Game 15: Montreal Canadiens vs. Utah Mammoth
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Mammoth region: Utah16
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
The Canadiens once again showed good fight to recover from falling behind in a game on Thursday, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead in the third period. They also did one of their best jobs of the season at protecting that lead they took with nine-and-a-half minutes to play, not sitting back but continuing to attack. They couldn’t quite hold on for the remainder of regulation, but it was an indication that Montreal is starting to learn how to play with a lead, especially when keeping a team that has been as dangerous as the New Jersey Devils from getting many offensive looks while trailing.
In the end, it was an overtime loss, but another point to bring Montreal’s total to 20, and they’ve only been left without a point in three games of the 14 played. The players know they have the ability to get back into any game with the offensive firepower they now possess, though they aren’t going to get away with bad starts, as they have been this week, all the time. If they are figuring out how to play their game when they get out to a lead, it would be good to see them take such a lead early and build on it for the rest of the game.
That’s going to be a tall order in tonight’s game, however, because they welcome a solid team to the Bell Centre to begin another four-game homestand. The Utah Mammoth are the third seed in the Central Division with the same number of wins as Montreal, and have been finding a similar level of success in overtime as well with three of their wins coming during the three-on-three period. Utah is good on both sides of the puck, and offers another tough challenge.
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistics | Mammoth |
|---|---|---|
| 9-3-2 | Record | 9-5-0 |
| 49.2% (18th) | Expected-goal share | 53.3% (6th) |
| 3.64 (3rd) | Goals per game | 3.36 (9th) |
| 3.14 (19th) | Goals against per game | 2.86 (11th) |
| 29.3% (5th) | PP% | 17.4% (21st) |
| 78.0% (16th) | PK% | 76.9% (21st) |
| 1-0-1 | Head-to-Head Record (24-25) | 1-1-0 |
| Cole Caufield (10) | Most goals | Nick Schmaltz (8) |
| Nick Suzuki (16) | Most assists | Nick Schmaltz (10) |
| Nick Suzuki (19) | Most points | Nick Schmaltz (18) |
The Mammoth are being led by their own Nick S. on the offensive side. Nick Schmaltz is tied for the team lead with eight goals and also paces his teammates with 10 assists and 18 points. He’s been a consistent producer for his team since the NHL emerged from the pandemic season, first with the Arizona Coyotes and now with Utah, scoring around 60 points per season, but is currently on pace for his first point-per-game campaign.
Playing with Clayton Keller, who is no stranger to averaging a point per contest, reaching a career high of 90 last season, is certainly helping, though the biggest boost for Schmaltz and the Mammoth in general is the play of Logan Cooley in the centre of the top line. Cooley has eight goals of his own, and looks set to take another step in his third year in the NHL. He probably won’t maintain a shooting percentage of 28.6% for the rest of the year, but will still get plenty of chances with two quality playmakers on his flanks as he aims to improve upon the 25 goals he scored in 2024-25.
As for Montreal’s Nick S., Suzuki had a point streak snapped at 12 games in the overtime loss in New Jersey. None of the members of the top line recorded any points in the game. The encouraging part is that the Canadiens were still able to take a point without their stars getting on the scoresheet thanks to the contributions from the bottom nine.
Jake Evans got the team on even terms in the third period, and Kirby Dach may have scored a lucky goal earlier in the game, but his fortuitous bounce doesn’t happen if he’s not playing in the offensive zone and stationed near the top of the crease. Dach has been slowly rounding into form since the start of the season and comes into tonight’s game with three goals in his past two contests. It looks like he’s steadily gaining trust in his body to hold up to physical play. With the top lines on each team good enough to cancel each other out, it may come down to how the depth on each club fares in their head-to-head battle.
