A spirited surge has afforded the Utah Mammoth the luxury of kicking up their heels in their regular-season finale against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday in Salt Lake City.
Nick Schmaltz scored a pair of power-play goals on Tuesday to help the Mammoth (43-32-6, 92 points) clinch the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a 5-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
Utah, which will face the Pacific Division champion in the first round of the playoffs, snapped a modest two-game skid and posted its sixth win in its last eight games overall.
“I think we were just trying to play as best we could these last two games,” said Schmaltz, who set career highs in power-play goals (11), total goals (33) and points (74) this season.
“We had two losses in a row, so we wanted to bounce back at home and put ourselves in the best position we can.”
Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny was pleased with the performance his charges produced on Tuesday.
“When we talk about our identity, we talk about how we want to play, and we talked about that this morning,” Tourigny said. “We talked about the speed we played at, the battle we have, the net-front presence there, and the tempo we have, and I am really happy about that.”
Captain Clayton Keller carries a franchise-record nine-game point streak (four goals, 14 assists) into the season finale. He leads the team in assists (60) and points (86), with four and six, respectively, being recorded in three meetings with St. Louis this season.
Dylan Guenther, who leads the team in goals (40) this season, has totaled 14 points (six goals, eight assists) over his past nine games.
While Utah understandably has cast an eye toward the playoffs, St. Louis (36-33-12, 84 points) appears intent on finishing the regular season on a positive note. The Blues recorded their third victory in a row on Tuesday after scoring five straight goals in a 7-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Rookie Jimmy Snuggerud collected his 20th and 21st goals and added two assists on Tuesday to boost his point total to 11 (four goals, seven assists) in his past six games.
“It’s a good feeling for sure,” Snuggerud said of reaching the 20-goal plateau. “It’s obviously cool as an individual, but I think from a team aspect, I’m putting aside that and just realizing that we didn’t make the playoffs. We didn’t achieve a goal that was set at the beginning of the year. It definitely stinks because you want to be competing for a Stanley Cup at the end of this week.”
Dylan Holloway had two goals and an assist on Tuesday, giving him 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists) in 24 games since the Olympic break.
Holloway’s 22 goals are tied for the team lead with Robert Thomas, who also has club-best totals in assists (38) and points (60).
Thomas has three assists in three encounters this season with the Mammoth.
