Keller has hat trick, Mammoth score 7 against Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Clayton Keller had three goals and an assist, and the Utah Mammoth defeated the Vancouver Canucks 7-4 at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Keller's first two goals -- the first late in the first period on a wrist shot that got tipped, and the second on a power play deflection in the second period -- put Utah ahead by a goal. He scored into the empty net with 53 seconds left to seal the win and his third career hat trick.

“Feels good,” Keller said. “Great plays by the guys on all of them so, yeah, it's good to score.”

Dylan Guenther and Lawson Crouse each had a goal and assist, and Logan Cooley had two assists for the Mammoth (40-30-6), who swept a three-game road trip after losing their previous two games. The Mammoth hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, five points ahead of the Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings. 

“Everybody's winning, so we need to win,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “At the end of the day, we want to play game 83. In order to do that, you need to win games. You're not going in because anybody let you in. You need to keep winning games and it's not over.”

Karel Vejmelka made 19 saves to help Utah improve to 8-1-1 in its past 10 road games despite missing top pair defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, who was a late scratch and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and center Jack McBain, who is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. 

Forward Liam O'Brien and defenseman Nick DeSimone took their places and both contributed: one assist and a plus-1 rating for DeSimone, and a breakaway goal by O’Brien, who had been scratched 18 straight games, to put Utah ahead 6-4 at 11:45 of the third period after the Canucks scored twice on the power play earlier in the period to make it close. 

“We have a deep lineup and anyone that steps in is a great player, and someone that knows our systems well and can contribute,” Keller said. “We reacted good to a little adversity. Great effort by everyone and heck of a goal by 'OB' there, too. That was unreal. He's such a great teammate, great guy, and he grinds every single day so that's awesome to see too.” 

Linus Karlsson scored twice in his 100th NHL game, Filip Hronek had two assists, and Nikita Tolopilo made 17 saves for the last place Canucks (22-46-8), who are 1-7-0 in their past eight games.

“Like most of the games, we had some really good stretches during the games, but then we have bad ones too,” Karlsson said. “It feels like we play so great sometimes, and then we just fall back to old (stuff), so it's kind of frustrating.” 

Vancouver went ahead 1-0 at 2:28 of the first period when Karlsson skated unchecked off the right boards to the hash marks before backhanding a shot past Vejmelka’s glove.  

Kailer Yamamoto tied it 1-1 at 13:34 with a between-the-legs deflection over Tolopilo’s pad after Cooley intercepted a Vancouver defenseman Victor Mancini pass along the boards and threw it toward the net.

Keller put Utah ahead 2-1 off the rush at 18:30, taking a drop pass from Crouse and skating in for a wrist shot from inside the top of the left circle. The shot deflected off the stick of Canucks defenseman Zeev Buium and past the glove of Tolopilo and in off the post.

Tourigny credited his third and fourth lines, centered by Kevin Stenlund and Alex Kerfoot, who moved up in place of the injured McBain, for changing the momentum of the game. 

“The most important thing in that game I want to make sure I highlight is the performance of (Stenlund’s) line in the first period,” Tourigny said. “There was nothing going on for us, and they get out there and they play the right way, and the follow up by (Kerfoot’s) line and (Stenlund’s) line came back again, another great shift, and they got the momentum for us. And from there, I think we had more life, we had more hope, and that changed the game.” 

Karlsson tied it 2-2 at 2:05 of the second period by deflecting a Mancini point shot past Vejmelka from the high slot for his 15th goal of the season.

Keller restored the lead 3-2 with a power play tip from the edge of the crease of a Guenther one-timer at 7:04. The goal was initially waved off for a high stick, but video review determined Keller’s stick was "at or below the height of the cross bar" when he redirected the puck.

“To be honest, not really,” Keller said when asked if he was confident it would count. “I kind of tipped it and my stick kind of raised after, so I think maybe I tipped it before, and then my stick kind of came up, so I think that's why they were saying on the bench why it was good.” 

Guenther made it 4-2 at 11:55 after a passing play off the rush. Cooley left Utah defenseman John Marino alone in the slot, stranding Tolopilo with a backdoor pass that Guenther put into an open net from just above the goal line for his 38th goal of the season.

Jake DeBrusk pulled the Canucks to 4-3 when Hronek’s power play point shot bounced in off his leg at the side of the net 20 seconds into the third period. But Crouse scored at 1:32 to make it 5-3 after Tolopilo’s pass was intercepted by Keller on the right boards for a pass to Crouse and a high glove snap shot from inside the top of the right face-off circle.

Marco Rossi made it 5-4 on a power play at 4:40 with a low shot from just inside the blue line that bounced over the right pad of Vejmelka through traffic.

O’Brien extended the lead to 6-4 on a breakaway from the top of the circle at 11:45, deking around Tolopilo for a backhand that hit the post and bounced in off the outstretched arm of the goalie. 

“Contributions up and down the lineup from everybody, and then obviously ‘Spicy Tuna’ (O’Brien) is able to come in and contribute too,” Marino said. “It was awesome to see that too. It shows how close this group is and how everyone helps out."

NOTES: McBain left in the second period of a 6-2 win at the Seattle Kraken on Thursday. … Canucks forward Evander Kane returned after missing two games with an undisclosed injury and was celebrated in a pregame ceremony with family for playing his 1,000th game at the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday. … Vancouver goalie Kevin Lankinen was a late scratch because he “didn’t feel good,” coach Adam Foote said. Jiri Patera was called up from Abbotsford of the American Hockey League and didn’t arrive in time for warmups, but was on the bench for puck drop.