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Devils Fall to Mammoth 5-3 at Home
Published: Tuesday, October 6, 2026
by Blair Yusko
NEWARK, N.J. - The New Jersey Devils (1-2-0) fell to the Utah Mammoth (3-1-0) 5-3 on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center.
After a tough 6-0 loss suffered on Saturday against the Islanders at UBS Arena, the Devils returned home looking to build off their home opening win against the Flyers.
For the Mammoth, after scoring ten goals in their first two games of the season, they suffered their first loss of the year on Sunday night across the Hudson River against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
With both teams looking to bounce back, the first period saw some physicality and plenty of chances with a few finding the back of the net. Utah opened the scoring less than two minutes into play when Clayton Keller found the back of the net on a power play.
The Devils would get their first opportunity on the power play 4:10 into the first period after a cross-checking penalty committed by Dimitri Simashev. New Jersey couldn’t capitalize as the Mammoth were able to kill off their first penalty of the night.
The latter stages of the first period, Jersey found the back of the net for the first time. Following two penalties from Utah to make it a 5-on-3 advantage for the Devils, newcomer Luke Evangelista tipped in his first goal as a New Jersey Devil to even the score at one apiece.
Similar to the start of this game, the second period opened with the Mammoth regaining the lead. MacKenzie Weegar tapped one by Jake Allen for his first goal of the year. It didn’t take long though for New Jersey to respond.
Evangeslita the former Nashville Predator turned Devil, tipped his second one past Karel Vejmelka to tie the game once again. The back half of the second period went back in favor of Utah.
With 7:55 left in the period, Nick Shmaltz scored Utah’s third of the night and second on the power play to give the Mammoth their third lead of the game. Nearly seven minutes later, with just 57 seconds left on the clock, New Jersey surrendered another one.
Lawson Course scored his first of the season to double Utah’s lead going into the final frame. The third period opened with some fireworks.
The physicality from the previous two frames spilled into the final frame as Jake McBain and Brenden Dillon dropped the gloves. Both received five minutes for fighting while Dillon was also booked for roughing, putting Utah on an early power play.
The Devils penalty kill was able to fight off the power play to keep it a two-goal deficit. Nearing the halfway point of the third period still trailing, the Devils showed a pulse.
Jesper Boqvist got one past Vejmelka on a goal that was assisted by Dougie Hamilton and Declan Chisholm. After the goal play continued to go back and forth as New Jersey tried to chase down the game tying goal.
For New Jersey, that game tying goal never came, and instead Vincent Trocheck got one past Allen to make it 5-3 Mammoth and that score stuck for the remainder of play.
This loss is now back-to-back for the Devils who will have a few days off before returning to action on Saturday afternoon when they welcome the Vancouver Canucks to the Prudential Center.
Blair Yusko can be reached at blair.yusko@student.shu.edu
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