Keller has goal, 3 assists for Utah Hockey Club in win against Blues

SALT LAKE CITY – Clayton Keller had a goal and three assists to help the Utah Hockey Club defeat the St. Louis Blues 4-2 at Delta Center on Saturday.

Logan Cooley had a goal and two assists, and Connor Ingram made 22 saves for Utah (19-19-7), which had lost three straight.

“I’ve said it many times how competitive those two guys are, they’re never satisfied,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said of Keller and Cooley. “I liked a lot of guys on our team, I liked the fight… If you look throughout the lineup, there's a lot of positives.”

Keller’s four points on Saturday extended the Chesterfield, Missouri native’s point streak to eight games against the Blues (five goals, 11 assists).

“It's always just a special feeling for me playing against them,” Keller said. “The team I grew up watching, going to all the games, watching my favorite players, idolizing those guys. A lot of memories in St. Louis… It's just a special feeling.”

Jake Neighbours and Tyler Tucker scored for the Blues (22-21-4), who had won two in a row. Jordan Binnington made 29 saves.

“[I’m] just disappointed,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “It's a ‘we’ thing. It's myself included with the players and the rest of the coaching staff and not doing a good enough job of consistently being ready to play hard and the details needed to have success in this league at a consistent level.”

Tyler Tucker gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 2:05 of the first period, firing a one-timer past Ingram directly off a face-off win by Oskar Sundqvist.

Michael Kesselring tied it 1-1 at 6:06, scoring a power-play goal with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

Nick Schmaltz scored at 8:25 to give Utah a 2-1 lead. He tapped in a touch pass from Keller at the top of the crease.

Keller then pushed it to 3-1 at 10:31, picking up a loose puck in the right circle and beating Binnington with a turnaround wrist shot.

The Blues’ top line of Neighbours, Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich were a combined minus-seven.

“Our line just can't get scored on. Plain and simple, that's it,” Thomas said. “[We need to] make better plays offensively, hold onto pucks. There's a lot we can do better.”

Neighbours cut it to 3-2 at 1:32 of the second period when he stuffed in a rebound in the crease on the power play.

Cooley scored at 10:42 to give Utah a 4-2 lead, taking a pass from Keller and scoring with a wrist shot from the slot.

“There's no better feeling than winning, especially on home ice,” Cooley said. “These fans deserve it, and obviously it felt like it's been a year since we had a win at home, so it's nice. I thought it was a great effort by everyone in here, a full 60 minutes, and that's how we need to play, especially [against] a team like that. It's an important game. It's basically a playoff game, so it's unbelievable to get those two points.”

NOTES: Utah defenseman John Marino had an assist on Keller’s goal, his first of the season and first as a member of the Utah Hockey Club after missing the first 42 games of the season with a back injury. … Cooley extended his goal streak to three games and his point streak to four games (three goals, three assists). ... Blues defenseman Ryan Suter played in his 500th consecutive NHL game on Saturday. His streak is the second-longest active streak in the NHL (Brent Burns - 889).