Mammoth vs. Blackhawks: Dylan Guenther's Two Power-Play Goals and Karel Vejmelka's Shutout Power a 6-0 Rout

Three seasons into its existence, the Utah franchise has now played three home openers. It has won all three, and this one got out of hand in a hurry.

Dylan Guenther scored two power-play goals, Karel Vejmelka made 15 saves for the first home shutout in franchise history, and the Utah Mammoth flattened the Chicago Blackhawks 6-0 at Delta Center on Thursday night. Five different Mammoth players scored, Clayton Keller set up both of Guenther's goals and Chicago managed nine shots on goal through two periods, which is less a stat line than a cry for help.

"He was confident out there, he was solid," Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said of Vejmelka. "When he had to come up big, he made the big save, and I liked his performance. No doubt about it."

Forty Seconds That Broke It Open

The first 15 minutes were scoreless. Then Artyom Levshunov went to the box for holding at 15:53, and Utah's power play went to work. Guenther took a pass from Logan Cooley and snapped one from the top of the right circle at 16:41, with Keller picking up the secondary assist.

Forty seconds later, it was 2-0. Michael Carcone, working low in the left circle, took a feed from Kevin Stenlund and flicked a wrist shot over Arvid Soderblom's elbow at 17:21. Utah took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

The second period was a clinic in net-front hockey. Nick Schmaltz made it 3-0 at 9:47, scooping up a puck that kicked off Soderblom's skate and tapping it in behind the sprawled goalie. Anders Lee, playing his first game for the Mammoth after 14 seasons with the New York Islanders, tipped in an Andrew Peeke feed in traffic at 13:06. Then Frank Nazar took a cross-checking penalty at 14:54, and Guenther made Chicago pay again at 15:28, redirecting a Keller pass to make it 5-0.

"A lot of our goals were through traffic, with traffic, rebound traffic, we created rebounds or deflections," Tourigny said.

Daniil But capped the scoring at 12:50 of the third, deflecting a Carcone shot past Soderblom. Tempers flared once along the way, when MacKenzie Weegar and Ryan Donato fought at 6:08 of the third, but the result had been settled for a while. The only remaining drama was whether Vejmelka would get his zero. He did.

The Turning Point: Utah's Power Play, Chicago's Penalty Box

There is no secret sauce here. Utah went 2 for 3 on the power play, and both goals came within a minute of the Blackhawks taking a penalty. The first broke a scoreless game. The second turned a comfortable lead into a laugher. Chicago, meanwhile, went 0 for 3 with the extra man and never put Vejmelka in a position where one save could swing the night.

Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill pinned it on speed of thought more than speed of feet. "I thought we made our decisions too slow," he said. "It was a fast game out there. They're a fast team."

Star Watch

Dylan Guenther: Two power-play goals in 14:33. NHL.com noted he became the fourth player in NHL history to score in each of a franchise's first three season openers, joining Jared McCann (Seattle Kraken), George Carey (Hamilton Tigers/Quebec Bulldogs) and Newsy Lalonde (Montreal Canadiens). That is a deep cut of a list, and Guenther is on it.

"I think everyone's anxious to get the season going, so to start like that is a good feeling," he said.

Karel Vejmelka: 15 saves on 15 shots for his ninth NHL shutout. Chicago did not test him often, but he was there every time it did.

Clayton Keller: Two assists, both on Guenther's power-play goals, in 17:43. "I thought we had good pace from the start," Keller said.

Michael Carcone: A goal and an assist in just 12:40, plus six hits.

Anders Lee: A goal in his Mammoth debut. Fellow newcomers Vincent Trocheck, traded from the New York Rangers on July 1, and Peeke each picked up an assist in their first games with Utah too.

Arvid Soderblom: 26 saves on 32 shots for Chicago. He was not the problem.

Stats That Matter

• 14: Utah skaters with at least one point, a franchise record, according to NHL.com.
• 9: Chicago's shots on goal through two periods. It finished with 15.
• 39-15: Utah's edge in faceoffs won, good for 72.2 percent. The Mammoth started with the puck and kept it.
• 42-12: Utah's advantage in hits.
• 2 for 3: Utah's power play. Chicago went 0 for 3.

What It Means

Utah is 1-0-0, and per the AP, it was the second time in three seasons the Mammoth have beaten the Blackhawks in a season opener. Now they hit the road for five games, starting Saturday in Columbus. Guenther knows a dominant opener only means so much. "I think that we're a really good team when we play well but it's got to be consistent," he said. "We've shown we can play a good 60, but there are 84 games."

Chicago is 0-2-0 after a 5-2 loss at Vegas on Tuesday, and its season-opening, three-game road trip wraps up Saturday in Buffalo. Defenseman Ian Cole, who played for Utah the past two seasons, did not dodge the obvious. "Obviously, it wasn't good enough, clearly, and we're going to have to take the next 48 hours and look at it and fix some things," he said. "We haven't put together a full 60 minutes yet to the standard that we have talked about and try to hold ourselves to."

Two games is a tiny sample, but the early returns for the Blackhawks are not pretty: 11 goals against and two goals for.

Closing Take

Keller described a game in which every line played the same way, which is coach-speak for nobody taking a night off. "Every single line was playing the same way, and just kept rolling it over and didn't get away from our game," he said. Mammoths, it turns out, are built for the ice. Utah's version looked like it could stomp through a lot of schedules if it keeps playing like this.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.