ST. LOUIS — The question of whether the Utah Mammoth’s hot streak would continue on the road was answered Thursday in St. Louis.
Logan Cooley scored three consecutive goals for the club’s first “natural hat trick” in the opening 10 minutes of the first period, and Clayton Keller added two more goals in a 7-4 win over the St. Louis Blues to start a stretch of eight road games in 18 days for the Mammoth.
“It’s nice to contribute,” Cooley said when asked about the reaction to his performance from both himself and teammates.
The hat trick is the second of the season for Utah after Nick Schmaltz had one on Oct. 17 against San Jose and marks the second three-goal performance of Cooley’s young NHL career after earning one in his rookie season with the Arizona Coyotes in 2024.
Ian Cole got the opening goal of the game just three minutes in for his first of the season, and Schmaltz scored his fifth of the year and third on the power play, pulling level with Cooley for the team lead in goals this season at five.
The hot start gave Utah a 4-0 lead after the first period, but the Blues outscored the Mammoth 4-1 over the next 25 minutes to bring it within one, 5-4, in the third period.
Schmaltz got Utah’s second power-play goal of the night four minutes later to add some cushion, and Keller sealed the win with an empty-netter in the final two minutes to reach 200 goals in his NHL career. He is the sixth-youngest active American player to accomplish the feat, beating Las Vegas’ Jack Eichel by 50 days.
“We made key plays at key moments,” head coach Andre Tourigny said. “Every time they tried to come back, we answered.”
St. Louis played two goalies on Thursday, with Jordan Binnington taking over for Joel Hofer after the 3-0 Utah start. Both tenders ultimately conceded three goals.
Utah’s seven goals against the Blues tied the club’s highest in a single game, which it reached twice last season, against the Seattle Kraken and Nashville Predators.
The win moves the Mammoth into second place in both the Central Division and the Western Conference overall. The team’s five-game win streak is now the second-longest in the NHL behind New Jersey’s six-straight wins.
Utah’s lengthy sojourn continues with the first back-to-back of the season in Minnesota and Winnipeg, both starting at 4 p.m. MDT on Mammoth+.
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