Mammoth cruise to shutout of Blackhawks in season opener
Vejmelka makes 15 saves, Guenther scores twice, Lee gets goal in Utah debut
By Matt Komma
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
SALT LAKE CITY -- Karel Vejmelka made 15 saves, Dylan Guenther scored twice, and the Utah Mammoth opened their season with a 6-0 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at Delta Center on Thursday.
It was Vejmelka’s ninth NHL shutout and the first shutout at home in franchise history.
“He was confident out there, he was solid,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “When he had to come up big, he made the big save, and I liked his performance. No doubt about it.”
Anders Lee scored in his Mammoth debut, Michael Carcone had a goal and an assist, and Clayton Keller had two assists for Utah, which has won all three home openers in franchise history.
“We were on pucks, we were on them, we made it really tough, as tough as possible on them,” Tourigny said. “The other thing I really liked is the way we were at the net. A lot of our goals were through traffic, with traffic, rebound traffic, we created rebounds or deflections.”
Arvid Soderblom made 26 saves for Chicago (0-2-0), which has lost the first two games of its season-opening three-game road trip, including 5-2 at the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.
“I thought we made our decisions too slow,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “It was a fast game out there. They're a fast team. I just thought we made our decisions too slow. So I just didn't think we played to the level that we're capable of.”
Guenther gave the Mammoth a 1-0 lead on the power play at 16:41 of the first period. He took a pass from Logan Cooley and snapped a shot from the top of the right face-off circle.
Guenther became the fourth player in NHL history to score in each of a franchise’s first three season openers. He joined Jared McCann (three with the Seattle Kraken), George Carey (three with the Hamilton Tigers/Quebec Bulldogs) and Newsy Lalonde (three with the Montreal Canadiens).
“Yeah, it's great to see,” Guenther said. “I think everyone’s anxious to get the season going, so to start like that is a good feeling. I hope we can just take that momentum into the long roadie (a five-game trip that begins at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday).”
Carcone scored from low in the left circle 40 seconds later to push it to 2-0 at 17:21, converting a pass from Kevin Stenlund.
Nick Schmaltz then made it 3-0 at 9:47 of the second period when he put a rebound over the pad of Soderblom from the right side.
Lee extended the margin to 4-0 at 13:06, scoring with a tip in the slot.
The forward signed a three-year, $16.2 million contract (5.4 million average annual value) with the Mammoth on July 1 after playing all 14 of his previous NHL seasons with the New York Islanders.
Guenther scored his second power-play goal of the game at 15:28, redirecting a pass from Keller to make it 5-0.
“I thought we had good pace from the start,” Keller said. “We knew they were a fast, skilled team, and I thought we put pucks behind them, used our speed. Every single line was playing the same way, and just kept rolling it over and didn't get away from our game.”
Chicago defenseman Ian Cole, who played with Utah the past two seasons, said, “Obviously, it wasn't good enough, clearly, and we're going to have to take the next 48 hours and look at it and fix some things. We haven't put together a full 60 minutes yet to the standard that we have talked about and try to hold ourselves to. It's unfortunate the spot that we're in, but the fortunate thing is we have a game two days from now (at the Buffalo Sabres). We can try to rectify it.”
Daniil But made it a 6-0 final at 12:50 of the third period by deflecting a Carcone shot.
“I think that we’re a really good team when we play well but it’s got to be consistent,” Guenther said. “We’ve shown we can play a good 60, but there are 84 games. Just enjoy this one and then get ready for the road.”
NOTES: In addition to Lee, fellow offseason pickups Vincent Trocheck and Andrew Peeke found the score sheet in their Mammoth debut, with each getting an assist. Trocheck, a forward, was traded from the New York Rangers on July 1. Peeke, a defenseman, signed a one-year, $1 million contract on July 3. … Utah had 14 skaters with at least one point, which is a franchise record.
