Utah Hockey Club head coach Andre Tourigny was in awe of Clayton Keller after the captain's eventful night against the Winnipeg Jets.

"That's a hockey player, eh?" the bench boss said with a smile after Utah's 5-2 victory.

Keller took teammate Michael Kesselring's deflected shot to the face in the second period and headed down the tunnel. He got some stitches and returned before the end of the frame.

Despite his swollen eye and bloodied brow, he assisted on the first goal of the game - a slapper from defenseman Olli Maatta.

"Just coming back without hesitation, without a doubt in his head - that was great," Tourigny said.

Utah forward Josh Doan was similarly impressed by Keller.

"It does a lot for the bench, knowing that he's willing to do that, come back and go right back to the netfront the next shift and get rewarded. ... For him to bounce back like that was huge for us and our momentum," he said. "Obviously, you heard the crowd's reaction, it meant a lot to them, too."

Keller also capped off the game with an empty-netter after the Jets got back into the matchup with two third-period goals of their own.

"I'm feeling great," Keller said. "I got lucky, it didn't catch my eye. When it happened, it happened so fast that you don't really feel much, but I tried to look through my eye and I knew I could. I wasn't really too worried after that."

He added: "I was kinda sitting there for, like, 20 minutes just laying down on my back. I came back out, I just tried to get my legs into it, just be simple the first couple shifts. I think the guys helped me as well."

Keller estimates that he got around 12 stitches.

"I can see right now," he said. "I don't know about tomorrow. But just kind of feels like something's pushing, but I'm good."

Keller and Co. don't play again until Thursday against the Minnesota Wild.

Utah is currently four points behind the Calgary Flames for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a 20-19-7 record.