{"id":550805,"date":"2026-03-19T15:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T15:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550805\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T15:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T15:24:13","slug":"mammoth-dialed-in-mentally-on-quest-to-clinch-playoff-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550805\/","title":{"rendered":"Mammoth ‘dialed-in mentally’ on quest to clinch playoff berth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The younger players took steps. Forward Dylan Guenther, 22, has 58 points (33 goals, 25 assists), two shy of the NHL career-high 60 he had last season. Forward Jack McBain<\/a>, 26, has steadily provided depth scoring and is four points from tying his career-high of 27 from last season.<\/p>\n

Forward Logan Cooley<\/a>, 21, missed nearly eight weeks with a lower-body injury sustained in a 4-1 win at the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 5, but has 30 points (17 goals, 13 assists) in 40 games.<\/p>\n

“Anytime you can add a first-line center with high skill who can get a chance or two chances and buries most of them, it’s hugely important for us and our team,” Cole said of Cooley.<\/p>\n

On defense, the Mammoth added a veteran when they acquired MacKenzie Weegar<\/a>\u00a0in a trade the Calgary Flames on March 4. There was some familiarity there for the 32-year-old: Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny was his coach for Canada at the 2023 IIHF World Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot to digest, but what helps is ‘Weegs’ played in that kind of a structure for us at the World Championship, so there’s a part of the language he understands,” Tourigny said. “He heard the D-zone coverage was the same, the 1-1-3 in the neutral zone, so those are the things he knows a little bit without being super familiar, but it helps a little bit.”<\/p>\n

“What helps the most is he’s a veteran, so he has experience and we tried to not overload the information, but obviously there’s some and the fact that he’s a veteran, he’s been around, he knows how to play the game.”<\/p>\n

The Mammoth, playing their second season in Salt Lake City, are enjoying their surroundings and success on the ice. Bringing playoff games to Delta Center is the next step.<\/p>\n

“It would mean a lot to the group,” Armstrong said. “We’re focused on one game at a time but it’s truly up to them. They put themselves in a position to fight to get in, so it’s really in that dressing room. It’s up to them. They have to make that decision every night to play the right way.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The younger players took steps. Forward Dylan Guenther, 22, has 58 points (33 goals, 25 assists), two shy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-550805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}