  We report anisotropic magnetocaloric effect and magnetic critical behavior in
van der Waals crystal CrCl$_3$. The maximum magnetic entropy change $-\Delta
S_M^{max} \sim 14.6$ J kg$^{-1}$ K$^{-1}$ and the relative cooling power $RCP
\sim 340.3$ J kg$^{-1}$ near $T_c$ with a magnetic field change of 5 T are much
larger when compared to CrI$_{3}$ or CrBr$_{3}$. The rescaled $\Delta S_M(T,H)$
curves collapse onto a universal curve, confirming the second order
ferromagnetic transition. Further critical behavior analysis around $T_c$
presents a set of critical exponents $\beta$ = 0.28(1) with $T_c$ = 19.4(2) K,
$\gamma$ = 0.89(1) with $T_c$ = 18.95(8) K, and $\delta$ = 4.6(1) at $T_c$ = 19
K, which are close to those of theoretical tricritical mean field model.
