Wild, Mammoth clash for Central Division supremacy

The top two teams in the Central Division meet Tuesday night when the Minnesota Wild visit the Utah Mammoth in Salt Lake City.

The first-place Wild will conclude a five-game road trip after sweeping back-to-back games over the weekend, winning 5-1 at the Seattle Kraken on Saturday and 4-2 at the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.

Maxim Shabanov and Kirill Kaprizov each had a goal and an assist as the Wild evened their road trip record at 2-2 with the Sunday win. Former Canuck Quinn Hughes, playing his first game in Vancouver since being traded to Minnesota last December, had a goal and an assist and reached 500 career points, while Calvin Pickard made 15 saves.

Minnesota was outshot 10-5 in the first period but compiled a 29-7 advantage over the final 40 minutes.

"Vancouver came out really hard, physical, aggressive, kind of took the play to us a little bit," Wild coach John Hynes said. "But I thought the second half of the first period we got ourselves competitively into the game the way we needed to, and I liked how we responded throughout."

Kaprizov has 13 goals this season and has recorded at least one point in 11 of 13 games.

"I don't want to say it's hot start," Kaprizov said. "It's just so many places where we can do better and play better. It's just early season. Just need to be in shape all the time and keep doing (it the) right way, keep playing right."

Hughes also has points in 11 of 13 games.

After winning three in a row earlier this month, the Mammoth have alternated wins and losses over their past four games, the latest being a 5-4 overtime win against the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Dmitri Simashev scored his first two NHL goals Saturday, including the winner at 1:44 of overtime, as Utah rallied from a 4-2 second-period deficit to defeat Tampa Bay.

"We (didn't execute) a lot of plays and were a little bit nervous, but were capable of regrouping and finding our game and playing much better in the second half of the game," Utah coach Andre Tourigny said.

Kailer Yamamoto, Dylan Guenther and Anders Lee also scored for Utah. Vincent Trocheck recorded two assists, and Karel Vejmelka made 29 saves.

Vejmelka bounced back after allowing nine goals on 41 shots in Utah's previous two games.

"Really proud of him, really proud for him," Tourigny said. "I think we all know how much he cares and how much the team means to him, so to see him bounce back and come up big in key moments and help us to get the two points was huge."

Vejmelka is 8-4-1 with a 2.68 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage in 14 games against the Wild. Minnesota's Jesper Wallstedt allowed five goals in his only prior start against the Mammoth, a loss.

Utah took two of three meetings last season. Logan Cooley had two goals and an assist in a 6-2 Mammoth win on Oct. 25, 2025. The Mammoth won 5-2 at home on Feb. 27, with Clayton Keller recording a goal and two assists. Minnesota salvaged the final meeting, winning 5-0 on March 10 behind 25 saves by Filip Gustavsson.

--Field Level Media