Injuries piling up as Mammoth clinch top wild card spot

The Utah Mammoth have officially clinched the highly coveted first wild card spot in the Western Conference. They’ll face the winner of the Pacific Division — either the Edmonton Oilers or the Vegas …

The Utah Mammoth have officially clinched the highly coveted first wild card spot in the Western Conference. They’ll face the winner of the Pacific Division — either the Edmonton Oilers or the Vegas Golden Knights.

Utah had a number of potential clinching scenarios going into Tuesday. The one that actualized was the Mammoth beating the Winnipeg Jets and the Minnesota Wild topping the Anaheim Ducks.

But the players weren’t worried about playoff positioning as much as they were about finishing the season on a high note.

“I think we were just trying to play as best we could these last two games,” said Nick Schmaltz, who scored two goals in the game. “We had two losses in a row, so we wanted to bounce back at home and put ourselves in the best position we can.

“… We just don’t want to be limping into the playoffs. We want to be rolling. We want everyone feeling confident and hit the ground running right from Game 1.”

If the Golden Knights get at least a point against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, they’ll lock themselves in as the Mammoth’s first-round opponent. That result could also come from the Oilers losing in any fashion to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

Although the Mammoth controlled the majority of the game, nothing was ever guaranteed. Their 4-1 lead soon turned into a 4-3 lead. They held on and added an empty-netter for a 5-3 final score.

“We made it tougher than we should have or could have, but when push came to shove and it was tight, we played solid,” said head coach André Tourigny. “We didn’t give much. We were stingy. … The guys were rock-solid.”

Playoff-style hockey

It’s often said that there are players who get you to the playoffs and others who get you through them.

The likes of Schmaltz, Clayton Keller (who’s now on a franchise-high nine-game point streak), Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley have been instrumental in the Mammoth’s success up to this point. But when the playoffs begin, there’s a good chance the depth players’ skill sets will show through.

Whether it’s a meaningless game or a clinching scenario, Brandon Tanev and Liam O’Brien always give it everything they have — and that’s exactly how you have to play in the playoffs.

That was especially true on Tuesday. Every time you looked up, it seemed like one of those guys was hitting someone or hounding down the puck in the corner.

Tanev might count this as a down season because he has yet to score a goal after having 10 last year, but he hasn’t strayed from the dog-on-a-bone playing style that got him to the NHL in the first place.

“They play the right way,” Tourigny said of the line which includes Tanev, O’Brien and Alexander Kerfoot. “I often say to them, ‘You get it out (of the defensive zone), you get it in (the offensive zone), you get it to the net and you get on the body’ — and that’s exactly what they did.”

It’s also worth pointing out the other grinders who typify playoff competitors. Michael Carcone and Kailer Yamamoto aren’t big bodies, but the way they hound loose pucks, you wouldn’t know it; Kerfoot, Kevin Stenlund and Lawson Crouse won’t appear on the highlight reels very often, but they play smart, defensively sound hockey and can be trusted in important situations.