When you lose three straight overtimes like Utah Mammoth did recently, emotions are going to be everywhere.
Against the Islanders, Utah had a questionable call before its loss; with the Ducks, it was a last-second tying goal that ultimately led to an overtime loss; and to top it all off against the Sharks, Utah managed to come back from a 2-0 deficit only for Macklin Celebrini to finish the game with a hat trick.
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Despite all of these difficult times, the Mammoth never let emotions take over and still continued to compete. But in a 4-1 loss to the Golden Knights, it was clear that Vegas forward Cole Reinhardt stirred up emotions the Mammoth couldn’t overcome.
November 20, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, United States; Utah Mammoth defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (98) and Vegas Golden Knights left wing Cole Reinhardt (23) battle during the second period at Delta Center. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images).
It’s not that Reinhardt did anything illegal or even dirty, but it was clear Utah wasn’t happy with him after he delivered a huge hit to Kevin Stenlund, lowering his shoulder as Stenlund retrieved the puck.
While Stenlund was slow to get up, Utah was immediately unhappy with Reinhardt’s hit. In fact, the game was stopped in seconds because Brandon Tanev personally confronted Reinhardt, resulting in a double-checking penalty.
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Reinhardt’s powerful hit was legal and didn’t appear dirty, but the hit to Stenlund clearly lingered on Utah as the play continued.
Tempers didn’t immediately flare, even after Jack Eichel and Ben Hutton scored just 19 seconds apart to give Vegas a 2-0 lead.
Allowing Hutton to score as quickly as he did was starting to push Utah closer to its breaking point, as the Mammoth scored some hits of its own, but it hadn’t yet led to anything too big.
But as Vegas continued to drive into Utah’s defensive zone and shoot, Utah finally gave in when Reinhardt came up for a rebound opportunity against Karel Vejmelka.
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Suddenly, three Mammoth players, led by Mikhail Sergachev, rushed toward Reinhardt at the same time, sparking a fight between the two teams.
“I obviously didn’t like the way we reacted to the emotion of the match,” said André Tourigny. “We had a good first half, then we got to the second half, and things happened to (Kevin Stenlund). I didn’t like the way we reacted at the beginning. We got emotional and went off our game. They took over and it was hard for us to come back.”
The fight took a while to disperse. As soon as it seemed to be over and the players were slowing down, another separate fight began, including Cooley’s right hook against Kaedan Korczak.
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In total, five penalties were awarded to both teams, with Logan Cooley receiving two brutal penalties himself.
Although Utah was able to score shortly after the fight in the form of Nate Schmidt’s early Utah Mammoth goal, the team simply couldn’t stay disciplined and allowed two more goals to Vegas.
And once again, another fight broke out, this time with Vegas’ Jack McBain and Keegan Kolesar dropping their gloves.
Shortly after the McBain fight, it looked like Utah had given up on trying to get back into this game.
“It’s like if you plug one hole, another hole opens,” Ian Cole said. “We really need to look at our game as a whole, our attitude and how we approach it and if winning matters to us.”
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The loss to Vegas was certainly one of the toughest of the season, as Utah had yet to lose in such fashion at home.
But with a game against the Rangers fast approaching, Utah will have to quickly figure out its emotions if it wants to win against a team with one of the best road records in the NHL (9-3-1).
