Heading into Thursday night, the Edmonton Oilers had escaped every game so far this season with at least a point. Their lone loss had come in overtime.
That streak is over, and the Utah Mammoth are responsible for it.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Mammoth began the season on an excellent foot. At the same time, though, they had never won a game at Rogers Place and they had never beaten the Oilers in regulation.
The Mammoth seem to have built the team that the Oilers never could.
From 2010 to 2015, Edmonton had four first overall picks, including three in a row. That’s how the Oilers got their ultra-superstar, Connor McDavid. They were fortunate to land Leon Draisaitl, arguably a top 3-5 player in the world, with a third overall pick in the same window.
Ever since then, all of the Oilers’ offense has run through those two players. No matter what they do, they’ve struggled to get sustained, meaningful offense out of anyone that doesn’t play on a line with one or both of those guys.
The Mammoth, on the other hand, have never picked first in a draft (including as the Arizona Coyotes, whose draft history directly affects Utah despite the team’s official designation as a new franchise). They don’t have anyone who perennially contends for a scoring title. They score by committee.
Every skater who has played for the Mammoth this season has at least one point, and the only one without multiple points is defenseman Nate Schmidt.
They have two lines that are fully capable of producing first-line offense, so when one has an off game, the team isn’t left out to dry. And if, knock on wood, an injury befalls a top player, it shouldn’t impact Utah’s ability to score because there are so many others with that capability.
The roster isn’t without its imperfections, but with the team now holding the second best record in the entire NHL, those aren’t at the front of mind at this time. The Mammoth are rollin’.
“Obviously, they’re an unbelievable team over there, some of the best players in the world, but when we have a showing like that, playing committed hockey, we can beat anyone in this league,” said Logan Cooley, who had perhaps his best game of the season Thursday.
Fixing what was broken
It’s still early, but the Mammoth seem to have remedied their two biggest issues, the ones that cost them their playoff series last spring.
First was the power play. It’s well-documented that Utah both began and ended last season 1 for 16 in that area, and it’s equally recognized that the Mammoth have been much better in that regard this season.
No one was surprised to see them go 2 for 3 with the man-advantage on Thursday, because if you set aside their catastrophic loss in Boston, they’re operating at 48%.
What gets less coverage, though, is Utah’s newfound ability to hold onto leads.
The Mammoth held third-period leads in four of their six playoff games last season, but they struggled to convert those into wins. The Vegas Golden Knights came back in two of those and ended up winning the series because of it.
Against the Oilers especially, no third-period lead is safe. Between McDavid, Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, they can (and often do) score at will with the goalie pulled.
Utah found itself up by a goal in the waning minutes Thursday, and despite the fourth line getting trapped on the ice for a double shift, the Mammoth held off the superstars to win.
“We like how hard we were to play against and how hard we defended,” said Utah head coach André Tourigny after the game. “We had emotion but we were under control. Extremely proud of the boys.”
There he is
Look, it hadn’t been a bad start to the season, per se, for Cooley. He had six points in seven games going into this one and his team was winning more than it was losing, but the goose egg in his goal column was getting bigger with every passing game.
The goose has hatched now.
Cooley set up longtime offseason training buddy Vincent Trocheck for a cross-crease tap-in against Toronto on Tuesday, and Trocheck returned the favor in substantially similar fashion on Thursday.
That wasn’t No. 92’s prettiest point of the game, though.
Thirty seconds into a second-period power play, Cooley smacked a puck between his legs to Clayton Keller on the flank, giving the captain a wide open net to shoot at.
It was quite possibly the nicest assist of Cooley’s NHL career thus far. Oilers goalie Devon Levi didn’t stand a chance.
Between the legs pass from Cools 🤯
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) October 16, 2026
🚨 Kells nets one on the power play. 2-0, Utah. pic.twitter.com/yup5XrsGck
Tourigny was impressed with Cooley’s game away from the puck, too.
“Goals, no goals, Cooley played a hell of a game tonight,” the coach said. “He competed, he brought the puck to the net, he had speed, he was good with and without the puck. He was really competitive. Really proud of his game.”
The Mammoth face the Oilers again on Saturday, this time at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.