Keller snipes, Vejmelka posts shutout as Utah Hockey Club dominates Wild 4-0


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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Clayton Keller coasted behind the net, arms raised as he celebrated an absolute snipe of a goal.

He also may have glanced upward, looking for staredown. Or maybe that's just what Utah fans wanted him to do.

Playing in front of USA's Four Nation Face-off general manager Bill Guerin (whose day job is being the GM of the Wild), Keller delivered a beauty of a goal, skating across the offense zone before whipping a shot short side to beat Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson in the first period.

That was part of Utah's 4-0 whomping of Minnesota at the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.

"That's a team that everyone wants to be a part of, and when you're not selected, you look yourself in the mirror and you go to work the next day with a little extra jump," Keller said earlier this season.

He's had plenty of extra jump after being left off the team in early December.

In the 21 games since the rosters were announced, he's recorded 29 points (10 goals and 19 assists), including three goals and an assist in three games against the Wild.

With the power-play goal in the first period, Keller extended his goal-scoring streak to three games (all of which have been Utah wins) and gave Utah a 2-0 lead.

Even with an eye that was still heavily bruised from the puck he took to his face on Monday, he helped a near-perfect start for the road team.

"We knew this was a tough team to play against, especially in this barn," Keller said on the ESPN broadcast. "So we just wanted to be simple, use our speed, and try to out-change them and just keep fresh legs on the ice early."

Karel Vejmelka stopped 26 shots to earn his first shutout of the season and sixth of his career. He was phenomenal, making post-to-saves and stopping breakaways — but he also didn't need to be.

He had plenty of run support on Thursday.

Barrett Hayton scored twice — getting both bookend goals for Utah — and now has 5 points (3 goals and two assists) in the last two games.

"Everything he touches that line has been good," head coach André Tourigny said of Hayton. "It's been like that all year. … Look at whatever you want, put Hayton on the line and there expected goals are in the plus."

Less than two minutes into the game, Hayton jockeyed in front of the net and deflected Nick DeSimone's shot into the goal. Then less than two minutes into the third, lightning struck again; Desimone sent a shot from the point and Hayton backhanded the rebound across the goal line.

"Not the most flashy guy," Tourigny said. "He's not the guy that will wow you when you come to the rink. He's not that kind of a guy, but if you're a coach, he doesn't do much wrong. He wows me in that sense."

Lawson Crouse got the other goal of the night for Utah with a backhand redirect to put Utah up 3-0 in the third.

With the win, the Utah Hockey Club inched a little closer to playoff positioning, but it's too early for that to be too much of a focus.

"We've got to stay even keel," Keller said. "There's ups and downs; it's a long season. You can't look at the standings too much. We've grown a lot as a team and we're just trying to focus on each day, getting better and trying to be the best team that we can be."

They've looked like a pretty good one over the last two games, beating the top two teams in the division. Utah will try to make it three in a row against that group on Friday in Winnipeg.

That's where Keller — shiner and all — will try to keep Utah on the winning track.

"The day after was pretty rough. I couldn't see too much," Keller said of his eye. "So I was wearing the sunglasses a lot. But thankfully, the last few days, it kind of went down, actually, really quick, and I was able to see perfectly fine. The trainers did a great job, so it's good. I didn't miss any time at all."

That's something Guerin definitely noticed on Thursday.

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