There's an old saying in sports—maybe even a cliché by now—that perfectly sums up the Utah Mammoth's sophomore season: "Either you win or you learn."

After a hard-fought first-round playoff series, the Mammoth fell 5-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday, closing out the matchup in six games with a 4-2 series defeat. The loss stings, especially for a team that exceeded expectations just by making the playoffs this season.

"It hurts," Mammoth head coach André Tourigny said after the game. "I didn't have that on my bingo card. I was really confident we would go back to Vegas tomorrow."

That raw emotion is exactly what Tourigny wants his team to feel. In sports, growth often comes through failure—and this young squad is no exception. "Your failure makes you stronger," he explained. "You learn from it and it makes you better, but in order to make sure that happens, it has to hurt. I don't even want to feel good about it. I want that to hurt and I want to learn from it."

Mammoth defenseman Mikhail Sergachev knows this journey well. Early in his career with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he went through similar growing pains before eventually hoisting two Stanley Cup rings. After Friday's loss, he offered perspective that should give Mammoth fans plenty of hope.

"The Golden Knights know how to win," Sergachev said. "They won not a long time ago. They play well. Even though sometimes we were outplaying them, they were still in the game and they were never out of it because of their experience—and in the right moments, they put the game away."

Having been through this type of heartbreak before, Sergachev delivered a message that resonates: "I believe in the future we're going to be there—and it's not going to be 4-2."

While Tourigny and most players admitted they couldn't fully analyze the series in the heat of the moment, they promised deeper breakdowns during exit interviews in the coming days. Still, a few key areas stand out from this postseason run:

The power play went 1-for-16, eerily mirroring the struggles that plagued the Mammoth at the start of the regular season. Holding leads also proved difficult, especially in third periods where the Golden Knights' championship experience took over.

Despite these shortcomings, Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella—a veteran and Stanley Cup champion—closed his remarks with high praise for Utah's future. For a team that just took one of the league's best to six games in their first playoff appearance, the message is clear: this is only the beginning.