Utah Mammoth Daniil (19) battles with the Los Angeles Kings Cody Ceci (5) at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Mon Dec 8, 2025 (Utah Mammoth photo)
By Tom Walker
SALT LAKE CITY–Los Angeles struck twice in the first period and never looked back while defeating deflated Utah.
The Utah Mammoth (14-13-3) returned to Delta Center on Monday night to face the Los Angeles Kings (13-8-7) following a six game road trip in which the team went 2-4-0. The road trip began on a tragic note when the father of Mammoth captain Clayton Keller passed away unexpectedly Thanksgiving night. Keller played the following day in a tough 4-3 loss at Dallas, and then again the following night in his hometown of St. Louis where the Mammoth fell 1-0 to the Blues.
Utah would go on to lose their fourth consecutive game in San Jose, 6-3, before breaking out with a 7-0 shellacking of the Pacific Division leading Anaheim Ducks. Following a 4-1 victory against the Canucks in Vancouver, the road trip concluded in Calgary where the Flames shut out the Mammoth 2-0.
Adding injury to insult, Utah forward Logan Cooley, who leads the Mammoth with 14 goals and is 3rd in points with 23, sustained a lower-body injury in Vancouver which will keep him out of the lineup indefinitely.
When the puck dropped in the first period, Utah radio play-by-play announcer Matt McConnell officially registered his 2000th NHL game behind the microphone. His 29-season broadcasting career began in 1993 with the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and then continued with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild, and in 2011 he landed with the Phoenix Coyotes which were renamed the Arizona Coyotes before the 2014-2015 season.
When the assets of the Coyotes were sold and the team relocated to Salt Lake City, McConnell remained behind the mic for the new franchise.
Kings forward Adrian Kempe gave Los Angeles the first lead of the game with a backhand shot at 7:50 of the first period for his 10th goal of the season, assisted by Kevin Fiala. Just over two minutes later, Fiala assisted on a breakaway goal by Joel Armia, his 6th on the year, to put the Kings up 2-0.
At 11:05 of the frame, Mammoth forward Brandon Tanev had a breakaway of his own which he put into the back of the net, however the replay showed he was unquestioningly offside and L.A. held onto its two-goal lead heading into the locker room. Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper turned away all 7 Utah shots in the period, and Mammoth goalie Karel Vejmelka stopped 10 of 12.
Utah began the 2nd period on the power play, courtesy of an interference penalty by Andrei Kuzmenko against Dylan Guenther which carried over from the first period. Just 34 seconds into the period, as fans were still settling into their seats, Clayton Keller fed Guenther a perfect pass which he one-timed into the Kings net for his 11th goal of the season to bring the Mammoth to within one, with defenseman Mikhail Sergachev picking up the second assist.
The goal is the fastest to begin a period so far this season for Utah. Guenther’s 3rd power play goal of the season ties him for the team lead with Nick Schmaltz and Logan Cooley. His 7th one-timer goal of the season also ranks third-most in the NHL. The period would end with Kuemper stopping 5 of 6 shots, and Vejmelka turning away all 7 attempts by L.A.
In the 3rd, Kings captain Anze Kopitar put a backhand shot past Vejmelka for his 6th goal of the season at 3:27, assisted by Kempe and Joel Edmundson, to restore L.A.’s two-goal advantage. At 12:15 of the third, Clayton Keller brought Utah back to within a goal with a beautiful backhand top shelf shot which Kuemper had absolutely no chance to save.
Keller’s 10th of the season was assisted by Nick Schmaltz and JJ Peterka who joined the top line in place of the injured Cooley. With Vejmelka pulled for the extra attacker, Kings forward Joel Armia scored his second goal of the game into an empty net, unassisted, to put the game away 4-2.
Utah Mammoth forward Brandon Tanev addressed the media after the game. “Disappointed we didn’t get the two points. That’s a team that likes to play stingy through the neutral zone, and to generate offense, you’ve got to be simple with the puck. Get pucks to the net and ultimately create traffic. I think we did a little bit of that, but we didn’t do enough at the end of the day.” Talking about what the team needs to do moving forward, Tanev said, “I think we understood that wasn’t our best tonight, even though we fought and clawed at the end there. That’s a good hockey team. At the end of the day, we need to understand what makes us successful. Work on that in practice, and then we’ve got to get back here for the next one.”
Captain Clayton Keller commented, “Not a great first from us. They’re an experienced team. They’re structured. They defend really hard, and they made it tough on us in the first. We were able to kind of bounce back in the second. That’s one of our best second periods of the year in terms of everything. Game management and trying to outchange them and use our speed. It sucks to have that little push there and not be able to get it done.” Weighing in on what needs to be better, Keller stated bluntly, “Starting on time is obviously a big one. We’re a tough team to play against, and I think that’s the main thing from us. We know what we have to do each night. The coaches do a great job telling us how we have to play and how we can break them down and have success. Our execution was a little sloppy tonight, but as the game went on, it got a little bit better.” Talking about the third period he added, “There’s never any quit in this room. Guys play for one another. It sucks to not get the win. We did kind of push there. There are moments where we have a chance to score on the six-on-five, and we have to find a way to do it. Teams have done it to us, and that’s something over the last two years that we haven’t been able to do. That’s something that we can take away from it. Really dial that in. Practice it. Watch video. Our coaches do a great job, and it’s on us to execute and go out there and do it.”
Head Coach André Tourigny began his post-game remarks by saying, “We obviously didn’t have the start we were hoping for, and we needed to. Against that kind of team, it is tough to create offense. I like the way we played in the second and third. I thought we competed really hard, and our effort was there; the focus was there. Unfortunately, when you have that kind of a start, I often repeat in front of you, it’s a one-goal game all the time, so you cannot give any free opportunities to your opponent. I didn’t like our start, and, like I said, a really good second and third.” Bear continued, “I think what LA does really well is counterattack. If you mismanage the puck or if you force play, they counterattack. In the first period, we definitely gave them too much space. We let them take the middle on the rush, so they had too many entries. I think after the guys adjusted well and did a really good job at it. But they’re number one in the league at certain things, for a reason, and I think by giving them the lead, it made them play in their strength even more so that was the unfortunate part of the night, because I think the effort, as I said, was good in the second and the third.” During morning practice one of the players commented that the team was playing too much on the perimeter. Tourigny agreed. “I think tonight we did. But I think tonight you could see in the third and the second we went in there, in the dirty area, and we got a few tips and a few rebounds. And I think the effort from the guys was definitely there.”
When a reporter for KSL.com noted that fans at Monday night’s game gathered to write letters to Keller after the unexpected passing of his father, Tourigny responded, “The community has a heart in the right place, there is no doubt about it. We saw it last year when Ingram was going through a tough time, and again now they rally [for] Kells. I think when we often talk about home, how important are our fans, and how much we care and how much they care for us. I think I often talk about a relationship, I think always in tough moments you see who you can rely on.”
The Mammoth (14-14-3) return to the ice Wednesday for the second game of three on this homestand against the Florida Panthers (14-12-2), followed by the Seattle Kraken on Friday.
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