Lawson Crouse scored twice, leading the Utah Mammoth to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Minnesota Wild on Friday night.
Clayton Keller added a goal and two assists for Utah, which improved to 12-4-1 in its past 17 games and is 18-9-2 on home ice this season. Logan Cooley and Barrett Hayton also tallied, and Jack McBain, Nick Schmaltz and Mikhail Sergachev added two assists each.
Mammoth goalie Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves for his third victory in four starts.
Matt Boldy scored and added an assist and Kirill Kaprizov also found the back of the net for the Wild, which saw its six-game winning streak end. Minnesota lost for just the second time in regulation over its past 12 (9-2-1).
Jesper Wallstedt stopped 32 shots.
Utah opened the scoring short-handed at 13:23 of the first period as Cooley beat a down-and-out Wallstedt.
The Mammoth scored twice in a 3:23 span of the second period to extend the lead to 3-0.
At 4:26 of the middle frame, Keller snapped a cross-ice feed from Schmaltz past Wallstedt’s blocker side.
Crouse subsequently took a Keller feed made a backhand deke and put the puck into the net.
Kaprizov got Minnesota on the board on a power play at 14:03 of the second period, one-timing a backdoor feed from Boldy.
Hayton restored Utah’s three-goal lead on a power play at 1:19 of the third, banging home the loose puck off Sergachev’s point shot.
Crouse added his second of the night, redirecting a Sean Durzi pass past Wallstedt to give Utah a 5-1 lead at 12:48.
Minnesota pulled within 5-2 at 14:05 when Boldy redirected a Vladimir Tarasenko feed past Vejmelka. With the two-point night, Boldy extended his point streak to nine games (eight goals, 10 assists). He has scored three goals in two games setting since netting the opener for Team USA in its Olympic gold-medal-final win over Canada.
Wild forward Joel Eriksson Ek took a high stick from Schmaltz at 17:06 of the second period and did not return to the game.
–Field Level Media
