3 Takeaways From Mammoth’s 5-4 Loss to Hurricanes

It didn’t take long for Yamamoto to once again appear on the scoresheet. In the Mammoth zone, the puck was flipped up in the air for a brief second. In a moment of confusion, Nick DeSimone poked the puck into the neutral zone and streaked towards the Hurricanes’ zone on a two-on-one chance with Carcone. DeSimone shot the puck, which rebounded off of Bussi and onto the stick of Yamamoto for an easy goal.

Yamamoto has been outstanding for the Mammoth ever since being put back into the lineup four games ago at the start of this road trip. He now has five points in his past four games. He has really shown he should be an everyday guy for this team. For Yamamoto, he’s just been trying to do what he does best to help the Mammoth.

“I just try to play my game,” Yamamoto said. “Don’t do anything too crazy. Step in when I need to. If they don’t want to play me, they don’t want to play me.”

The great thing about Yamamoto is that he’s been able to slide into any of the four lines for the Mammoth and thrive. He did well on the top line a couple of days ago against the Nashville Predators in replacement of Lawson Crouse. On Thursday, he played extremely well on the third line. It’s something that has really benefited the Mammoth on this trip.

“He’s such a great player,” Clayton Keller said. “He can play anywhere in the lineup. He’s super smart. He’s got a good hockey IQ, and that’s something that you can’t teach, and he has that. He’s a great player in our lineup. He can do it all, and we’re really lucky to have a guy like him.”

Even after the two Yamamoto goals, the third line still connected for one more goal. In the third period, Yamamoto forced a turnover in the Hurricanes’ zone on the boards. He slid the puck to McBain, who fed it to Carcone right in front of the net. Carcone slid the puck in to put the Mammoth up 4-2.

The Mammoth have found something special between these three. In this game alone, Yamamoto had three points, and McBain and Carcone each had two. The three of them looked in sync and worked well to set each other up. The third goal especially displayed fantastic chemistry between the three players.

“They were good,” head coach André Tourigny said. “They generated good offense. They were good throughout the game.”

Their forecheck was also impressive. They caused the Hurricanes to turnover the puck quite a bit and made an impact either offensively or defensively every time they were on the ice. It helps that Yamamoto, Carcone, and McBain all have a bit of speed to be able to beat players to pucks and swipe them away as well.

“Those guys are great to play with,” Yamamoto said. “They’re hard workers and fast. They both can make plays. I think I play the same type of game as them.”

If there’s any line that should stick together for Saturday’s game, it’s that one. Even if players like Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley return, Carcone, McBain, and Yamamoto looked fantastic together and were the best line by far on the Mammoth on Thursday.

Penalties Catch Up

Two months ago, the Mammoth could not win consistently for the life of them. However, one thing they did extremely well was kill off penalties. They went almost an entire month without allowing a five-on-four power play goal. The Mammoth had one of the best penalty kills in the league despite not winning games.

Fast forward to the present day, and the Mammoth’s penalty kill has been quite bad in the past couple of games. Their penalty kill allowed their opponents five goals on their power play opportunities in the past four games. It got worse on Thursday.

The first goal to go against the penalty kill happened late in the second period. Svechnikov dished the puck to Gostisbehere on the blueline, who let his shot fly, and it ended up in the back of the net. While JJ Peterka scored a couple of seconds later, and it seemed like the goals cancelled each other out, if the penalty kill had stopped Gostisbehere from scoring that goal, the Mammoth would’ve probably won.

“It started with the penalty kill,” Tourigny said. “It’s what we always talk about, being patient, but you don’t want to be passive. We became passive, and we paid for it.”

We’ll get to the other goal that the penalty kill let in, but the unit went three for five on Thursday. That’s simply not good enough. Yes, the Mammoth should’ve been more disciplined, but at the same time, you’re supposed to have confidence in your penalty kill. Right now, there hasn’t been a lot, and the goaltenders are being left out to dry because of it.

These power play goals by the Mammoth’s opponents have sometimes meant the difference between winning and losing. If the Mammoth want to continue winning, they need to fix the penalty kill quickly. A bad penalty kill could mean a loss, and one singular loss could mean the difference between making the playoffs and not.

A Cardiac Collapse

Two minutes left in the game, and it seemed like the Mammoth were cruising to a 4-2 win. However, the Hurricanes have received the nickname “Cardiac Canes” for a reason, and on Thursday, they showed the Mammoth why exactly they’re called that.

On the power play, Gostisbehere threw a shot at the boards, and it rebounded to Svechnikov, who shot it into an open net for his second goal of the game. 4-3 Mammoth with 1:59 left in the game.

The Mammoth were still up by a goal, but the momentum was quickly shifting in favor of the Hurricanes. With Bussi pulled, Jackson Blake found Gostisbehere with a long stretch pass. Gostisbehere on the blueline ripped a shot that found its way past Vejmelka and into the back of the net. Tied game with 1:27 left in the game.

“A lot of things just unfortunately broke down,” Yamamoto said. “Their crowd behind them, they were rocking. We got to be able to calm ourselves down. I don’t really know what happened. To be fully honest, that’s a good team over there.”

Tourigny called a timeout and visibly expressed to his team to calm down and take a second to collect themselves. The Mammoth just needed to survive less than a minute and a half to at least pick up a crucial point and send it into overtime. Sure, allowing two goals in the final two minutes would never be a good story, but at least a point was coming their way.

“I felt we had no pace,” Tourigny said. “That’s what made us successful throughout the game. It’s the pressure we had with the puck, and we became really passive at six on five and even at five on five after, and they did what they should do when they don’t have pressure.”

At that point, the Hurricanes smelt and saw the blood in the water and weren’t done yet. Nikolaj Ehlers, near the blueline, found Jordan Martinook with a pass. Martinook wristed a shot at the net, which Jordan Staal deflected right past Vejmelka to score the game-winning goal. 5-4 Hurricanes.

The Mammoth tried pulling Vejmelka, but the Hurricanes kept pushing even with the lead, not allowing the Mammoth to even get Vejmelka out of the crease. With 29.4 seconds left, there was no time, and the Hurricanes won the game.

“If you stop having pace, you’re screwed,” Tourigny said.

It was like watching a car crash in slow motion. You can sense what was going to happen, but you can’t look away. As soon as Svechnikov scored the third Hurricanes goal, all the momentum was on the Hurricanes’ side. 

The Mammoth knew the Hurricanes were going to push. After playing the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers the past two games, they knew how good teams played. Yet, at the same time, they were unprepared for the Hurricanes to rip all of their momentum out and inject it into themselves. It was almost exactly like what the Mammoth did last week in their game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“We knew they were gonna have a push,” Keller said. “We call the timeout. We said the right things. Bear (Tourigny) said the right things…It sucks to lose like that. It felt like we’re in control most of the game.”

Instead of returning home with a 3-1-0 record on the road, the Mammoth now come home with a 2-2-0 record and a three-point gap between them and the closest team behind them in the wild card hunt, now only a point behind them. It’s an extremely tough loss that they need to put behind them quickly because their final homestand before the Olympic break features heavyweights like the Dallas Stars and Detroit Red Wings.

At least the Mammoth weren’t the only team to have a rough comeback loss put up against them. The Edmonton Oilers came back from down 3-0 to beat the San Jose Sharks in overtime. The St. Louis Blues beat the Panthers with 8.4 seconds remaining to steal a win. Mitch Marner scored a late goal with less than a minute left against the Stars to get a point for the Vegas Golden Knights. A very dramatic night in the NHL.

However, the Mammoth let a two-goal lead diminish right in front of them and didn’t even get a single point from Thursday’s game. Three goals allowed in two minutes is unacceptable. Despite the good seen from the third line and solid play throughout most of the game, Thursday’s matchup against the Hurricanes will always be seen for the failure in the final two minutes to cost them crucial points. It’s as simple as that.

“We had the lead with five minutes to go by two goals, and we lost the game, and we cannot accept that,” Tourigny said.

The Mammoth will travel home to play the Stars on Saturday. The Stars are 31-14-9 and are coming off a 5-4 shootout win over the Golden Knights. These two teams last met two weeks ago in a game the Mammoth won 2-1 in Utah. The season series is currently tied 1-1.