Despite winning five games in a row, the Utah Mammoth feel as if they have room to improve.
Utah will look to keep building upon its success when it faces off against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday evening in Saint Paul, Minn.
The Mammoth are coming off a 7-4 win over the St. Louis Blues in a contest that marked the start of a four-game road trip for Utah. The victory over the Blues followed consecutive wins over the Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks, Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche.
Forward Logan Cooley, who notched a hat trick against St. Louis, said he and his teammates could not afford to get ahead of themselves after winning six of their first eight games of the season.
“It’s big, obviously, beating Colorado, St. Louis, divisional opponents,” Cooley said. “It’s obviously big but you can’t get too high, too low in this league because it’ll come back to haunt you. So (we’ve) got to stay level-headed, keep doing what we’re doing.
“There’s stuff to clean up a little bit, but I think once we do that, it’s going to continue to be good.”
As Utah is surging, Minnesota finds itself in an early-season slump.
The Wild have only one victory in their past five games and will try to snap out of their skid in the opener of a six-game homestand. Minnesota is coming off a 4-1 loss at the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night.
Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon said the matchup with the Mammoth could offer a fresh start.
“We have to keep building,” Spurgeon said. “We’re not where we want to be right now with the road trip we hoped for, but we’re going back home to a great crowd and hopefully (can) get it going.”
Teammate Matt Boldy feels the same way.
“It’s a long year,” Boldy said. “There’s a lot of games. It’s early. We’re trying to have (a strong) game every night. There’s a curve there that we have to get better at and be able to put that game back out there game after game.”
Nick Schmaltz leads the Mammoth with 13 points (five goals, eight assists) through his first eight games. Clayton Keller is second with 12 (four goals, eight assists), and Dylan Guenther rounds out the top three scorers with nine (four goals, five assists).
For Minnesota, Boldy leads the way with 11 points (five goals, six assists) in eight games. Kirill Kaprizov is next with 10 (five goals, five assists), and Joel Eriksson Ek and Zeev Buium are tied for third with six apiece (one goal, five assists).
Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka is projected to make his seventh start. He is 5-1-0 with a 2.50 goals-against average and an .896 save percentage this season.
In 11 career games against the Wild, Vejmelka is 6-3-1 with a 2.59 GAA and a .915 save percentage.
On the opposite end of the ice, Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson is set to make his seventh start. He is 2-4-0 with a 3.04 GAA and a .902 save percentage.
Gustavsson is 1-1-0 with a 3.88 GAA and an .852 save percentage in two starts last season against Utah.
