Clayton Keller collected his third career hat trick in a four-point game to lead the visiting Utah Mammoth to a 7-4 victory over the cellar-dwelling Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
Dylan Guenther and Lawson Crouse both scored once and added an assist for the Mammoth (40-30-6, 86 points), who pulled closer to clinching a playoff berth.
Kailer Yamamoto and Liam O’Brien also tallied, while Logan Cooley collected a pair of assists and goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 19 saves.
Utah, which has won six straight versus Vancouver, is firmly in control of the Western Conference’s first wild-card spot.
Linus Karlsson scored twice while Jake DeBrusk and Marco Rossi added singles for Vancouver (22-46-8, 52 points), which has lost eight of nine games.
Goalie Nikita Tolopilo stopped 17 shots.
Keller broke open a 2-2 tie with a power-play goal at 7:04 of the second period by deflecting Guenther’s high point shot. It was originally waived off but video review showed Keller’s stick was even with the crossbar at impact.
The Mammoth have scored on the power play in five consecutive outings, converting nine times in that span.
After a string of near misses, Utah extended the lead when Guenther buried a sharp-angled chance into a yawning net at 11:55.
To their credit, the Canucks kept fighting but could not draw even.
DeBrusk’s power-play goal 20 seconds into the third period, a nifty deflection of Filip Hronek’s point shot, made it a one-goal game. But Crouse restored Utah’s two-goal bulge with a top-shelf shot at 1:32 of the final frame.
Rossi again pulled the hosts within one with another power-play goal at 4:40, only to see O’Brien tally seven minutes later with a deke on a partial breakaway in his first game since Feb. 4.
Keller’s empty-net goal rounded out the scoring, and gives him 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in a four-game streak.
Both clubs staked and squandered a lead.
Karlsson opened the scoring at the 2:28 mark, but Yamamoto drew Utah even 11 minutes later and Keller potted his first of the game with 90 seconds remaining in the opening period to give the Mammoth a 2-1 edge.
Karlsson tied the clash at 2-2 by deflecting the point shot 125 seconds into the second period.
–Field Level Media
