MORNING SKATE NOTES
Head coach André Tourigny shared he believes the lineup will be the same unless center Kevin Stenlund is unable to play.
Focus on the Ducks
It’s a quick turnaround for the Mammoth who are on the second half of a back-to-back after beating the Vegas Golden Knights last night, 4-0. One area of focus for tonight’s game will be tightening up Utah’s defensive game. Although Vejmelka’s saves kept Vegas off the board completely, it’s important for the Mammoth to be stinger tonight against the top team in the Pacific Division.
“We’ll need to be a little bit more stingy defensively,” Tourigny explained. “We’ll take the win (against Vegas) no doubt about it, but (Karel Vejmelka) had to come up (with big saves). So, try to help him a little bit more and it goes with the style of game of Anaheim. They can produce a lot of goals, they have a lot of talent, they are extremely involved in the play, in the forecheck, in the o-zone. They don’t sit at the blue line much. We’ll need to be really alert defensively in that.”
Snapping the Skid
After Utah lost four straight games from Mar. 9-14, the Mammoth responded with two strong wins this week. After a 6-3 win over the second-best team in the NHL, the Dallas Stars, and a 4-0 win over the Golden Knights, the team is learning how to bounce back quicker.
“You always want to get out of your slum as quick as possible, but we got better than we were in the past,” Tourigny shared. “I think it’s maturity, owning your confidence, and as well being able to focus on what you can control and (not) focusing on the last game, the last two games, the last three games, what’s going wrong or stuff like that, and being able to come back and (focus) on what you can control, how you play and your performance. That brings consistency and that’s what we need to do. I’m not saying we’re there yet but we’re better than we were.”