Oilers hope visit to Mammoth sparks turnaround

Two Western Conference teams trying to lock down playoff spots face off Tuesday as Clayton Keller and the Utah Mammoth host Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers in Salt Lake City.

This is the second of three regular-season meetings between these teams. The Oilers won the first game in Edmonton 6-3 and have defeated the Mammoth in four straight games going back to the 2024-25 season.

Edmonton (34-28-9, 77 points) is clinging to third place in the Pacific Division standings and in position to make the playoffs, but it needs to turn its fortunes around after losing two straight games. The Oilers were shut out 4-0 by the visiting Florida Panthers on Thursday, then lost an early lead to fall 5-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

In that game, McDavid gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead with 23 seconds remaining in the first period. Tampa Bay responded with three second-period goals, including a power-play score from Jake Guentzel and a short-handed goal from Nikita Kucherov.

"Special teams were a big part of the story," Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. "We had an opportunity to tie the game on the 5-on-3 with a minute-plus, two really good chances, one going off the goal post, then we can't give up that short-handed goal for the two-goal lead against the best defensive team in the league."

Kucherov ended the evening with four points and now leads the NHL with 119 points on the season -- passing McDavid (116), who scored his 399th career goal.

"He's playing great," McDavid said of Kucherov. "Obviously, playing on a great team with a lot of great players over there. They got a great system. They're perfectly coached. They all know what they're doing all over the ice. It's impressive."

Meanwhile, the Mammoth (37-28-6, 80 points) currently hold the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference standings and are 12 points behind the third-place Minnesota Wild in the Central Division standings. They have won three of their last four games, most recently topping the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 in overtime on Sunday.

Lawson Crouse scored twice in the first period to give the Mammoth an early 2-1 lead, and Nick Schmaltz added to the tally to make it 3-2 Utah at 16:11 of the second frame.

"It's easy when you get rewarded when you go to the net, but you have to do it consistently," Crouse said. "Just because you go one time and you score, it doesn't mean it's going to continue to happen. You've got to just build on repetitions and repetitions and going there, and then eventually good things start to happen. It was a nice night for that."

The Kings tied the game at 16:30 of the third period, but Schmaltz scored his second goal of the night at 1:46 of overtime to lift Utah to victory.

"It's way more fun playing these games than knowing you're going to tee it up at the end of April or whatever it may be," Schmaltz said. "Super exciting to be in this position that we put ourselves in. We've got some work left to do, but we put ourselves in a good spot."