Utah scored goals two minutes apart early in the third to jump ahead.
Keller scored 37 seconds into the period, a redirect of Olli Maatta‘s point shot, to tie it 3-3, and Crouse’s wrist shot off the rush deflected off MacKenzie Weegar‘s stick before beating Vladar glove side for the 4-3 lead at 2:35.
Kevin Stenlund scored into an empty net at 19:00 for the 5-3 final.
“A long season … sometimes you have some nights or some stretches or some weeks where the urgency drops, and for us it’s critical,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “When our urgency drops, we’re not the same team. I really liked the urgency we had in the third. I think we played a good, structured game, especially in the third.”
Crouse put Utah up 1-0 at 8:51 of the first period when he knocked down a cross-ice centering pass from Ian Cole and shot short side over Vladar’s glove from inside the right face-off circle. The goal was Crouse’s first in 15 games dating back to Nov. 29.
“It felt good,” Crouse said. “Feels better to get a win. That’s a big win. We needed it.”
Coleman tied it 1-1 at 19:12. Vejmelka made the initial stop on Nazem Kadri‘s one-timer on the power play, but Coleman slid in the rebound from the top of the crease.
Cooley finished a three-way passing play with Keller and Dylan Guenther by tapping in a backdoor pass on the power play to put Utah up 2-1 at 6:19 of the second period.
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