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 third period goals in 25 seconds to defeat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 at Delta Center on Sunday.

“I think me and (Dylan) Guenther actually chatted before overtime started, and he was like, let's come with a lot of speed,” Keller said on the goal. “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 all scored, while 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,” Mammoth 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 scored twice and Morgan Barron scored, and Mark Scheifele had two assists for the Jets (15-17-3), who have lost four straight games. Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves.

The Jets three-goal rally started with a power-play goal from Connor at 11:18 of the second period, who fired a one-timer past Vejmelka off a pass from Scheifele.

The goal was the 300th of Connor's career, making him the third player in Jets/Thrashers history to hit the 300-goal 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 on the 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 on 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 with a snap shot to the glove side to tie it 3-3 at 15:48 and send it to overtime.

“That first period was ugly, it was really ugly,” Jets 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 opened the scoring 1-0 at 5:20 of the first period. Guenther skated in from the blue line and shot through the legs of a Jets defenseman to put the puck on Hellebuyck. The rebound of Guenther's shot found Crouse in front for the slap shot, beating Hellebuyck on the blocker side.

“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.”

Keller, located at the right side of the goal, found Peterka in front for the tip-in past Hellebuyck to make it 2-0 at 9:31.

Kerfoot made it 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.”

NOTES: Keller’s goal 13 seconds into overtime marks the fastest goal to start a period by a Mammoth player in franchise history. The previous mark of 16 seconds into the second period was set by Lawson Crouse against the Kraken on April 8, 2025.