Cooley has 3 points, Mammoth score 6 straight to surge past Kraken

SEATTLE -- Logan Cooley had two goals and an assist, and the Utah Mammoth scored six straight goals to rally for a 6-2 win over the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.

Dylan Guenther had a goal and two assists Nick Schmaltz had a goal and an assist, and Kailer Yamamoto had two assists for the Mammoth (39-30-6), who have won their last two after losing their previous two. Karel Vejmelka made 25 saves.

“Huge game from our special teams,” Utah coach André Tourigny said. “Obviously starting the game not the way we wanted. We knew we’d have a little bit of rust. We didn’t play for four days, but I liked the way the guys responded. … Every period, every shift, we got better.” 

The Mammoth hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, five points ahead of the San Jose Sharks.

Jordan Eberle and Bobby McMann scored for the Kraken (32-31-11), who have lost three in a row and seven of their past eight (1-5-2). Joey Daccord made 25 saves.

“We certainly do find ways to, I guess, beat ourselves at times,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “The special teams were poor tonight, the power play wasn't good, the penalty kill gave up three goals for the first time in, (I don’t know) how long. (We took) two four-minute minor penalties for high sticking. You can't come through those types of careless plays with your stick.”

Seattle is four points behind San Jose for the second wild card.

Eberle made it 1-0 41 seconds into the first period. Jared McCann sent a cross-slot pass to Adam Larsson in the right circle. Vejmelka stopped Larsson’s one-timer, but Eberle found the rebound in the slot and slapped it past Vejmelka’s glove.

“We started well,” Eberle said. “They pushed and got a couple more. We had an opportunity on the power play to get one, and we didn’t, and they capitalize on their power play.”

McMann pushed it to 2-0 at 13:45 after Chandler Stephenson drove to the crease and lost control of the puck. McMann found the loose puck at the top of the crease, spun and slid a backhander past Vejmelka’s left pad.

Cooley cut it to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 16:27, using Seattle defenders Jaden Schwartz and Frederick Gaudreau as a screen and snapping it inside the right post from the top of the left circle.

“I thought we had a tough start there, they were kind of all over us,” Schmaltz said. “We stuck with it, and I thought the power play in the first got us going a little bit, got us some momentum going into the locker room.”

Jacob Melanson appeared to extend Seattle’s lead to 3-1 at 6:11 of the second period, but the goal was overturned after a Utah challenge for goalie interference.

“Rules are rules, but it’s a tough break, for sure,” Melanson said. “We can’t have excuses like that. It doesn’t count, we’ve got to get right back to it and get another one.”

Cooley scored his second goal of the game to make it 2-2 at 10:05 of the second period. Daccord stopped MacKenzie Weegar’s snap shot from the top of the left circle but kicked the rebound to Cooley in the right circle, who one-timed it into an open net. It was Cooley’s fifth goal in three games.

“Our ‘D’ were good at putting pucks through in the second period, and we used the top of the zone,” Tourigny said. “I always say when you play against a team that packs it in, if you don’t have offense from your D, it’s easier to shut down. I think our ‘D’ did a good job, we score on a rebound, and that opened up the play.”

Schmaltz gave Utah a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal at 14:56, one-timing Clayton Keller’s feed from below the goal line over Daccord’s blocker from the low slot.

“I think we’ve done a better job shooting the puck [on the power play],” Schmaltz said. “A lot of times, you look for the perfect play, and it’s not there. But I think we’re shooting pucks and making plays off that.” 

JJ Peterka pushed it to 4-2 at 4:39 of the third period, taking a drop pass from Yamamoto at the blue line, then snapping a shot from the top of the left circle past Daccord’s glove.

“(We were) just playing our game (in the second and third),” Peterka said. “We got carried away a little bit at the start, but I think in the second period and the third, we just kept pushing the gas pedal.”

Guenther extended the lead to 5-2 at 7:27, screening Daccord at the top of the crease and sweeping Cooley’s rebound through Daccord’s five-hole. 

The goal was initially waived off for goalie interference, but another Utah challenge overturned the call to good goal.

“It’s huge. … up 4-2 with however much time left,” Schmaltz said. “If we’re wrong, they get a power play, so it’s a big play and to go up 5-2 kind of sealed the deal for us.” 

Michael Carcone added a power-play goal to make it 6-2 at 16:37, when the puck bounced off Carcone, defenseman Ryker Evans and then Daccord's blocker and trickled in.

NOTES: Utah forward Jack McBain left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury. … McMann has eight goals and four assists in 10 games since being traded to the Kraken from the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 6.