Utah Mammoth John Marino takes in the warm up before their game against the St Louis Blues Thu Apr 3, at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City (Utah Mammoth X photo)

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–The Utah Mammoth (43-32-6) suited up early Thursday afternoon for their nationally televised regular season finale against the St. Louis Blues (36-33-12). Regardless of the outcome, head coach André Tourigny entered the contest riding a streak of five consecutive seasons of continuous improvement beginning with a 25-50-7 record in his Arizona Coyotes debut in 2021-22. The Mammoth dropped a 5-3 decision to the Blues.on Thursday.

St. Louis took an early lead in the first period when Pavel Buchnevich picked up a loose puck to the side of the Utah net and knocked it in for his 20th of the season at 3:45 assisted by Jordan Kyrou and Pius Suter. With just over three minutes remaining in the frame, Michael Carcone evened things up with a snap shot into the top shelf corner over the right shoulder of netminder Joel Hofer for his 16th of the season, assisted by JJ Peterka and John Marino.

Carcone is enjoying a bounce back season in Utah after having initially anticipated to be playing elsewhere following a disappointing seven-goal campaign last year. He won’t be looking for a new home this coming offseason, having signed a two-year, $3.5 million contract extension last month. The two squads headed to the locker room knotted up at one apiece, with Hofer having stopped 8 of 9 shots and Karel Vejmelka turning away 10 of 11.

Lawson Crouse gave Utah their first lead of the game at the drop of the puck in the second period, banging in a rebound off a shot by MacKenzie Weegar 45 seconds into the frame. Clayton Keller picked up the second assist on Crouse’s 24th goal of the season. The goal matched Crouse’s previous career high of 24 from the 2022-23 season in Arizona, and Keller’s assist extends his franchise assist and point streak record to 10 games. Keller joins Quinn Hughes (MIN) and Artemi Panarin (NYR) as the only players in the NHL to register 10-game assist streaks this season.

At 8:14, Robert Thomas tied it up again with his 23rd goal of the season, one-timing a nifty backwards pass from Dylan Holloway who was battling two defenders at the side of the net. Three minutes later Thomas struck again, putting the Blues up 3-2 with his 24th goal, assisted by Cam Fowler and Holloway. With 68 seconds remaining in the frame, Kailer Yamamoto came through with his 13th of the season to even the score once again, assisted by Weegar and Keller.

There may have been a buzzer to mark the end of the period, but it might as well have been a trip gong of a boxing match as fists began to fly between the players on the ice. When the scrum concluded, Logan Cooley and Philip Broberg were each assessed two-minute roughing penalties to carry over into the third period. Hofer stopped 9 of 11 Mammoth shots in the period, while Vejmelka turned away 5 of 7.

With the score still tied 3-3 and less than three minutes remaining in the third, the possibility of an overtime match and even the first shootout of the season for the Mammoth seemed in play, but when Utah defenseman Nate Schmidt attempted to clear the puck from behind the net, St. Louis defenseman Logan Mailloux snagged it off the dasher boards and wristed a backhand shot past Vítek Vaněček who had entered the game in the third to spell Vejmelka.

Mailloux’s unassisted goal was his fifth of the season, giving the Blues a 4-3 lead. With Vaněček pulled for an extra attacker, Robert Thomas completed his hat trick into an empty net with 38 seconds remaining to put the game away 5-3. Utah completes the regular season with new franchise records in wins (43), points (92), and points percentage (.561).

Following the game, the Mammoth remained on the ice for the team’s regular season awards as follows: All-In Award: Lawson Crouse Community Obsessed Award: Michael Carcone Three-Stars Award: Dylan Guenther Leading Scorer: Clayton Keller (26g, 62a, 88pts) Team MVP: Clayton Keller

Mammoth Governor Ryan Smith concluded the award presentations telling the home fans, “This is your team. Tusks up! Let’s Go!”

In the locker room, Crouse commented on receiving the “All In” team award, “I think I just try and do my best each and every night out there. Obviously, a lot of guys on our team do so too. I think if you look around the room, there’s a lot of guys that come out for that award, and I am obviously very grateful to get that recognition.” On bringing the playoffs to Utah for the first time and what he’s expecting from the home crowd, Crouse added, “Feeling that energy and that atmosphere out there each and every night, I find it hard to believe that there is another level. Considering how loud they have been, they’ve continued to blow us away. So I’m sure they have something in the bag for us for the playoffs.”

On winning the MVP award, captain Clayton Keller said, “It means a lot, for sure. There’s lots of other guys in this room that could have received it. It’s very special, and it means a lot for sure.” As the Mammoth prepare to travel to Las Vegas for Game 83, Keller continued, “It’s super exciting. We’re so excited to be in the playoffs. This is where we wanted to go, and now the real fun starts. Regular season’s over. It doesn’t matter at all, really. It’s focus on Vegas.” Asked what makes Utah dangerous in the first round of the playoffs, Keller said, “I think we’re a very confident team right now. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, lots of excitement, and great for our group to get into the playoffs and feel that. So I think we’re, like I said, super confident and can’t wait.”

Forward Michael Carcone, asked about receiving the Community Obsessed Award, said, “It’s exciting. Like I said from day one, this community has been special and done so much for my family and myself, so obviously getting recognized for this award is special to me.” With regard to the playoffs, Carcone added, “We did our job getting there, and now it’s on to the next milestone here – getting some wins, getting some experience, and doing what we came here to do.” When the Mammoth return to Delta Center, Carcone is expecting the volume to increase even further. “I mean, you’ve seen it the last few games, right? It’s been pretty electric in here. I think the fans are excited, just as excited as us, so it’s going to be special.”

Utah Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny has frequently spoken of his team’s resilience in post-game interviews, and Thursday was no different. “The resilience of the guys, the way they fought during the season, through certain moments of adversity, showed a lot of growth in our ability to have urgency when it was important. We stayed away from long periods of adversity. We were capable of having good consistency and strung a few winning streaks together that pushed us over the edge. Happy about the maturity our team had and how much they gel. Even if we have always been the team who is really tight to each other, you can’t take that for granted. Same thing with your family, my family, and all of our families. You don’t take relationships for granted. So, as much as we were tight, we’re even tighter now. So proud of the guys for that. I think they earned everything. They earned the right to play game 83. We talked about it all season long. Proud of the guys for that and excited to get going.” When asked if “brotherhood” is a superpower of the team, Tourigny said, “Yep, it is. I think there’s the excitement for wanting each other, the love they have for each other, and how much they care. I think that goes a long way. We said that we had so many examples this year when we were in adversity. Some guy had the opportunity to sign a long-term deal, and so on and so forth. I think all of that showed how much our team likes each other.”

The first ever playoff hunt for the Mammoth begins Sunday in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights.

André Tourigny’s career coaching record, seasons 1-3 in Arizona and 4-5 in Utah: 2021-22: 25-50-7 (57pts) 2022-23: 28-40-14 (70pts) 2023-24: 36-41-5 (77pts) 2024-25: 38-31-13 (89pts) 2025-26: 43-33-6 (94pts)