Logan Cooley Exits With Left Knee Injury, Utah Mammoth Shut Out By St. Louis Blues

Logan Cooley was skating down the ice, playing his typical game before he suffered his injury.

The Mammoth were down 1-0 and in desperate need of offense. With the puck in his possession, Cooley was looking to make a play, as he had done for the Mammoth all year. But with the Blues’ Alexey Toropchenko suddenly blocking his path, Cooley was not going to get an easy route to the net.

It was no surprise when Cooley sent the puck off the boards into the St. Louis defensive zone. Getting it past Toropchenko wouldn’t have been easy, so it was a good reed to send the puck in and allow Utah to be onside.

Cooley was playing smart even with pressure mounting on the Mammoth to make something happen offensively. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could have done to prevent what happened next:

Just as Cooley was attempting to skate past, Toropchenko leaned forward to deliver a hit and collided with his knee, leaving Cooley on the ice in serious pain.

Though it’s too early to tell how long Cooley will be out with the injury, it appears it could potentially be serious, as he needed help from his teammates to skate off the ice and into the tunnel.

After Cooley was attended to and taken care of, Toropchenko was given a five-minute penalty for kneeing and was ejected from the game.

Losing Cooley is a huge blow for the Mammoth, especially since he had been playing particularly well of late, even registering an impressive four-goal game in a 5-1 win against the Golden Knights.

Though offense had already been hard to come by for the Mammoth in this game, it was clear Utah was missing Cooley’s offense and speed when it couldn’t capitalize on Toropchenko’s penalty.

Utah’s power play had been struggling even with Cooley, converting a third-worst 13.7 percent with the man advantage. But with each minute that passed in Utah’s five-minute power play, it became clear the team really could have used Cooley.

Even with a strong game from Karel Vejmelka and Utah’s defense holding St. Louis to just one goal, Utah never got the game-tying goal it needed. Dylan Holloway’s lone goal proved to be enough for a Blues win and give Utah's it seventh consecutive road loss.

Before the game began, the Blues held a moment of silence, in honor of Clayton Keller's Father, Bryan, after passing on Thanksgiving night.

Considering Keller had grown up in St. Louis, the moment of silence the Blues made the moment all the more meaningful.

"Big thanks to the Blues for everything they did tonight. They didn’t have to do that, said," said Keller. "Lots of memories at this rink. Growing up, coming to games here, sitting on my dad’s lap, my grandpa’s lap. Just admiring those players and wanting to be out there."

The post game interview he had after the loss was the first time Keller had talked to the press since his father had passed.

"First off, teammates, coaching staff, management, have been unbelievable towards me, my family," said Keller. "It was definitely a tough couple of days, but I couldn’t have done it without my family, my teammates. They had my back always. I care for them more than anything."

In Utah's previous game, a 4-3 loss to Dallas on the road, the Stars also honored Keller by naming him First Star of the Game.