Delta Center roars as Mammoth win first home NHL playoff game

Stanley Cup Playoffs, Utah Mammoth v Vegas Golden Knights, Game 3, Round 1 at the Delta Center resulted in a 4-2 win by Utah. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Utah sports fans celebrated the Utah Mammoth win on Friday, whether they were inside the Delta Center in Salt Lake City or watching from elsewhere, as the Mammoth defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4–2 in Game 3 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It was the first time Utah had hosted an NHL post-season match, and the victory gave the Mammoth a two-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series.

All photos: TownLift // Michele Roepke

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Plenty of people pre-partied for hours outside the stadium, wearing and buying blue Mammoth jerseys. Some fans even waited behind the barriers at the side of the building where the players typically enter, hoping to get their jersey signed.

A local band played cover tunes while fans danced, got their faces painted, hung out in the beer garden, strutted around in costumes, and stood in line to sit in the now-famous Mammoth Zamboni, also known as the “Zammoth.”

This was not your grandfather’s Utah Jazz crowd. On this night, being thirsty — literally and figuratively — seemed to be the only requirement to get a spot on the big screen. If you had a mug in your hand, you got your mug on the Jumbotron, and the crowd, and their shirts, were soaking it all up.

A giant Mammoth flag unfurled above the heads of one section of the crowd. And the mascot, Tusky, appeared towering over the excited crowd to watch the game from high above. 

It was 2 – 0 Utah when the first period ended. At 12:59 defenseman MacKenzie Weegar scored the first goal of the game. 

Utah’s Dylan Guenther scored the second goal, to the deafening delight of the spectators wildly waving white towels, at 17:45. It was so loud inside the venue that players from the home team, as well as the coach, commented that they just could not hear coaching cues and calls, the first time in their careers.

The visiting Vegas Head Coach John Tortorella told reporters in the venue press conference afterwards that his team’s only goal going forward is to get to play a game outside of this stadium.

Below, watch the post-game press conference with Mammoth Captain Clayton Keller (L) and teammate Lawson Crouse who scored goals number three and four in the second period at 4:06 and 9:48.

Two goals were scored by the Knights’, with one in the final period at 16:52 by Nic Dowd, but it wasn’t enough. At the final buzzer — not that fans needed any more hype — out rolled the Zammoth, the Delta Center’s Olympic-era Zamboni from 2002, painted like a mammoth, tusks and all, and the crowd went even wilder.

All videos: TownLift // Michele Roepke

Game Four of this series will be played in Utah on Monday, when the home team will try to pull way away from their state neighbors.