Thousands of fans lose their hats in Mammoth’s 6-2 win

In addition to Schmaltz’s four points (he had an assist, too), John Marino had a big game. For the second time this season, he finished with three points — and this time, he set a new career high in that category.

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“He’s very calm under pressure on the breakouts,” said fellow defenseman Mikhail Sergachev of Marino. “I think that’s what makes him one of the greats back there.

“I like his game a lot. Defensively, too, he’s very smart. Knows his position well. He’s very good.”

The Canucks fired back with a pair of goals over the course of the game, but it ended the same way two thirds of their game have this season — with another tally in the “L” column.

Their management recently used the “rebuild” word for the first time in many years, so in an odd way, the game worked out for both teams: Utah moves back into a playoff spot and Vancouver gets one step closer to a lottery pick.

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Tidbits and takeaways

Special teams pull through

The fault for all of the Mammoth’s recent losses has been hung on the special teams.

Going into this game, their power play was on track to be in the 11th percentile all-time (since they started tracking power play data in 1977-78). Needless to say they needed a win.

It’s just a start, but they went 1 for 2 with the man-advantage on Monday — Sergachev scored on a drive from the point.

The talk around the locker room the last few days had emphasized simplification. The Mammoth weren’t getting enough shots on net, which creates fewer rebounds, deflection opportunities and straight-on goals like Sergachev’s.

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“I just took a shot,” Sergachev said. “… It went in. It was kind of lucky, but it’s a big goal for our power play and kind of gives us confidence that we can shoot and go get rebounds and score goals.”

They were better on the other side of the puck, too. The goal is always to stay out of the box as much as possible, but they managed to kill off all four of their minor penalties.

“I think, PK, we did a good job pressuring,” said Schmaltz, who plays on Utah’s second penalty-killing unit. “We talked about that going into the game. We wanted to make them execute plays and be all over them.”

“I liked our special teams,” Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny said. “We were really opportunistic.”

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Add him to the list

In the 33 days since the calendar flipped to 2026, the NHL has seen 32 hat tricks.

Schmaltz is the second Mammoth player on the list — remember, Dylan Guenther scored one on New Year’s Day.

As mentioned, it was Schmaltz’s second three-goal game of the year, meaning the Mammoth join the Chicago Blackhawks as the only teams in the league who have multiple players with multiple hat tricks this season (Logan Cooley has two as well). That stat comes courtesy of the NHL PR department.