The Utah Mammoth’s season is over…for now, as the NHL pauses for the 2026 Winter Olympics. That means Wednesday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings had a lot at stake for the team. Winning meant pausing the season on a high note and sending off the Olympians with momentum. A loss, though, could’ve knocked the Mammoth out of a playoff spot heading into the break.
The Mammoth considered that and put on one of their best games of 2026, surprising one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference and holding onto the lead to beat the Red Wings 4-1. They enter the season pause in the first wild card spot in the Western Conference and on a two-game winning streak. Here are some takeaways from Wednesday’s win.
A Great Start Means Everything
Having a strong start is vital to winning a hockey game. If you find yourself behind a goal because your opponents capitalized early, your mindset is on catching up to them and trying to get some momentum. You can’t make another mistake, otherwise you’ll find yourself in a pit.
The Mammoth have found themselves with some rough starts as of late. They let the Philadelphia Flyers score 30 seconds into the game two weeks ago (although they did manage to come back in a dramatic fashion), the Carolina Hurricanes three minutes into the game nearly a week ago, and the Dallas Stars two minutes into the game on Saturday. They’ve also seen how fruitful having a good start is after their 6-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
On Wednesday, a good start meant everything. This was a Red Wings team that had just beaten the Colorado Avalanche 2-0, the top team in the NHL. This Red Wings team is also near the top of the Atlantic Division. If the Mammoth found themselves in a deficit early, climbing out of a hole would be a tough task.
Related: Olli Määttä Focused on Olympic Success With Team Finland
Luckily, the Mammoth had one of their best starts to a hockey game as of late. 57 seconds in, and Alex DeBrincat turned over the puck on the boards, leading to Sean Durzi stunning the Red Wings with a quick shot that got past John Gibson to put the Mammoth up 1-0.
Fellas came out hot! 🔥
Sean Durzi gives Utah an early 1-0 lead. pic.twitter.com/0sEC5yJc5L
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) February 5, 2026
Around eight minutes later, the Mammoth got a power play opportunity and went to work. Great passing by Clayton Keller and Barrett Hayton got the puck to Nick Schmaltz in front of the net, which he ended up putting behind Gibson. 2-0 Mammoth with only half a period gone by.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again…
🗣️ NICK SCHMALTZ SCORES! pic.twitter.com/wTBTbgWaDV
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) February 5, 2026
We’ve talked about the Mammoth’s power play and how it has to improve. It seems like it has as of late. The team has had back-to-back games with power-play goals. They are now ahead of both the Avalanche and the Calgary Flames in terms of power play success rate. There’s still a huge hole to climb out of if they want to continue improving that stat, but it’s a start.
Additionally, the only goal the Mammoth gave up was on the penalty kill, which still went three for four. If there were any small criticisms of the team’s play, it was the number of penalties the team gave up. However, as mentioned, the Mammoth played well in almost every aspect of the game.
“We have to keep focusing on our game and improving our game,” head coach André Tourigny said. “I think tonight, at five on five, we were really solid. We didn’t give up much. We’ll need to clean up our penalties. I don’t like the numbers we take, but five-on-five (play) was really good.”
The Olympians Take Over
Being the last game before the Olympic break, it was only fitting that the three Mammoth players playing on Wednesday had big impacts on the game. It was almost a showcase for their respective countries to say, “We’re ready.”
Starting with JJ Peterka, he didn’t produce any points against the Red Wings, but he still played a pretty solid game. He looked good on the power play and pretty solid defensively.
Clayton Keller walks away from the game with two points in his pocket. As mentioned, he had the assist on the Schmaltz goal. However, he also scored the empty net goal at the end of the game despite wanting to give the goal to Schmaltz. It’s his 18th multi-point game of the season, which is the most on the Mammoth.
Karel Vejmelka was the biggest story of the night. Until the four-minute mark, Vejmelka had a shutout bid going. He made some massive saves, including pushing from the top of the crease to the right post to rob Lucas Raymond. Coincidentally, the only goal Vejmelka gave up was to Dylan Larkin, who will represent Team USA at the Olympics.
“He played unreal,” Dylan Guenther said. “He made huge saves on the PK. It would’ve been hard for us (to win), I think, without how he played. I’m looking forward to watching him hopefully do that for Team Czechia.”
Veggie is THAT guy!🤯 pic.twitter.com/WG0ua1mrTi
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) February 5, 2026
Obviously, Wednesday being the Mammoth’s last game before the Olympics helped give Vejmelka some momentum and extra emotion as he seeks to beat out Lukáš Dostál and Dan Vladar for the starting job for Team Czechia. However, there was some extra emotion in there as well as Vejmelka’s uncle, who he was close to, passed away two days ago.
“He was a big sportsman,” Vejmelka said. “He played tennis very well for a long time. He taught me a lot. He was a great human being. I’m going to miss him, and I played for him tonight. This one was for him.”
There’s been a lot of loss and grieving on this Mammoth team this season. Keller’s father earlier this season, Durzi’s grandfather, and now Vejmelka’s uncle. Yet, this team has stayed strong for each other during hard times and has truly shown they are a close-knit group of brothers.
Vejmelka, now with 27 wins, still leads the NHL in that category. He’s 9-1-0 in his last 10 starts at the Delta Center. Finally, he’s only allowed two or fewer goals in 10 of his past 15 starts.
The first 57 games of the season are in the books, which means Keller, Vejmelka, Peterka, and Olli Määttä’s main focus for the next couple of weeks is helping their team capture gold. While Wednesday’s game is done, Tourigny likes what he saw from each of the three Olympians who played heading into the tournament in Italy.
“He’s (Vejmelka) been on a good stretch,” Tourigny said. “He’s played a lot of hockey, he’s going to the Olympics. I’m happy for him. You never know how those guys who are going to the Olympics after will be able to stay in the present. I will say the three that played; they were rock solid today. JJ was really good. Kells (Keller) was really good, and Veg (Vejmelka) was really good. I’m proud of them, and our team needed it. We all know the standings, but more importantly, we challenge ourselves to say, hey, you win that game. You finish before the break in the playoff spot. You lose. You may not. That was an important one for us.”
A Well-Deserved Long Break
That was a big win for the Mammoth. Being in a playoff spot by the Olympic break was something the team wanted to achieve. It wasn’t going to come easy either. As mentioned, this Red Wings team is a good team. Yet the Mammoth handled them well and now head into the break on a high note.
Another two points now belong to the Mammoth. They have 64 points and own the first wild card spot, tied with the Edmonton Oilers in points. If the team was in the Pacific Division, they would be in second place. However, they are slowly extending their lead over other teams like the LA Kings, which is important, especially as those teams load up.
“It’s big (the win),” Guenther said. “Everybody knows it. It’s really tight, and LA made a big trade and got one of the best players in the league. It’s going to be close, and every point matters.”
To have the first wild card spot during the Olympic break is huge. Last season at the 4-Nations break, the Mammoth weren’t as fortunate. They found themselves having to play catch-up. Though their second half of the season was great, they couldn’t accumulate enough points to catch the St. Louis Blues, who took the second wild card spot.
Instead of catching up, the Mammoth can build off of what they started in the first half of the season. If you think about it, what they’ve done in the year of 2026 has been great. They’re 12-4-1 in the year, and they’ve done it with injuries to key guys like Logan Cooley and Alex Kerfoot.
“We fixed a few objectives during the season, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Olympic break, and we are at our objective so far,” Tourigny said. “The next one will be the finish line. That’s the one we want to achieve the most. It’s a process. We keep focusing on our game and improving our game…12 wins in 2026 against a lot of really good teams without guys like Cooley and Kerfoot.”
Outside of the four players going to the Olympics, everyone will have some time off away from hockey, which will be a good reset for the team. When the players do come back, they need to play their best game because there are only 25 more games left. Other teams might come out strong and hot, and if the Mammoth falter, they’ll have limited time to catch back up.
“You can take advantage of this time,” Guenther said. “We played well coming back last year, but not good enough. St Louis was hot. A lot of teams are going to come out flying. We got to make sure that we’re ready to go.”
As mentioned, to be in a playoff spot and win their final game before everyone separates for the next couple of weeks is the best result the Mammoth could ask for to begin February.
For now, though, the win against Detroit was massive. It showed the best of the Mammoth and how well they can play. From special teams to the goaltender to the early start, it was a fantastic showing from the team. Tourigny sums it up in the simplest and best way possible.
“Solid game by our special teams, our goalie was rock solid,” Tourigny said. “It was a huge win for us. Hell yeah.”
The Mammoth will have the next two weeks off due to the Olympic break. They’ll return to action on Feb. 25 as they take on the Avalanche. The Avalanche have a record of 37-9-9 and are coming off a 4-2 win over the San Jose Sharks. The two teams have played each other three times this season, with the Mammoth losing two of those games, including their most recent meeting in December by a score of 1-0.
