How did experience factor into Mammoth’s first playoff run?

“You hear about how hard it is to win the Cup, but once you’re actually in it, it takes everyone,” said Logan Cooley, who made his playoff debut this season.

“It takes every shift, every game. You can’t take a shift off. That’s definitely eye-opening for me and I think as a group, too.”

How does that compare to international tournaments and NCAA championship games?

“It’s a completely different game,” Cooley said. “Definitely helps prepare you with being in high-pressure moments when it’s do-or-die. Those definitely help, but I think playoffs are just a different animal, just how physical, how fast the games are.

“I don’t think anything could really compare to that.”

Tourigny is in a similar boat as some of his young players. This was his first playoff run as an NHL head coach, and his prior experience is almost entirely in the CHL and international tournaments.

He explained that when you play both internationally and in the NHL regular season, you get a new opponent every game. By contrast, in a playoff series where you see the same team up to seven times in a row, teams begin to catch on to your tendencies.

For example, in the Mammoth’s series against the Golden Knights, Dylan Guenther capitalized on a few of his signature one-timers in the early games. In the latter half of the series, though, the Golden Knights always seemed to have someone in the shooting lane anytime No. 11 was poised to let one go.

Feuds are another major part of playoff hockey that hardly exist in other circumstances. When Cooley shoved Nic Dowd during a face-off at the end of Game 1, for example, it seemed to ignite a fire under the latter.

He ended up scoring more goals in the six-game series than he did in 20 regular-season games with Vegas after being traded there in March, in addition to the significant defensive and physical roles he played.

The CHL playoffs, on the other hand, are much more comparable to Stanley Cup action, Tourigny says. He described the Stanley Cup Playoffs as “junior on steroids.”

“It’s 10 levels higher (than junior), but it’s the same principle,” he said.

Guenther, who has played in the Memorial Cup and won two WHL championships, felt junior gave him a good base of experience heading into his first push for the Stanley Cup.

“I feel like it prepares you well, playing in those big games and even playing in the playoffs in junior,” he said. “Like, still seven-game series, you’re still breaking down the other team. I think it prepares you.”

Ian Cole, whose 135 career playoff games put him in 19th place among active NHLers in that category, sees this year as a step in the right direction for the Mammoth.

“The postseason will definitely give us some experience,” he said. “I think it’ll maybe help us to understand what things are going to be like as these runs hopefully continue, and then get longer, which is the goal.”

Utah Mammoth right wing Dylan Guenther (11) pushes Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mark Stone (61) during Game 6 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff series at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, May 2, 2026. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News