Red-hot Logan Cooley lights up Wild during ugly start to 6-game homestand: Takeaways – The Athletic

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Former University of Minnesota star Logan Cooley continued lighting the lamp for fun Saturday night to help the Utah Mammoth build an early three-goal lead, then assisted on a third-period goal to end the Minnesota Wild’s comeback attempt during a 6-2 Utah win.

Marcus Johansson, elevated to top-line duty, notched his 16th career two-goal game, but Karel Vejmelka made 11 saves on three third-period Wild power plays and finished with 33 saves for the winners of six in a row.

With the skidding Wild pressuring hard, Cooley, with a pass off the wall, assisted on JJ Peterka’s goal after he flew into the zone off the bench with 6:23 left in the third to give the Mammoth breathing room. The puck just got by Johansson. That ended a string of 29 saves for Filip Gustavsson, who had been excellent since the early Utah flurry.

“It just bounced. I went to the one guy thinking he was trying to play it, and it went over his stick,” Johansson said. “It’s frustrating because we’re trying so hard. I almost feel like we’re trying too hard at times, where we want it so bad and one little mistake costs us. It’s frustrating, but we’ve got to do better.”

🚨 JJ Peterka makes it 4-2, Utah! pic.twitter.com/l63Nu7YgBS

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) October 26, 2025

Less than two minutes later though, Nick Schmaltz scored his second goal of the game and seventh in the past five games to cinch the win for the 7-2 Mammoth.

It was not the ideal way to start a six-game homestand for the 3-5-1 Wild after a 1-3-1 road trip. The Wild, with Jesper Wallstedt the anticipated starter, host the San Jose Sharks on Sunday night.

“I think we’ve yet to put out our best game,” defenseman Brock Faber said. “It’s a quick turnaround here. So it’s on to the next. We need two points (Sunday). We need them badly. Turn this thing around. That was our ninth game. We gotta long way to go. And be a lot better.”

Cooley continues torrid stretch

One game after registering a natural hat trick in a 4:48 span in St. Louis, Cooley scored twice in the first 3:29 and in a span of 2:34 to give Utah a 2-0 lead. Cooley’s first goal came when he backhanded a puck out of midair that hovered into the sky off the Wild’s Marco Rossi.

“I didn’t even see the puck really,” said Cooley, who attended Friday’s Gophers game against Minnesota-Duluth with teammate Nate Schmidt. “It kind of just popped up and turned quick and just tried to whack it and get it on net. I didn’t know exactly where it was going, but I was lucky it went in.”

LOGAN COOLEY, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! 🥶 pic.twitter.com/Rdv4Jrbovd

— NHL (@NHL) October 25, 2025

Cooley’s second goal came after Yakov Trenin took a careless slashing minor 200 feet from his net and Jonas Brodin’s stick checking allowed Cooley three whacks to score his seventh goal of the season.

“That was one where we put ourselves in that position,” coach John Hynes said. “Some of the details around the net weren’t what they needed to be.”

LOGAN COOLEY JUST SCORED AGAIN 🤯

He’s got five goals in his last four periods of hockey! pic.twitter.com/6x2c8saZXr

— NHL (@NHL) October 25, 2025

When Schmaltz scored at the 4:58 mark to make it 3-0, it provided the three fastest goals in Mammoth history and the fastest three goals by any NHL team on the road since Edmonton scored three in the first 3:55 at Seattle on Dec. 30, 2022.

Cooley’s five goals in two games are the most by a Utah player in a two-game span.

“It’s always a lot more fun when you’re scoring, and obviously winning, too,” Cooley said. “We’re on a streak right now. Just fortunate enough to be scoring right now. It’s a lot of fun and we’ve got to just keep it rolling.”

Wholesale line changes

The Wild entered Saturday’s contest ranked dead last in the league with nine five-on-five goals. That led to all four forward lines being put into a blender heading into the game against Utah.

Kirill Kaprizov centered Rossi and Johansson, Danila Yurov was bumped up from fourth-line center to second-line left wing with Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy, Vladimir Tarasenko was moved from second-line right wing to third-line right wing next to Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman, and Ben Jones centered a fourth line with Trenin and Vinnie Hinostroza.

Johansson’s first goal came after a Rossi-led rush with Kaprizov hitting rookie Zeev Buium, who found Johansson for a one-timer.

DEFENSE ➡️ OFFENSE pic.twitter.com/ZysSYWwRre

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 25, 2025

Then, on a late second-period power play, Hinostroza found Johansson with the net wide open. His shot just beat an outstretched Vejmelka’s paddle for his first two-goal game since Jan. 23, 2024. In fact, of Johansson’s 16 career two-goal games, his last six have come with Hynes coaching him in New Jersey and Minnesota.

The goal by Johansson was Minnesota’s first on its past 13 power plays.

“I think Marcus has been very consistent,” Hynes said. “I think his speed’s been a factor every night. I think his ability to make plays has been strong. He’s shooting the puck when he’s in areas to be able to shoot it, and it just seems wherever we put him, that line seems to be able to be effective. It helps when you have a guy that can skate like that and he can make plays and he’s got a consistent effort and a competitiveness about him.

“So, he’s kind of bounced around a little bit on different lines and where he’s been, usually that line’s been good and that’s a sign of a guy playing consistent hockey.”

ways to describe that pass: nasty, filthy, gross, all the above pic.twitter.com/prsNPNCuOs

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 25, 2025

Faber beating himself up

Faber, a Calder Trophy finalist two years ago and in the first year of an eight-year contract with an $8.5 million AAV, badly needs something to go right for him.

Faber has no points and is minus-5 in nine games. He was minus-2 Saturday in a game where he had three shots, three others attempted and came close a couple of times to tying the score. But in the end, he was on the ice for Cooley’s second goal and committed the turnover that led to Peterka’s goal after a long offensive zone shift for the Wild led to he and Brodin, both fatigued, being stuck on the ice.

“I mean, I’m better than this. I know I am,” Faber said. “I thought I had opportunities to play a solid game, and I just gotta kind of go back to Square One. I gotta defend better. I gotta limit my turnovers, and I gotta let the game come to me. I think everyone’s got their own thing that they need to do better, and for me specifically, that’s what I need to do right now to help this team get out of this is, like I said, there’s two things: limiting turnovers and defending harder.

“They still score, I can look myself in the mirror knowing I did everything I could. I gotta be better at that. I gotta be, I gotta stay more positive, I know that.”

Hynes said, “I thought he certainly could have had some tonight because he put himself in some good positions for that. It didn’t go, but Fabes is a guy, he cares and it’s really got to be a combo. It’s trying to make sure we continue to help him and get his game going, but on the other side, for him, you can’t get too down and too critical. You have to stay with it. He’s a really good player. He cares a lot, and sometimes I think when you care that much, you don’t want it to seep into the rest of your game.

“Tonight I thought he had some really good looks, but right now it’s not going his way in certain situations, but he’s a tough kid. He cares a lot. He’s a hell of a player, so it’s our job to help him get going a little bit better and more consistent because he certainly has a high-end ability.”