ANAHEIM — The Ducks were down to their minor-league goalie tandem and they did them few favors defensively in a 7-0 walloping by the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday night at Honda Center.
It was the Ducks’ most lopsided loss of the season; they hadn’t lost by more than three goals. They were shut out for the second time in 2025-26, and this time neither Lukáš Dostál nor Petr Mrázek were available in net.
Ville Husso stopped 17 of 21 shots before being relieved by Vyacheslav Buteyets, who made his NHL debut and nine of 12 saves in one period of action. Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson had their scoring streaks of eight and seven games, respectively, snapped.
J.J. Peterka led the Utah assault with two goals and two assists to give the Mammoth just their fourth win in 15 games. Clayton Keller notched a goal and two assists. Dylan Guenther and Ian Cole added a goal and an assist apiece. Lawson Crouse and Liam O’Brien also scored. Nick Schmaltz and Jack McBain each chipped in two assists. Karel Vejmelka had 27 saves to earn his first shutout of the season and forward Daniil But played his first NHL game.
When asked if there were positives to glean from the game, Ducks coach Joel Quenneville responded, “It’s over.”
“At the end of the year, you look back and there are probably two, three, four or five [games] that you can say ‘throw it in the garbage can.’ That’s our first one that we’re gonna throw in the garbage can,” Quenneville said.
After opening the scoring in consecutive games, the Ducks reverted to their habit of giving up the game’s first goal.
And its second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh as well.
“Everybody needs to tighten things up. The goalies have been a huge part of our success and a big reason why we are where we are,” captain Radko Gudas said. “We need to come up big for them as well. We need to block a lot more shots, we need to let them see the puck and we can’t give up three-on-ones.”
Despite an early push in the first period and their dominance in the faceoff circle through 20 minutes, the Ducks found themselves down 2-0 at the first intermission. They were aggressive in the second as well, but their hole only got deeper, to 4-0, through 40 minutes.
Crouse got the Mammoth moving, 5:59 after puck drop, after they outworked the Ducks along the walls and below the goal line. There, Michael Carcone’s backhand feed allowed Crouse to traverse the crease and score off his backhand.
Jacob Trouba, who was on the ice for five of Utah’s goals, stepped up in the neutral zone to play a pass unsuccessfully. Guenther skated into the loose puck with speed and zoomed past a diving Pavel Mintyukov. Guenther’s combination of velocity and confident stickhandling opened up Husso’s five hole with ease, 10:30 into the game.
The Ducks collapsed low in their defensive zone, leaving Cole space to glide into the left circle for a shot that seared past both Trouba and Husso, 5:43 into the second period.
“We came into this game with something to prove. We had a pretty rough meeting after the San Jose game, and guys knew that we needed to step up, and we did,” Cole said.
With 7:04 to play in the middle frame, the Ducks appeared to score off a slick exchange between Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish. McTavish’s tally was nullified, however, by an offside challenge by André Tourigny.
Instead it was Utah slathering on another goal, and the hosts headed to the dressing room with one more shot on net but four fewer goals than the visitors.
Off a set breakout, three overcommitted forwards left the Ducks with just two defensemen to defend an odd-man break. Keller gained the zone with speed, moving the puck to Peterka on the flank. Two cross-ice passes later, the Mammoth held a 4-0 lead at the 14:34 mark.
“That was poor coverage on our part, and that’s something we’ve got to get better at, defending a good team with speed and skill,” Quenneville said.
Immediately after making his first NHL save, Buteyets received a rude reception from the league. His pad save sent the puck off the end boards and directly to O’Brien, whose spinning bid banked in off Drew Helleson’s skate, 1:41 into the third period.
“He had a very tough position to go in,” Gudas said. “He faced some very tough shots right away and two of the goals went off our own guys, so it’s very hard for him to stop those, but I thought he held his ground.”
Then, O’Brien turned down a vociferous invitation to fight from Ross Johnston, who was assessed a roughing penalty. On the ensuing power play, some overly cute penalty killing and a puck that eluded Mintyukov at the blue line exposed Trouba to a three-on-one Utah rush, which culminated in Peterka’s power-play goal with 9:54 left.
Utah kicked the extra point through the uprights 2:46 later, when Keller’s fling in the general direction of the net bounced off Jackson LaCombe to pour salt into the Ducks’ wounds.
UP NEXT
The Ducks host the white-hot Washington Capitals on Friday at 7 p.m.