you need to win games. You’re not going in because anybody let you in. You need to keep winning games, and it’s not over.”
It certainly isn’t over for the Oilers (39-29-9, 87 points), who are hunting for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1990. Edmonton has gone to the Stanley Cup Final each of the last two years, losing both times to the Florida Panthers. Now, the Oilers are tied with the Anaheim Ducks for first place in the Pacific Division and have won seven of their last 10 games.
They are also fighting to get back into the win column following a disappointing 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, who are just one point behind the Oilers in the division standings. Evan Bouchard scored the lone goal, and Connor Ingram made 28 saves for the Oilers, who were previously riding a five-game winning streak.
“When things are going well, you forget about those details, those first couple of strides coming back, get a little extra aggressive on the pinch,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “You’re thinking maybe you’re overconfident, getting a little bit lazy, or whatever it is, I think we’re just not paying attention to those details.”
“We got away from the way that we know how to play,” Oilers defenseman Jake Walman added. “We were slow (Saturday), and that’s the result against a team like that.”
