Utah Mammoth center Jack McBain (22) reacts after scoring a goal during an NHL game against the Colorado Avalanche at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026 (Tess Crowley, Deseret News).
(Tess Crowley, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – Hosting the first event at the newly renovated Delta Center, the Utah Mammoth wrapped up their preseason with a comfortable win over the Colorado Avalanche on home ice.
Facing an inferior Colorado squad, Utah maintained their early lead all afternoon as they asserted themselves on the forecheck, locked down the defensive zone, scored a pair of greasy goals and posted a shutout to officially close out training camp.
After losing in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs to an overwhelming Vegas Golden Knights squad, the Utah Mammoth made it a priority during the offseason to become bigger, stronger and harder to play against.
Now featuring a deeper forward group with the additions of Vincent Trocheck and Anders Lee, Utah wasted no time asserting themselves physically as both goals were the result of a harsh forecheck and relentless effort in front of the net.
Bainer for an early lead!
1-0, Utah. pic.twitter.com/7ynl90J112
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) September 26, 2026
Greasy goal from Cools! 😎
2-0, Utah. pic.twitter.com/T4bPVwlwo2
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) September 26, 2026
“We kind of got a taste of that in playoffs, how hard it is to score.” Logan Cooley said. “I feel like it’s all just loose pucks in front of the net, rebounds…that’s how we scored two goals tonight, so we’ve got to build off that.”
As Cooley pointed out, Utah needs to continue replicating that style of play.
Already possessing a ton of skill and speed, adding physicality and grit will allow Utah to reach new heights as they focus on returning to the postseason.
“We saw it through camp. We’ve got a lot of guys who can play a lot of roles. So, we’re extremely deep up front, on the back and in net too,” Jack McBain explained.
“It’s an exciting time for us. We’ve just got to show it during the year.”
As for the back end, Utah was fairly sound defensively while Vejmelka stood on his head with 25 saves on 25 shots.
Not that the opposition was ever overly dangerous, but Vejmelka still made a collection of impressive saves as he refused to let any pucks beat him.
Like every other team in the National Hockey League, Utah has some things to clean up before the puck drops on October 1.
Tonight, it was evident that some of the lines and special teams still need a little work but that’s to be expected.
With three new forwards in the mix, two of which are in the top six, it’s simply going to take some time before everyone gels.
“There’s still a lot to clean up,” Head coach Andre Tourigny said. “Our reaction on what we call ‘dirty puck’ or fumbling pucks and stuff like that, we can be better at stopping on puck.”
“Keep working on our special team. Still some work to do…little bit later in the game we started to complicate things. Our entry has always been good. Now its two games where we’ve been a little too cute on our entry. We’ll clean that up.”
As Tourigny noted, Utah was simply making it hard on themselves as the game progressed, but it shouldn’t be cause for concern.
Zone entries can be fixed, schemes can be solidified and chemistry will continue to build over the coming weeks.
As long as they’re aware of the issues at hand, time will be their greatest ally.
“We had a lot of good intentions out there,” McBain explained. “I think execution needs to be a little bit better but it’s going to happen. There’s going to be mistakes. You obviously just try to limit them when it comes to the real games.”
Now onto the real games.
The Utah Mammoth will begin the regular season on Thursday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m. MT as they welcome the Chicago Blackhawks to the Delta Center.
The game will be available on ESPN+ and Hulu.
All Mammoth games will also be broadcast live on the KSL Sports Zone (97.5 FM/1280 AM).
Cole Bagley is the Utah Mammoth insider for KSL Sports. Follow him on X. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.
