Utah Mammoth center Jack McBain (left) pulls no punches on Edmonton Oilers center Trent Frederic (right) in first period action at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Sat Oct 17, 2026 (AP News photo)
Oilers Strike Back 4-2; Mammoth loss ends 3 game win streak
Sat Oct 17, 2026
By Tom Walker
SALT LAKE CITY–The Utah Mammoth were unable to repeat their 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton on Thursday, falling victim to Connor McDavid’s 5-point night 6-2 on Saturday.
On a night where the attention of the State of Utah was focused on the Notre Dame/BYU college football game in Provo (BYU prevailed 28-24), the Central Division leading Utah Mammoth (6-2-0) returned to Delta Center on Saturday for the first of two games on the current homestand against the Edmonton Oilers (5-1-1) who they had beaten 4-2 on Thursday in Canada. Utah’s hot start this season had given them an early bump in The Athletic’s NHL Power Rankings which listed them seventh overall in the league behind Carolina, Vegas, and Edmonton.
In Saturday’s game, the hot start went to the Oilers who hit the scoreboard just 40 seconds into the contest as Connor McDavid put a backhand shot past Karel Vejmelka for his fifth goal of the season, assisted by Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin. At 13:13 of the first period, Kailer Yamamoto was whistled for interference against Colton Dach, and eight seconds into the power play Zach Hyman made it 2-0 for Edmonton with his first goal of the season, assisted by McDavid and Podkolzin.32 seconds later, Mathiew Joseph made it 3-0 with an unassisted snap shot for his first goal of the season, and the game did not get any better for the home team.
At 10:57 of the second period, Kasperi Kapanen got into the action for the Oilers, putting a snap shot past Vejmelka for his third goal of the season, assisted by McDavid and Evan Bouchard. Three minutes later Leon Draisaitl turned the game into a laugher netting his sixth of the season, assisted by McDavid and Matthias Ekholm, to put Edmonton up 5-0 as Vejmelka got pulled for backup Sebastian Cossa.
Mammoth defenseman John Marino broke up the shutout at 4:25 of the third period, assisted by Kevin Stenlund and Daniil But, for his second of the season. Marino, who was originally drafted by Edmonton in 2015, has recorded points in his last three games against the Oilers.
95 seconds later Mikhail Sergachev took the puck all the way up the ice from the Utah defensive zone, driving right down the middle into Edmonton defensemen. His shot attempt deflected off the stick of Ryan Shea, floated over the head of netminder Tristan Jarry, bounced off the top of the net onto the back of Jarry, and then trickled into the net for his third goal of the season.
ESPN referred to it as a “snap shot.” It is worth checking out the video on the internet to see this fluke goal for oneself. With the score 5-2, the Mammoth briefly appeared to have some life. They came close to a third goal on a couple of occasions, but Connor McDavid put the death nail in any hope of a comeback when he stripped the puck from John Marino near the blue line and beat Cossa to put the game completely out of reach with his 6th goal of the season halfway through the third, with the final score being 6-2.
In a subdued Mammoth locker room, defenseman Dmitri Simashev was asked about playing against McDavid and Draisaitl. “They’re probably some of the best. He’s the best player in the world,” Simashev said. “You need to be ready because he can do some magic there, but just be in the right spot in the right position. I’m not playing alone against him, we had five guys tonight, if everybody plays in the system and we’re going to be good.” Simashev was asked what changed from the previous game in Edmonton where Utah came out victorious. “We didn’t change,” the defenseman said. “The effort, of course, it’s 2-6 out there, and the effort wasn’t good today. But we did make a couple mistakes. Maybe sometimes we were unlucky, like the first three goals, but it doesn’t matter. We have to fight on the ice.” Simashev’s takeaway from the matchup, “That’s the first time we played the same team back-to-back. Next time we just need to be ready because every team, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, they will come in the next game and they want to beat you, especially at home. It’s going to be a lesson for us, just the small details.”
“It’s a little disappointing,” began associate captain Lawson Crouse at his stall. “It kind of feels a little bit similar to the Boston game where we fell behind and then opened the game up and did it to ourselves. So we can talk about learning, but we need to take those strides. It’s a decision, and I think the third period proves that. It’s a decision to go out there, play fast, play to our identity, and win battles. I love the response. Not giving up, it seems like we never do, but we need that from the drop of the puck.” On bouncing back, Crouse said, “To be honest, it’s just about having open conversation, realizing there’s no finger pointing. Everyone can be better, and that’s the best part about this group. Everyone’s hungry to get better, but like I said, it’s just unfortunate. You can’t fall asleep early in games here, it bites you in the butt and that’s proof. But like I said, that third period was a decision on our behalf, and we need that effort from the drill.”
In his opening statement to the media, Utah Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny said, “We knew it would be challenging. They will be ready on the other side. I didn’t like our compete at all in our battles. The kind of game it was in Edmonton, we knew it would be the same thing here tonight. I didn’t like the way we were in our one-on-one battles. The way we were with the dirty pucks. Our physicality was not at the level, and again, I want to make sure I’m clear: when I talk about physicality, I’m not talking about body checking necessarily. I’m talking about how heavy we were in our battles; they owned the net front in our zone and in their zone, so that’s physicality for me. That’s the way to be heavy in the game. I talked about it with the team this morning; it would be a challenge for the second game in a row where we will have that level of physicality and compete. Kudos to Edmonton; they did it for two games in a row, and we didn’t.” A silver lining to an otherwise forgettable evening was the relief performance of Sebastian Cossa. On his performance, Bear said, “Yeah, that’s cool. He was playing next game, so I think it was an opportunity for him to get some ice and to get his leg under himself.”
Were there any valuable lessons from such a beating this early in the season? “That’s absolutely the goal,” Tourigny said. “I think there’s one thing our players show every time is a lot of pride and the level of care was to the roof, so it’s not like that loss will fly easy in our room. I know the guys will take a lot of pride in it. We will do like we do every day, win or lose. We’ll analyze it, talk about it, figure out what we need to be better at and sort it out. I think if you look, the way we play against the Leafs was a little bit like that. We addressed it and we played a hell of a game in Edmonton. There’s a little fatigue right now, which is every team. I’m not saying that in terms of that’s why it happened. It’s okay if there’s a little bit of fatigue. Well, you need to manage it the right way, and you need to make sure you dig in. There’s days you wake up in the morning and you are fatigued. It’s not a reason to have a bad day. You need to say, ‘Okay, maybe I have a little bit less today. What can I do? How do I have to manage my day to have a great day and make sure I bring energy for the people around me, and be a good leader or be a good husband or father?’ You need to deal with it. We’re not looking for excuses. We’re looking to assess the situation. Make sure you find a solution, and you’re better from it.”
The Mammoth, now 6-3-0, have an opportunity to bounce back on Monday against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins after which they will travel to Seattle for a single game before returning home for a pair against Tampa Bay and Minnesota.
