Washington Capital Alexander Ovechkin takes a shot on net against the Utah Mammoth in the second period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Thu Mar 26, 2026 (AP News photo)
By Tom Walker
SALT LAKE CITY–Fists flew with a fury in a thrilling cage match which also happened to feature a little bit of ice hockey and eleven goals including a hat trick from the greatest sniper in NHL history. The Utah Mammoth just couldn’t keep up losing in a three goal difference 7-4.
The Mammoth (37-29-6) wrapped up their four-game homestand Thursday night at Delta Center against the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer, Alex Ovechkin, and the Washington Capitals (35-28-9). Fans streamed into Delta Center expecting a hockey game, and got a wild one with a bonus measure of Wrestlemania.
To say that the first period was explosive would be an understatement. It began in fairly innocent enough fashion, with Capitals forward Ivan Miroshnichenko scoring his first goal of the season a couple of minutes into the contest, assisted by Hendrix Lapierre and Jakob Chychrun.
Just past the halfway mark of the frame the chippiness began when MacKenzie Weegar and Anthony Beauvillier mixed things up, earning the pair a couple of minutes in the sin bin for roughing. While they were riding the bench, Dylan Strome joined his Washington teammate upon being whistled for tripping against Mikhail Sergachev, giving Utah its first power play opportunity of the evening.
About a half minute into the man-advantage, Utah Captain Clayton Keller passed the puck from behind the goal line to Mammoth scoring leader Dylan Guenther who one-timed the puck past Logan Thompson for his 35th of the season, with the additional assist to Sergachev.
Four minutes later the same trio of Mammoth stars combined on Guenther’s second goal of the night and 36th of the season when Keller drove the puck through traffic and dished to an open Guenther who danced around Thompson and put the puck between his pads to give Utah a 2-1 lead.
At 18:38 of the period, Mammoth forward Brandon Tanev incurred a two-minute minor for boarding Ryan Leonard, but Washington enforcer Tom Wilson attacked Tanev from behind to earn a double-minor for roughing, with both Tanev and Wilson also receiving 10-minute misconduct penalties following a spirited, profanity laden, bloody fight, sending both players to their respective locker rooms for the rest of the period.
Tanev received a standing ovation from the Delta Center faithful as he skated to the locker room, while Wilson received an ear-splitting chorus of boos. With Ovechkin serving the additional penalty to Wilson, Logan Cooley batted in a rebound with seven seconds left to give Utah a 3-1 lead as Wilson surely heard the goal horn blasting from the bowels of the arena.
Thompson finished the period stopping 8 of 11 shots while Mammoth backup netminder Vítek Vaněček turned away 7 of 8. It was unclear whether Vaněček was in net as a reward for his third period shutout of the Oilers on Tuesday, of if primary goalie Karel Vejmelka was being held out after having been shaken up a bit during the previous game.
Five minutes into the second period, Alexander the Great brought the Capitals back to within a goal with his 27th of the season, tipping in a shot from Rasmus Sandin. At 11:28 Ovi added an encore with his 28th goal on a snap shot, assisted by Dylan Strome and Trevor van Riemsdyk to draw even with Utah at 3-3.
Immediately upon the post-goal puck drop, Tanev dropped his gloves again, this time dancing with Brandon Duhaime as both players earned 5-minute major penalties for fighting. Thompson finished the period stopping all 13 Mammoth shots while Vaněček turned away 6 of 8.
Utah began the third period on the power play with Tom Wilson serving the remainder of an interference call carried over from the second period. No sooner did Wilson emerge from the box that he was jumped by Mammoth forward Lawson Crouse in retaliation for Wilson’s earlier physical play.
After yet another fight, both players were assessed major fighting penalties, with Crouse picking up an additional 2-minute instigator penalty. Washington quickly capitalized on the disciplinary lapse, with Beauvillier tipping in his 13th of the season on the power play, assisted by Cole Hutson and Connor McMichael, to put the Capitals up 4-3.
At 6:02 of the frame, Rasmus Sandin gave Washington a 2-goal lead on a snap shot, assisted by Beauvillier. Two minutes later, newly acquired defenseman MacKenzie Weegar brought the Mammoth back to within one with his first Utah goal and fourth overall on the season, assisted by Keller and Alexander Kerfoot. Hope began to fade, however, when Ivan Miroshnichenko slipped a backhand shot past Vaněček for his second of the night and season, assisted by Chychrun at 9:54.
Down 6-4 with under ten minutes remaining, Mammoth head coach André Tourigny pulled Vaněček in favor of Vejmelka. Veggie did his part to shut down Washington the rest of the way, but gave way for an extra attacker in the closing minutes. With the game effectively out of reach, Ovechkin received an ovation from fans of both teams which he completed the hat trick into an empty net with six seconds remaining on the clock for a final score of 7-4.
“I think it was obviously an emotional game and great fight by our guys sticking up for each other the entire game no matter what happened,” Mammoth Captain Clayton Keller said after the game. “It’s a tight brotherhood in here, and every guy will do that for one another. I was proud of the fight we showed, and that’s a different game, one maybe we haven’t experienced with a lot of penalties and a lot going on. I think we have to learn to just stay mentally focused and calm in those situations. I thought we had good chances and things like that. Everyone’s gotta look in the mirror, we all got better and we all know that. Still super confident with our group. This is the most exciting part of the year and the most exciting hockey. We’re all positive, and we’ll learn from it and go to L.A.” On the team’s physicality, Keller said, “Our team, we can play any style. We can play heavy, we can play the skilled game, and I think that’s what makes us good. We always bounce back, we always seem to rise to the challenge most nights. I thought we did that tonight. Obviously not the result that we wanted, but super pumped. It’s a good feeling when you see your teammates do that for one another and for other guys, that goes a long way.”
Forward Logan Cooley addressed the brotherhood of the team in the hard fought contest. “It’s awesome. Crouser sticking up, Turbo gives us a ton of energy, and like you said, it’s a brotherhood in here, and we stick up for each other. It was great to see and that’s something that we take and build off of.”
Utah Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny began his post-game comments saying, “It is tougher to talk with emotion and everything, but I will try to keep it brief. I am disappointed in the way we controlled our emotions. I am a big believer in team toughness, showing up for your teammates, and stuff like that. But there is a way to do it. The more important thing is that we got carried away emotionally. It’s part of the game, but you need to stay composed, and you need to keep playing. We got carried away from there, and that cost us. That’s the first thing. The second thing is we need to be better at staying present and staying focused on what we have to do. We take leads, then we focus on the outcome we want instead of on what we have to do to keep playing well and paving our way. Instead, we focus on the outcome and get paralyzed. That is the situation of the standings and everything. We need to apply pressure and react to it in better ways.” Continuing to talk about passion and emotion, Bear said, “It’s positive as long as it doesn’t take you out of your game. That is just the way it is. We think that was emotional… If you play in the playoffs, it will be like that in the warm-up. So you cannot get carried away with that emotion. It is great to have emotion, but you need to stay in control. So I love the mindset of showing up for each other and everything. I am a huge believer in team toughness. I talk about that all the time. I love that. But that cannot take you away from what you have to do. And we talk about that, like I said, it is more when we have the lead 3-1, and we are playing really well and applying a lot of pressure, and then we start to be less aggressive in our play and give some hope. They’re just that, we need to be able to sustain our play, but now our focus is more on the result, and that is stuff that gets you away from what you have to do. So we need to reprogram the brain to focus on what we have to do, period. Whatever the circumstance, whatever the adversity, the emotion of the game, or so on and so forth. That doesn’t mean you don’t have team toughness. That doesn’t mean you don’t have emotion. You just control that stuff.”
The intensity level between Tuesday and Thursday was night and day. When asked how the team can carry Thursday’s intensity into the next game in Los Angeles while maintaining discipline, Tourigny commented, “I like the way you brought it. I think we – you could see the passion of our players tonight, you could see the work, you could see the intensity, the emotion and all of it. It’s always … whatever the situation, sustaining something, consistency, right? That’s a secret of success. You know, it’s not about doing one great thing one time in your life. For once again, or one day, or one hour, is being capable of sustaining elite every day. We had great, great emotion today. Now it’s important to unpack what we need to do better, but we need to find that emotion [in] our work and put it under control for the next game.”
The Mammoth (37-30-6) will square off against the Kings (29-25-18) in Los Angeles on Saturday, followed by the Seattle Kraken and Vancouver Canucks before returning to Delta Center on April 7 to face the Edmonton Oilers.
