When you lose three consecutive overtimes the way the Utah Mammoth has recently, emotions are going to be all over the place.
Against the Islanders, Utah had a questionable call before its loss; with the Ducks, it was a last-second, game-tying goal that ultimately led to an OT loss; and to top it all off against the Sharks, Utah managed to come back from a 2–0 deficit only for Macklin Celebrini to finish the game with a hat trick.
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Despite dealing with all those tough moments, the Mammoth never let emotions get the better of them and kept competing all the same. But in a 4–1 loss to the Golden Knights, it was clear that Vegas forward Cole Reinhardt stirred up emotions the Mammoth couldn’t move past.
Nov 20, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Mammoth defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (98) and Vegas Golden Knights left wing Cole Reinhardt (23) fight during the second period at Delta Center. (Rob Gray-Imagn Images).
It wasn’t that Reinhardt did anything illegal or even dirty, but it was clear Utah wasn’t happy with him after he laid out a massive hit on Kevin Stenlund, lowering his shoulder as Stenlund was collecting the puck.
With Stenlund slow to get up, Utah was immediately displeased with Reinhardt’s hit. In fact, play stopped within seconds because Brandon Tanev personally confronted Reinhardt, resulting in a cross-checking penalty.
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The powerful hit from Reinhardt was legal and didn’t appear to be dirty, but the hit on Stenlund clearly lingered with Utah as play continued.
Tempers didn’t flare immediately, even after both Jack Eichel and Ben Hutton scored just 19 seconds apart to put Vegas up 2–0.
Allowing Hutton to score as quickly as he did was starting to push Utah closer to its breaking point, as the Mammoth laid some hits of their own, but it hadn’t yet led to anything too big.
But as Vegas continued to get into Utah’s defensive zone and take shots, Utah finally snapped when Reinhardt came looking for a rebound opportunity against Karel Vejmelka.
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Suddenly, three Mammoth players, led by Mikhail Sergachev, came at Reinhardt all at once, sparking a brawl between both teams.
“I obviously did not like the way we responded to the emotion of the game,” said André Tourigny. “We had a good first period, then we arrived in the second, and stuff happened to [Kevin Stenlund]. I didn’t like the way we reacted to it at first. We got emotional and got out of our game. They took over, and it was difficult for us to get back at it.”
The brawl took a long time for the referees to break up. As soon as it looked like it had concluded and players were slowing down, another separate fight began, including Cooley’s right hook against Kaedan Korczak.
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In total, five penalties were called against both teams, with Logan Cooley racking up two roughing penalties of his own.
Though Utah would manage to score shortly after the scuffle in the form of Nate Schmidt’s first Utah Mammoth goal, the team simply couldn’t stay disciplined and gave up two more goals to Vegas.
And once again, another fight broke out, this time with Jack McBain and Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar dropping their gloves.
It wasn’t long after the McBain fight before it felt like Utah had given up trying to make a comeback in this game.
“It’s like we plug one hole, another hole opens,” said Ian Cole. “We need to really look at our game as a whole and our attitude and how we approach it and whether winning matters to us.”
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The loss to Vegas was certainly one of the toughest of the season, as Utah had yet to lose in such a manner at home.
But with a game against the Rangers just around the corner, Utah will have to figure out its emotions fast if it wants a win against a team with one of the best road records in the NHL (9-3-1).
