The Utah Mammoth woke up today one point behind the Colorado Avalanche for the Central Division lead, amidst a 5-game winning streak. Utah visits Minnesota today to take on the Wild, who are at the bottom of the division with 7 points. Another Central Division clash with another one tomorrow in Winnipeg, which is tied with Utah at 6-2.
As the Mammoth look to make it 6 straight victories, one player who has broken out in a big way is the formerly struggling center, Logan Cooley. The Pittsburgh native registered a natural hat trick in the first period in St. Louis. The 21-year-old finished the 7-4 victory with 4 points.
The host is returning from a long, 5-game road trip that started in Dallas on October 14th and ended on Wednesday with a 4-1 defeat to the New Jersey Devils. The loss capped off a 1-4 road trip, with the lone victory against the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden by a score of 3-1.
Before this road trip, the Wild had started 2-1, and this game will be just their third game on home ice this season. Tied with the Blues, the Wild are tied for the most goals surrendered in the Central Division and fourth in the Western Conference.
Despite having two dynamic goal scorers in Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, the Wild will need to keep the puck out of their own net if they want to contend in the competitive Central Division. Both Kaprizov and Boldy have 5 goals each, with Boldy edging his teammate in points with 11.
On the blue line, Zeev Buium has had a strong start offensively in his rookie season with 1 goal and 5 assists, but he is a -8, like fellow defenseman and captain, Jared Spurgeon. Both players have participated in all 8 games for Minnesota. In fact, all the Wild defenseman this season total a -17 rating.
As you can predict, the goaltending statistics are not stellar for Minnesota, as the starter, Filip Gustavsson, has played in 6 of the 8 games, earning 2 victories with a 3.04 GAA and a .902 save percentage. In two games, Jesper Wallstedt has a 1-0-1 record with a 2.35 GAA and a .909 save percentage. The moral of the story is that the Wild give up a ton of shots and quality chances at that.
The top guys for the Mammoth, like Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller, will need to pepper the Wild goaltender and pressure them early.