Mammoth vs. Hurricanes

My friend Angela has recently become a hockey fan so I was really excited to see the Mammoth take on the Carolina Hurricanes with her yesterday afternoon!  The atmosphere in the Delta Center was electric because the Mammoth clinched a payoff berth for the first time in franchise history during their last game against the Predators.  Unfortunately, the Hurricanes deflated the energy of the crowd early in the first period with a power play goal by Andrei Svechnikov after Mikhail Sergachev took a holding penalty.  Jordan Staal had a pretty wrist shot from the slot to put Carolina up 2-0 (it was his 20th goal of the season) and soon after it looked like Clayton Keller had scored for Utah but the goal was called back for being offside.  The Mammoth couldn't seem to get anything going in the offensive zone against a tough Carolina defense and were often forced to dump and chase the puck (I hate it when teams do this).  They played much better in the second period with a few good chances (they ended the game with 27 shots against a team who have held their opponents to the fewest shots in the NHL) and some great saves from Karel Vejmelka (he ended the game with 26), although they couldn't capitalize on a slashing penalty called on Shayne Ghostisbehere (they ended the game 1-5 on the power play).  Utah started the third period with a lot of energy and Dylan Guenther, my favorite player on the team, hit a beautiful one-timer from a tough angle to score on the power play.  The crowd went crazy and I have to admit that my cheering was quite enthusiastic because I had never seen him score in person before (I think he knew I was there and scored just for me)!  This goal gave the Mammoth some momentum, which was really fun to watch, but a late goal by Sebastian Aho and an empty-net goal by Sean Walker gave the Hurricanes the 4-1 victory (and snapped Utah's five game winning streak).  The outcome was a bit disappointing but at least I got to see Guenther get his 40th goal of the season (he now ranks among the top ten scorers in the league).  I really like him as a player (he is also very easy on the eyes) and I have seen a lot of development from him this season so I am happy that he reached this milestone.  There are a few regular season games left and then it will be so much fun to see this team in the playoffs!

Note: I was quoted in The Salt Lake Tribune about my frustrations with the Jazz this year (go here).