When general manager Bill Armstrong realized adding pieces here and there wasn’t working for the Arizona Coyotes, he blew up most of the roster. Armstrong kept the core young players to serve as the foundation for the future and amassed a stockpile of draft picks, hoping to rebuild a franchise that had been mired in mediocrity. The incremental climb continued after the franchise moved to Utah, landing a big step with the Mammoth’s playoff berth this season. A six-game loss to Vegas in the first round was not the ending the Mammoth wanted. They hope it’s just the beginning of something bigger. “There’s a fine line in our sport between winning and losing,” Armstrong said on Tuesday. “For the growth of our team, we have to suffer a little bit of pain, learn to walk that line a little bit better. If we can do that in the big moments moving forward with this group, we’re going to have a chance of making a run as far as we can to the Stanley Cup. That’s the goal of this organization.” The goal had been to reach the postseason. The Coyotes did it once since 2012, in the 2020 NHL bubble.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brett Howden scored a short-handed goal at 5:28 of the second overtime Wednesday night to give Vegas a 5-4 victory over the Utah Mammoth and put the Golden Knights one victory away from winning the first-round series. The Golden Knights take a 3-2 lead into their best-of-seven NHL playoffs series on Friday night in Salt Lake City. Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev’s six-on-five goal with 52.7 seconds left in regulation forced overtime and gave him the sixth playoff hat trick in franchise history. Dorofeyev had two goals in 13 career playoff games before this one. “That was a huge game by him,” Golden Knights center Jack Eichel said. “He’s a huge part of our team, and it was awesome to see him find the back of the net a few times. It seems like he’s been playing pretty well these last few nights and it’s great to see him get rewarded.” Neither team scored in the first overtime, the first time this series either side failed in a period to hit the back of the net. “I think that was a hell of a game,” Mammoth coach André Tourigny said. “I think both teams played really hard. We