3 Takeaways From Mammoth’s 4-3 Loss to Panthers

“I try to use my speed and get above guys,” Guenther said. “They’re (his goals) man-on-man, pretty much all over the ice, so I just try to beat my guys up the ice.”

Guenther is now second on the Mammoth in goals. Interestingly enough, this was only his first multi-goal game of the season. Finally, nine of his 13 goals have given the Mammoth the lead, which means he is now tied for the fifth most go-ahead goals in the NHL.

Heartbreaker in the Last Minute

A couple of games ago, it took the Calgary Flames 16 seconds to win the game against the Mammoth. On Wednesday, it was the exact opposite. It took the Panthers 59 minutes to win the game.

Yes, the Mammoth were behind by two goals at one point because they could shut down Sam Bennett. Yes, the Mammoth had a horrible third period where they had to be carried by Vejmelka. However, it took the Panthers almost the full 60 minutes to finally get the game-winning goal. It was heartbreaking indeed.

After winning a faceoff in the Mammoth zone, the puck was passed to Sam Reinhart. Reinhardt, at a weird angle, flung it towards the net. It glanced off Eetu Luostarinen, and Anton Lundell tapped it into a wide-open net to score the game-winning goal with 50 seconds remaining.

To be fair, it wasn’t a great final 20 minutes for the Mammoth. The Panthers killed an early penalty and never looked back. They outshot the Mammoth 19-4 in the period and simply looked like the better team. The Panthers had all the momentum, and nothing was breaking that.

“After losing momentum for a period of time, if you can break the momentum, have some neutral shift, and then have some good shift where you gain traction and momentum, now there’s a momentum change, a confident change,” head coach André Tourigny said. “We could not do that in the third. We could not break their momentum.”

Vejmelka is not to blame for this one. He was outstanding. Ignore the .889 save percentage; there were multiple times where his defense let him down. He made some great saves; the most memorable of all was making four saves in a row in the third period.

The goaltender first stopped Seth Jones’ shot from the blueline. He then stopped at least three attempts from Mackie Samoskevich and Luostarinen right in front of the net, including a final glove save on the goal line, robbing the Panthers of their fourth goal.

“He played really well,” Guenther said. “I feel for him. We wanted to get that win for him. He kept us in it, especially in the end. I think they had 19 shots in the third. That comes with power plays, but still too many.”

It was also unfortunate that a solid second period from the Mammoth was wasted for nothing. The team came back from down 3-1 to tie the game off a Jack McBain backhanded goal. They almost had their fourth goal too, off a Clayton Keller shot, but Bobrovsky somehow came across his crease to rob the Mammoth captain of a goal with his glove.

“We showed good character coming back in the second there,” McBain said. “Probably could have done a little bit more in the third, but that’s a good team. We hung in there for a while. It’s an unfortunate outcome.”

It’s very unfortunate. It felt like a different type of loss than the one that the Mammoth suffered on Monday against the LA Kings. The Mammoth were definitely more engaged against the Panthers. It obviously showed on the scoreboard, but the way the team played was just better.

Tourigny thought so well. He knows it wasn’t a lazy effort. It’s minor mistakes that cumulated into bigger problems, which kept the Mammoth from gaining any sort of momentum.

“That was not a lack of intensity, that was not a lack of focus, that was not a lack of good intention,” Tourigny said. “We should have been tighter in our coverage, but it’s not like it’s a breakdown where we were sleeping and we were soft and we’re casual and we’re not urgent…After their second power play, which we killed, which we did a good job on, we must be able to regain momentum and establish a little bit of forecheck, a little bit of o-zone play, relieve a little bit of pressure, and regain a little bit of momentum. We were not capable of doing that.”

The Pressure and Frustration Are Lurking

You don’t want to look at the Mammoth’s recent schedule over the past couple of weeks. It’s pretty bad.

Since Nov. 1, the Mammoth have played 21 games. They have only won six of those games. That is abysmal. Their 6-12-3 record over the past couple of weeks gives them the worst record in the NHL in that span of time.

A lot is going on behind the scenes. The team is clearly tired, and there are probably some injuries that players are going through. However, even Tourigny has stated that there is no excuse for that. Every NHL team is going through a rough schedule because of the extended Olympic break in February.

Guenther wants the Mammoth to start getting the puck all the way out on penalty kills and when the team needs to make line changes. He understands that his team isn’t 100% but it’s one of the steps that needs to be taken in order to start getting points consistently.

“Just tighten up our shifts, shorten them up throughout the game,” Guenther said. “We’ve been playing a lot, so guys are tired, guys are banged up…(We got to) make sure when we get the puck out, it’s going all the way down, not just three-quarters down the ice. Learning right now, I think that we’re in every game, and just have to find a way to get the two points.”

The 19-4 third period needs to be studied in film. It might’ve singlehandedly cost the Mammoth the win. Sure, the Mammoth took a couple of penalties, but getting outshot 19-4 is absurd. If it wasn’t for an excellent outing from Vejmelka, it would’ve been over earlier than in the final 50 seconds.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the postgame interviews was the tone from the players and the head coach. Guenther sounded more tired than normal, almost defeated. The same could be said about McBain.

However, Tourigny’s was even more interesting. He dove in deep about the Mammoth’s late loss, which was featured above. The most brutally honest quote from him, though, came from when he was asked about the game being a character game.

“I will need to unpack it,” Tourigny said. “I’m human too. I’m frustrated. Tough pill to swallow. You want a winner. You want to at least get a point out of that game. I will need to unpack it.”

This has been rough on everyone. From the players to Tourigny, who has probably heard fans and media all over social media talk about his job being on the line. It’s stressful for anyone. He says it best. He’s human too. He obviously doesn’t want to go 6-12-3 in the past 21 games. It really is a tough pill to swallow.

However, here we are, and the Mammoth are faced with some tough decisions. Do they consider a coaching change? Do they go out and try to find a replacement for Logan Cooley, who could be out long-term with injury? Both questions need to be asked and answered at this point.

The Mammoth are lucky that most of the Western Conference has been struggling alongside them. The Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks hold the two wild-card spots in the Western Conference and are one point ahead of the Mammoth.

If the Mammoth keep having the worst record in the NHL in the past 20-something games, though, they can kiss any playoff dreams goodbye. We’re at the point where the halfway point of the season is 10 games away. Things need to change now. Games need to be won.

“We knew the guys were ready,” Tourigny said. “We played a good game. We need to find a way to win. At the end of the day, that’s the bottom line.”

The Mammoth will play the Seattle Kraken next on Friday. The Kraken are 12-10-6 and are coming off a 3-2 overtime win over the Kings. The two teams played each other three times last season, with the Mammoth losing two of them. They did win the most recent game 7-1 back in April.