Tag: Los Angeles Kings

Utah Mammoth center Logan Cooley (right) and defenseman Mikail Sergachev (98) celebrate Cooley’s goal in the in the first period at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sat Mar 28, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Tom Walker

Logan Cooley and Alexander Kerfoot each scored a pair as the Utah Mammoth (38-30-6) defeats the Los Angeles Kings (29-26-18) twice in six days. Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena in the Southland the Mammoth crushed the Kings 6-2.

On a day where so-called “No Kings” protesters took to the streets in many American cities to express their opposition to President Trump and ICE, the Mammoth (38-29-6) took to the ice in Los Angeles where they put their own spin on “No Kings” with a dominant 6-2 victory over L.A. who entered the game at 29-25-18, further solidifying their position atop the Western Conference Wild Card standings with eight games remaining in the regular season.

Utah forward Alexander Kerfoot gave the Mammoth an early lead at 2:31 of the first period, tipping in a perfect pass from John Marino as he attacked the net for his 4th goal of the season. With three and half minutes remaining in the frame, Mikhail Sergachev shot the puck from the far blue line all the way down the ice and banking off the end boards and in front of the net where a charging Logan Cooley slid the puck beneath the pads of Darcy Kuemper for his 19th of the year to make it 2-0.

Cooley had such a lead over the nearest defender that no icing was called on the play, and Dylan Guenther picked up the additional assist. With a little over 2 minutes remaining, Kings Captain Anze Kopitar brought L.A. back to within one with his 12th goal of the season, deflecting a shot in front of the net by Adrian Kempe. But a minute later, Kopitar went to the box for tripping Guenther, giving Utah the first power play opportunity of the game.

With 9 ticks left on the clock, Cooley had the puck down low with no one to pass to, so he drove to the net himself and flipped the puck top shelf over the right shoulder of Kuemper for his second goal of the game and 20th of the season, assisted by Clayton Keller and Sergachev, sending the teams to their locker rooms with the Mammoth taking a 3-1 lead. Cooley is the sixth Mammoth player to reach 20 goals this season, most of any team in the NHL, joining Guenther, Nick Schmaltz, JJ Peterka, Keller, and Lawson Crouse.

At 12:37 of the second period, Kerfoot made his way with the puck to the bottom of the left faceoff circle near the Kings net. As he looked for someone to pass to he realized that he had been left completely alone without a single defender challenging him, so he took his time to size up the angle between himself and Kuemper and placed a perfect shot over Kuemper’s right shoulder, a near mirror-image of Cooley’s earlier goal, for his 5th of the year assisted by Ian Cole as the Mammoth took a 4-1 lead.

At 16:17 of the period, with Scott Laughton riding the pine in the sin bin for slashing against John Marino, Nick Schmaltz made it a 5-1 game batting in a one-timer off a pass from Keller for his 27th of the season, further assisted by Sergachev.

The Kings got one back at 4:34 of the third period when Adrian Kempe launched a blast up the middle through traffic for his 27th of the season. Utah netminder Karel Vejmelka was completely screened and had no play on the shot which narrowed the score to 5-2.

With more than six minutes remaining in the game, Los Angeles rolled the dice in pulling Kuemper early for an extra attacker, but the gamble failed when Jack McBain scored an easy empty netter for his 9th goal of the year, assisted by Peterka and Sergachev, to effectively put the game away 6-2. The Kings hoisted the white flag at that point, leaving Kuemper in net for the remainder of the contest.

The Mammoth, who until last week had never defeated the Kings since moving to Utah, wrap up their L.A. season series with a 2-1-0 record.

“Obviously it’s a battle for the playoffs and they’re right behind us and it was kind of a four-point game for us and it’s huge,” said defenseman Mikhail Sergachev in the locker room. Talking about Saturday’s success on the power play including the closing seconds of the first period, Sergachev said, “We had a shot mentality. Everything started with the shot and then it opened up and our elite players made some elite plays and it paid off. Simplicity is the key. … Our power play hasn’t been great this year and lately it has been, and scoring that big goal shows the composure of the guys and the guys are not going down easily.” Speaking of the team’s defensive effort and the Kings’ pressure on Vejmelka, Sergachev added, “I think he was in danger tonight and he made some key stops and he played unbelievable.” The Mammoth have discussed what needs improvement as they continue the playoff stretch. “We know what we gotta do,” Sergachev said. “We’re just a young team. Sometimes emotions get the best of us like last game, we talked about it and today when emotions were getting the best of us we settled down, leaders, coaches, and it worked.”

Head Coach André Tourigny began his post-game remarks saying, “Offensively we did a good job of attacking through quick strikes, putting pucks at the net, winning battles down low.” Speaking of the Kings, Bear said, “L.A.’s a veteran team, a good team, they’re making a huge push. They’re have a ton of reasons to fight for it. Their experience of winning [and] pedigree in that room. … We believe in ourselves as well. I think we haven’t been as good as we wanted since we [last] played them, but I think tonight it’s an opportunity for us at the biggest stage in the season to come up big.” Talking about playing the same team six days apart, Tourigny said, “You see exactly how they attack you. Where was the hole and what they were trying to do. The other way around is true as well. They will know, they will make some adjustments, so you need to be proactive in your thinking and what can be the key point there. At the end of the day I think we knew what they will do. They knew what we will do. The best team will win and I think the players will fight hard on both sides and that will be a helluva game.”

The Mammoth (38-30-6) continue their three-game Pacific coast road swing next Thursday in Seattle followed by a Saturday tilt in Vancouver before returning home to face the Edmonton Oilers on April 7. Five of Utah’s final six contests will be at home.

Los Angeles Kings right wing Mathieu Joseph (17) lands on the ice after getting block by the Utah Mammoth during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, March 22, 2026, in Salt Lake City. Melissa Majchrzak/AP

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–Lawson Crouse scored twice in the first period and Nick Schmaltz added a pair including the overtime game winner as the Utah Mammoth defeat the Los Angeles Kings for the first time in franchise history 4-3 in overtime.

The Mammoth (36-28-6) welcomed the Kings (28-25-16) to Delta Center on Sunday evening, with Utah looking to reverse the result of their previous four encounters with L.A., all losses, since moving to the Beehive State.

Eight days ago, Kings captain Anže Kopitar passed legendary Hall of Fame forward Marcel Dionne, who last suited up for L.A. four decades ago in 1987, to become the team’s all-time points leader. In 20 NHL seasons, the two-time Stanley Cup champion also leads the team in career games played, entering Sunday’s contest with 451 goals and 860 assists for 1311 points in 1508 games. Off the ice, Kings Head Equipment Manager Darren Granger was recognized for working his 2500th NHL game.

The first period provided plenty of fireworks as Utah and Los Angeles put up four goals in a span of two minutes and 43 seconds. Mammoth Associate Captain Lawson Crouse got things going at 7:04 of the frame with his 18th goal of the season, set up perfectly from behind the net by defenseman John Marino.

Just 36 seconds later, Kings forward Alex Laferriere evened things up with his 18th goal, assisted by Quinton Byfield. At 9:19 it was Crouse striking again for his second of the game and 19th of the season, assisted by Alexander Kerfoot and Kevin Stenlund, but before the public address announcer could complete announcing the goal to the fans, Byfield launched a bullet unassisted past Utah netminder Karel Vejmelka for his 15th on the year at 9:47 to even the score at 2-2. Both teams’ defenses held the other side in check for the latter half of the period which ended with Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper stopping 13 of 15 shots and Vejmelka turning away 8 of 10.

The second period seemed as if it would end scoreless, but with less than four minutes remaining Mammoth forward Nick Schmaltz was able to bat a rebound off a shot by Clayton Keller past Kuemper for his 25th goal of the season, his career high for a season, with Crouse picking up his 3rd point of the night with an assist, his eighth career three-point game, to take a 3-2 lead to the locker room. Karel Vejmelka was a perfect 10 in turning away L.A. shot attempts.

The third period was a carbon copy of the second, with neither team scoring until Artemi Panarin broke through for the Kings with three and a half minutes left, his 25th goal of the season assisted by Drew Doughty, to send the game into overtime.

At 1:46 of overtime, Schmaltz struck again with the game-winner for his 26th goal, assisted by Mikhail Sergachev and Kevin Stenlund, to deliver Utah’s first ever victory over L.A., setting a new career high in goals and tying his career high in points in the process.

“Huge. Obviously, this is a team that’s right on our heels, and we face them two times within a week,” said Lawson Crouse in the locker room after the game. On playing on a line with Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz, Crouse said, “Obviously, with Kells and Schmaltzy, they’ve played together so long, they know each other like the back of their hands.

That chemistry, it’s great to jump in there and just play and just try to play fast for them. Be smart and heavy and try to win battles. Get to the net, and open the ice up for them. Obviously, they’re elite-level playmakers and finishers, so there’s a happy balance of getting to the net and trying to open up ice, but also being available for them to make quick plays to get shots on goal.”

Schmaltz talked about the squad’s determination and patience late in the game. “They had a push there in the third, we knew that was going to happen. At this time of year, I feel like every game’s super tight, so we didn’t really hold our heads down when they tied it up, we just took it to overtime. Huge two points for us.” When asked if the games are beginning to have a playoff feel, Schmaltz responded, “Guys are super competitive. Everyone wants to push their team into the playoffs, so guys are fighting for their lives out there. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of competitiveness, a lot of stuff after the whistles, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun out there. … It’s way more fun playing these games than knowing you’re going to tee it up at the end of April or whatever it may be. Super exciting to be in this position that we put ourselves in. We got some work to do left, but we put ourselves in a good spot.”

Utah Mammoth Head Coach André Tourigny opened his postgame comments, saying, “I loved the urgency and I loved the intensity of our game. That’s a heavy team on the other side. It was important for us to be (competitive) in our battles. I think that in the first period we had unbelievable pace and we got the momentum. (Los Angeles) retaliated twice after we scored; it was a little bit unfortunate, but I really liked our first period. Then in the second, we were not as fast moving the puck. We were not as connected and we slowed down a little bit. They were playing well as well, so that helped them to apply a little bit of pressure on us. But we stayed with it and we found a way to score a big goal. I liked the way we played in the third period. I think we were still aggressive offensively and we made good plays. All in all, I’m really proud of the guys. I think (Barrett Hayton’s) line with (Mikhail Sergachev) and (MacKenzie Weegar) did an unbelievable job against their first line. (Nate Schmidt) was sick and could not finish the game. We finished at five (defensemen) and they were strong; played really well. Really proud of our D corps and obviously (Lawson Crouse’s) line with four goals, tough to ask for more.” With regard to the playoff feel, Bear commented, “It’s really important. We all know L.A. is fighting to catch up (to us). It’s a really important game. We have two games against them this week. We lost the last game at home. It’s important for us where we take a lot of pride in that. But it was a big game. They’re heavy. They play a helluva game. They’re competitive. They’re tough to play against. They put a lot of pucks on the net. You need to be hard around the net. I’m really proud of the way we responded.”

The Mammoth (37-28-6) will take on the Edmonton Oilers (34-28-9) for the third game of the homestand on Tuesday.

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.