Casey Mittelstadt #11 of the Boston Bruins celebrates his goal against the Utah Mammoth with teammate Hampus Lindholm #27 during the first period at TD Garden on October 8, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)
(Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)
BOSTON – Despite a red-hot start through the first four games of the season, the Utah Mammoth suffered a taste of reality on Thursday night as their special teams fell flat amidst an ’embarrassing’ loss to the Boston Bruins.
Well, there’s certainly no sugarcoating Utah’s performance in that one, eh?
Losing 6-1 to a fairly underwhelming Bruins squad while surrendering three power play goals to a group that had yet to score on the man advantage wasn’t exactly on my bingo card, but here we are.
Even from the initial puck drop, it was obvious that something was off in Utah’s game as they lacked urgency, refused to battle and got consistently hemmed in their own zone.
Eventually, the dam broke and the Bruins showed no mercy as they registered a basketball-like shooting percentage with six goals on 16 shots (37.5 percent) through the first two periods of play.
“We left Cossa out there to dry a little bit,” Clayton Keller said. “We got embarrassed tonight.”
“It’s pretty obvious what we have to do to not let it happen again. We just weren’t ready to go at the start…just kind of rolled over from there.”
JAMES ➡️ CASEY 🚨 https://t.co/MVTeBfcH3A
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 8, 2026
David’s on hatty watch. https://t.co/xp0kjqS2Ue
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 9, 2026
Callllll ’em up 🤓 https://t.co/JYGUm1AWLc
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 9, 2026
At some point on this lengthy road trip, Utah was going to come back down to earth a bit.
No team is ever going to maintain 60 plus percent on the power play for more than a few games.
It just doesn’t happen.
However, the Mammoth can’t let this abysmal performance snowball to the next game and beyond.
“Obviously, our special team were really good since the start of the season for us. Tonight it was not the case. They won that battle and I think that’s what tipped the scale,” head coach Andre Tourigny explains.
As Ted Lasso famously said, the Mammoth need to “be a goldfish” and quickly move on.
Buffalo will provide a swift opportunity to get back on track.
Following a tremendous first start in the NHL for Sebastian Cossa against Columbus last week with 17 saves on 18 shots, the young netminder learned a harsh, yet necessary lesson in Boston.
After allowing three goals on only eight shots in the first period to the Bruins, Cossa’s night was over before it had really even begun as he was benched for the first time in his NHL career.
“It will be a great learning experience for him,” Tourigny said of Cossa being benched. “What’s important is that he cannot beat himself up.”
“There’s a tip, there’s a screen, there’s stuff [that] happens…it’s a team effort. We need to look at what we can do better.”
THE CAPTAIN STRIKES ©️ https://t.co/OB6fHGY2DW
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 8, 2026
MASON GETS FANCY 👌 https://t.co/R1r35MiYT4
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 8, 2026
Like Tourigny said, there’s no reason for Cossa to hang his head after that game.
While he needed to learn his lesson and watch the rest from the bench, his team didn’t exactly help him out as the first goal came off a turnover, the second was on a power play, and the third, a result of lackluster defending.
At the end of the day, it’s one game and just like the rest of the team, Cossa simply needs to learn from it and move on.
The Utah Mammoth will wrap up their five-game road trip against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday at 5 p.m. MDT.
The game will be available on SEG+.
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.
