The Edmonton Oilers celebrate together after their victory over the Utah Hockey Club at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024 (Brice Tucker, Deseret News).
(Brice Tucker, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – The best player in the world made it look easy on Tuesday night at Delta Center as Connor McDavid tallied his 400th career goal and 1,200th point in a comfortable victory over the Utah Mammoth.
Lacking both energy and interest, the Mammoth struggled to produce at either end which opened the door for Edmonton to walk out with two easy points.
Through 153 games in their existence, the Utah Mammoth have yet to beat two teams in the National Hockey League (Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils: 0-8-1).
On Tuesday night, that winless streak only continued against Edmonton as Utah was yet again unable to best Connor McDavid and Co. in a 5-2 loss.
The reason?
The Mammoth were simply their own worst enemy in the fifth meeting with Oilers as they lacked offensive flow and were consistently caught flatfooted on the blue line.
Let’s break it down.
Despite opening the scoring midway through the first period on a wild shot from Alexander Kerfoot that deflected twice before lighting the lamp, Utah never looked in control.
Kerfy gets on the board!
1-0, Utah. pic.twitter.com/KcHTmhaDdO
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) March 25, 2026
Their forecheck was essentially non-existent, they struggled to win battles, were incapable of properly reloading and couldn’t get any shots through as the Oilers jumped in front of everything.
To add insult to injury, even after tying the game up at two on the power play, Utah let their guard down again as McDavid put Edmonton back on top just eight seconds later with his 400th career goal.
The Sheriff is in 🔒 pic.twitter.com/sPg6upfOnX
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) March 25, 2026
Captain cashes in 🤑 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/reyYsXNiL4
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 25, 2026
“The power play goal that we tied up was big and then they scored right after that…I thought we lost the momentum,” MacKenzie Weegar explained.
“We didn’t have the energy after that. The compete level in fifty-fifty battles wasn’t really there. So, definitely something that comes within…that’s look yourself in the mirror type stuff, but I trust in this group, and we’ll bounce back the right way.”
Overall, that’s just a game where Utah decided not to show up.
Not a reflection of skill or talent but simply interest.
“We just didn’t have enough of a pushback, in the third especially,” Alexander Kerfoot noted. “We were down two goals in a game fighting for a playoff spot against a team that’s also fighting, and we didn’t even make them work for it. Didn’t make them earn it.”
“Disappointing. It’s on us.”
As Kerfoot pointed out, that loss is entirely on them.
Simply comes down to effort.
But they can’t play that way again.
The race is simply too close and even relinquishing the top wild card spot would be devastating as it would result in a first round matchup with one of the Central division juggernauts as opposed to a weaker opponent from the Pacific.
They’ll have no other choice but to be better against Washington on Thursday.
The Utah Mammoth will wrap up their four game homestand against the Washington Capitals on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. MT.
The game will be available on Mammoth+.
All Mammoth games will also be broadcast live on the KSL Sports Zone (97.5 FM/1280 AM).
