Clayton Keller celebrated his 600th NHL game by scoring two goals and assisting on two more to lead the Utah Hockey Club to a 7-3 victory Monday against the host Nashville Predators.
The four points gave the 26-year-old center a career-high 89 points for the season and allowed him to reach 60 assists for the first time in his career. Alexander Kerfoot had a season-high three assists. Logan Cooley scored and assisted on a pair, while Michael Kesselring and Kevin Stenlund both contributed a goal and an assist.
Nick Bjugstad and Nick Schmaltz also scored for Utah (38-30-13, 89 points), which won for the fourth time in five games. Matt Villalta made 27 saves in his debut with the first-year franchise.
Ryan O’Reilly got his 20th goal of the season and added an assist to give him a 50-point season. Luke Evangelista and Michael Bunting also tallied goals as the Predators (29-44-8, 66 points) lost their second straight. Juuse Saros stopped 29 shots as he lost for the fourth time in five decisions.
Villalta’s start also ended a 23-game streak for Karel Vejmelka between the pipes, and Nashville put him to the test early as O’Reilly scored on a power play with 13:50 left in the opening period.
The visitors appeared to take control from there as Kesselring tied it with 7:30 remaining in the first, and Bjugstad gave his team the lead with 1:39 to go in the period.
Cooley and Schmaltz scored 1:10 apart in the second. Schmaltz converted on a two-man advantage to make it 4-1 with 15:47 left.
Evangelista and Bunting scored in a span of 3:19 to revive Nashville. Bunting’s goal made it a one-goal game with 5:40 left in the second.
The Predators had a prime opportunity to tie the game with less than four minutes left in the second, but Kesselring prevented Filip Forsberg by committing a holding penalty with 3:44 remaining. On the play, Forsberg’s skate damaged the ice, and officials chose to go to the second intermission early for repairs.
Despite the clean ice, Nashville could not tie the game. Keller scored twice in the final eight minutes, including an empty-netter with 1:47, before Stenlund concluded the scoring with 25 seconds to go.
–Field Level Media
