Keller wins it in OT, Mammoth recover from Jets' late rally

SALT LAKE CITY -- Clayton Keller scored 13 seconds into overtime, and the Utah Mammoth recovered after giving up two goals 25 seconds apart late in the third period to defeat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 at Delta Center on Sunday.

Keller took a pass from Dylan Guenther on a 2-on-1 and roofed a shot blocker side on Connor Hellebuyck from the left circle.

“I think me and Guenther actually chatted before overtime started, and he was like, let's come with a lot of speed,” Keller said. “He kind of just demands it right away from (Mikhail) Sergachev and makes an unbelievable play in the neutral zone and slides it over to me. I had a lot of time and space to get the shot off, and it's good to see it go in, for sure.”

JJ Peterka, Lawson Crouse, and Alex Kerfoot scored, and Guenther and Sergachev each had two assists for the Mammoth (18-17-3), who have won four of their past six games. Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves.

“That was a huge and important game against a division rival. They found a way to win and get the two points,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “There are many teaching moments in that game and many things we can do better, but there are things we can build on.”

Kyle Connor had two goals, Morgan Barron scored, and Mark Scheifele had two assists for the Jets (15-17-3), who have lost four straight games (0-2-2). Hellebuyck made 18 saves.

The Jets began their rally at 11:18 of the second period with a power-play goal from Connor, who buried a one-timer past Vejmelka off a pass from Scheifele to make it 3-1.

The goal was Connor's 300th in the NHL. He is the third player in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history to hit the mark, behind Scheifele (353) and Ilya Kovalchuk (328).

“Just a pretty cool milestone,” Connor said. “Once you look back on your career, that's kind of the stuff you'll remember. But right now it's focusing on winning, trying to be the best player I can, and helping out.”

Connor scored his second goal at 15:23 of the third period, beating Vejmelka blocker side with a one-timer to cut the lead to 3-2.

“I think we just knew that we needed to be better,” Connor said of the comeback. “I think we were on our toes more, jumping and making plays and hemming them in.”

Barron scored just 25 seconds later, beating Vejmelka glove side with a snap shot tie it 3-3.

“That first period was ugly. It was really ugly,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “We got better in the second, certainly dominated in the third, but at the end of the day, you can't play two periods in this league and look to have success.”

Crouse gave the Mammoth a 1-0 lead at 5:20 of the first period. Guenther skated in from the blue line and shot through the legs of Jets defenseman Logan Stanley to put the puck on Hellebuyck. The rebound of his shot then found Crouse in front, where he scored blocker side with a slap shot.

“We made it interesting on ourselves,” Crouse said. “Definitely not the way we wanted the third period to go, but credit to our group, that's not easy. They scored two right away and then we went right into OT pretty much, so credit to the group for having the right mindset and being able to get the win.”

Peterka made it 2-0 at 9:31 of the first, tapping in a pass from Keller, who was to the right of the net.

Kerfoot extended it to 3-0 at 3:01 of the second period, scoring on a one-timer from the right dot off a pass from Sean Durzi.

“I think all lines are playing well right now,” Keller said. “We're getting scoring up and down the lineup. I think something we have to continue to do moving forward if we want to be successful and we want to play in the end is our depth of scoring. It's great to see that, and we've got to keep it going.”