HIGHLIGHTS
- Nick Schmaltz scored twice as the Utah Mammoth beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 on Tuesday
- Logan Cooley opened the scoring with a first-period goal and added an assist
- See below for how Utah clinched the first wild card spot in the Western Conference
The Utah Mammoth punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Tuesday night, beating the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 at Delta Center to lock up the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Logan Cooley got Utah on the board first, finishing a stretch pass from Nate Schmidt with a backhanded shot at 8:05 of the opening period. Nick Schmaltz took over from there, scoring twice to give the Mammoth a comfortable cushion heading into the third.
Schmaltz’s first came on the power play early in the second, burying a rebound off a Mikhail Sergachev shot. His second, also on the man advantage, made it 3-1 in the third before JJ Peterka added another just 26 seconds later to push the lead to 4-1.
Winnipeg made a late push. Mark Scheifele and Isak Rosen scored 1:47 apart to cut it to 4-3 with under six minutes left, but Alex Kerfoot sealed it with an empty-net goal in the final 23 seconds. Karel Vejmelka stopped 21 of 24 shots to earn the win.
Utah finishes the regular season at 43-32-6 with 92 points, a strong close to the franchise’s first year in Salt Lake City. The Mammoth also swept all three games against Winnipeg this season.
Their first-round opponent will be determined by the Pacific Division race. The Vegas Golden Knights can clinch the Pacific title on Wednesday, which would set up a Utah-Vegas series. If Edmonton wins the division instead, the Mammoth would face the Oilers.
For the Jets, it was a quiet end to a disappointing season. Winnipeg was eliminated on Monday and closed out at 35-33-12, dropping their final three games.
