Jets can’t recover from big deficit in loss to Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Connor Ingram made 23 saves and Olli Maatta scored his first goal for the Utah Hockey Club in a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.

Logan Cooley, Barrett Hayton, Matias Maccelli and Clayton Keller also scored to help Utah win its second consecutive home game. Hayton, Josh Doan and Nick Schmaltz each had two assists.

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 23 shots for Winnipeg. Nino Niederreiter and Dylan DeMelo scored in the third period as the Jets avoided their second shutout loss of the season.

Keller headed to the dressing room a minute into the second after a shot from teammate Michael Kesselring deflected high and struck him in the face. Keller returned, with swelling and a cut above his eye, with 4:40 left in the period.

He helped set up Maatta’s drive 40 seconds later that put Utah on the board. Cooley extended the lead on a breakaway with 17.9 seconds remaining in the second.

Hayton and Maccelli each scored early in the third to make it 4-0 before Niederreiter and DeMelo scored 3:16 apart to cut the deficit in half with 8:12 left.

Keller capped the scoring with an empty-netter with 2:05 remaining.

Jets: Played their first road game in January after opening 2025 with eight straight at home.

Utah: Tough defence carried Utah, which allowed one shot on goal over the first 10 minutes and kept Winnipeg off the scoreboard until almost midway through the third period.

Maatta and Cooley scored 3:42 apart late in the second to spark an offensive surge for Utah.

Utah is averaging 3.8 goals over its last four games.

Jets: Visit the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.

Utah: Visits the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.