FSM Recap: Vegas Golden Knights vs Utah Mammoth – Game 22 – 2025 | Logan Cooley Drops 4-Piece on VGK in 5-1 Blowout

FSM Recap: Vegas Golden Knights vs Utah Mammoth – Game 22 – 2025

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Vegas Golden Knights (10-4-7)  |  Utah Mammoth (12-8-3)

The Vegas Golden Knights vs Utah Mammoth game last night was all about one player: Logan Cooley, who scored four goals in a painful 5-1 loss for the Golden Knights at the Delta Center.

First Period: Vegas Golden Knights vs the Anaheim Ducks

Okay, so the game started out tight for a little while, but it wasn’t long before the wheels started to fall off. The first period was a big clue about what kind of night it was going to be for the Golden Knights. They started flat, and the Mammoth took full advantage of the lack of jump.

Utah’s Dylan Guenther broke the ice with just over five minutes left in the frame, capitalizing on a play where the puck seemed to find its way through a mess of sticks. The Golden Knights had a chance to settle down, but before anyone could catch their breath, Logan Cooley decided to introduce himself. Just 77 seconds after Guenther’s goal, Cooley buried his first of the night, giving Utah a quick 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.

The shot count for the period was 10-9 in favor of the Mammoth, but those two quick goals were massive momentum killers for the Golden Knights. It felt like they were still waiting for the bus while the Mammoth were already doing victory laps. The team needed a serious reset in the locker room because that two-goal deficit felt huge considering how they started the game.

Second Period: Vegas Golden Knights vs the Anaheim Ducks

If there was a silver lining to this mess, it was the second period. The Golden Knights came out with a much-needed energy boost and finally started tilting the ice in their favor. It didn’t take long for the pressure to pay off, either.

At 5:24 into the period, Ivan Barbashev finally put the Golden Knights on the board. He was right there to bang home a rebound, cutting the Mammoth’s lead to a manageable 2-1. Braeden Bowman and Jack Eichel picked up the helpers, and for a solid chunk of the period after that, it genuinely felt like the Golden Knights were on the verge of tying it up. They controlled the play, pushed the pace, and had the Mammoth running around in their own zone.

They outshot Utah 14-8 in the middle frame and were balling out. Goaltender Karel Vejmelka for the Mammoth had to be sharp, and he was, turning away a flurry of chances that could have tied the game. Sometimes, you play a good period and don’t get the reward, and that was exactly the story here. They couldn’t find that equalizer, which would come back to haunt them in a big way. The lack of finish, especially on a power play later in the period, was the critical missed opportunity that ultimately cost them.

Third Period: Vegas Golden Knights vs the Anaheim Ducks

Any hope the Golden Knights had of completing the comeback was exiled to Reno early in the final period. Logan Cooley, who was already feeling it, put his foot on the gas and never looked back.

Just over four minutes into the third, disaster struck. The Mammoth forward picked up a stretch pass, walked in on a breakaway, and netted his second of the game to restore Utah’s two-goal lead, making it 3-1. That goal, a complete backbreaker, was pretty much the dagger. From that moment, the Golden Knights looked deflated, and the high-flying energy they had in the second period was completely gone.

As the clock wound down, the Golden Knights pulled Lindbom to try and spark a miracle, but Logan Cooley wasn’t finished. He scored his hat-trick goal into the empty net with 4:19 left, and then just to rub salt in the wound, he tacked on a fourth, a shorthanded empty-netter, with 2:17 to go. A four-goal night for Cooley is a new league-wide season-high and the first in Mammoth franchise history. Not a record you want to be on the receiving end of.

It was a tough pill to swallow, and Head Coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t mince words after the game.

“We talked about matching their intensity after we beat them a few days ago, and we didn’t do it early enough,” Cassidy said. “We had a good second period, but you can’t spot a team two goals and then give up a costly third one on a breakaway when you’re trying to climb back in. We were soft on the puck too often, and that’s unacceptable.”

Even the team’s sole goal-scorer, Ivan Barbashev, couldn’t sugarcoat the team’s performance, admitting they weren’t at their best.

“We know we’re a better team than that,” Barbashev added. “We got outworked. Simple as that. We needed more urgency right from the start, and we didn’t have it. We need to reset fast and bring a complete effort for our fans at home.”

The Vegas Golden Knights vs Utah Mammoth matchup officially goes down as a 5-1 loss. The team gets back to work on Wednesday night at home against the Ottawa Senators. They will need a serious rebound performance because this one definitely stings.

The Knights’ next game is scheduled for Monday night at 7:00 PM PST against the Ottawa Senators. Catch the game on the Scripps network, Vegas channel 34.

Franchise Sports Media. Las Vegas sports news about Las Vegas Sports teams.

-TQ for Franchise Sports Media

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