LOGAN COOLEY

Schmaltz finishes while Cossa steadies Utah in Columbus

Guenther, Keller and Cooley fuel a rolling attack, and two posts show how close Utah came to adding more.

Utah owned the run of play and the better looks, then cashed enough to pull away. The Mammoth carried 57.7% of the shot attempts and edged expected goals 2.91–2.54 — the kind of territorial and danger edge that felt obvious shift to shift.

That control came from multiple lines. Nick Schmaltz buried two, Dylan Guenther stacked a goal and two helpers, and Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley each fed two more chances that turned into finishes. Utah even rang iron twice — Cooley and MacKenzie Weegar each hit a post — a pair of near-misses that hinted the gap could have been wider.

On the back end of that pressure, Sebastian Cossa made it hold. He stopped 17 of 18 and turned aside most of Columbus’s best looks, leaving the Blue Jackets with little payoff from limited volume. At the other end, Jet Greaves faced a steady stream; Utah’s finishing and a 3-for-4 power play made that pressure tell.