Crouse scores twice, Mammoth end Wild's winning streak at 6

SALT LAKE CITY -- Lawson Crouse scored twice, and the Utah Mammoth ended the Minnesota Wild’s six-game winning streak with a 5-2 victory at Delta Center on Friday.

Clayton Keller had a goal and two assists, and Nick Schmaltz, Jack McBain and Mikhail Sergachev each had two assists for the Mammoth (31-24-4), who have won three of their past four games. Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves.

“They're hungry, they want to go at it, and they stay on top of their opponent,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said of the top line of Crouse, Keller and Schmaltz. “You saw today, the goal of [Keller] is a turnover caused by a lot of pressure on one of the best defensemen in the world. That shows how good they can be when they have that aggression.”

Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist to extend his personal point streak to nine games (eight goals, 10 assists), and Kirill Kaprizov scored for the Wild (35-15-10), who were coming off a 5-2 win at the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday. Jesper Wallstedt made 32 saves.

“I thought a big issue tonight wound up after I'd say the first 12 minutes of the first period,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “We just fed their transition and their offense like that. I thought that was the biggest difference in the game.”

Cooley opened the scoring with a short-handed goal at 13:23 of the first period, beating Wallstedt between the legs off a pass from McBain to give the Mammoth a 1-0 lead.

Keller scored from the slot to make it 2-0 at 4:26 of the second period after Schmaltz won a puck battle along the boards.

“I think we're obviously a really fast team and can make a lot of plays, but I think that's the biggest thing for us is sticking to our identity as much as we can,” Keller said. “It's hard to do, and I think we've got better as the year's gone on, and the good teams are the most consistent. Even when you don't feel your best, you find a way. I think we're showing steps in the right direction, and we've got to be more consistent.”

Crouse made it 3-0 at 7:49, going forehand-backhand in the slot off a centering pass from Keller.

“We felt that we were playing toward our identity, and we talked a lot about that the last couple days,” Crouse said. “It was just a great answer from our group to go out there and play the way that we did for a full 60 minutes.”

Dylan Guenther appeared to make it 4-0 at 12:46, but Minnesota challenged the play for offside, and the call was reversed after a video review.

Kaprizov then scored a power-play goal at 14:03 to cut it to 3-1, tapping in Boldy’s pass from the opposite side at the right post.

“They're a great hockey team. They skate really well, they're really skilled,” Wild defenseman Brock Faber said. “Obviously, we've got to find a way to play them better, right? I mean, tonight we didn't have our best, and you can talk about the back-to-back all you want, but we just weren't good enough.”

Barrett Hayton made it 4-1 with his own power-play goal at 1:19 of the third period, scoring off a rebound with a backhand at the left post.

Crouse scored his second goal at 12:48, redirecting a pass in the slot from Sean Durzi to extend the lead to 5-1.

Boldy scored in the slot off Vladimir Tarasenko’s centering pass at 14:05 for the 5-2 final.

“I think these guys have kind of been our kryptonite the last couple of years, so we haven't really figured them out,” Wild forward Mats Zuccarello said. “They played really good against us, and yeah, it's a tough team to play against.”

Minnesota forward Joel Eriksson Ek left the game at 17:06 of the second period after taking a high stick to the face from Schmaltz. There was no update on his status after the game. 

“We all know the type of player [Eriksson Ek] is and the situations that we count on him to play in and things like that,” Hynes said. “So, it's unfortunate, but hopefully he's OK. I just don't have an update on him yet.”

NOTES: Kaprizov has scored 218 goals with the Wild, one shy of Marian Gaborik (219) for the franchise record. He also extended his point streak to six games (five goals, four assists).