Dustin Brown's Hat Trick Secures Kings Victory Over Wild 7-3
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dustin Brown had three goals and an assist and the Los Angeles Kings won their fifth straight game, 7-3 over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
Blake Lizotte and Trevor Moore scored 53 seconds apart in the second period, Anze Kopitar had a goal and two assists and Gabriel Vilardi added a goal to help the Kings improve to 8-2-1 in their past 11 games. Calvin Petersen made 25 saves for his third straight victory.
Marcus Foligno had a goal and an assist for Minnesota, Jared Spurgeon and Luke Kunin also scored, and Alex Stalock made 28 saves. The Wild had won six in a row on the road. They missed a chance to reclaim the first wild-card in the Western Conference.
Brown made it 4-1 early in the third period with his 297th career goal. He had a tap into an open goal after Stalock saved Ben Hutton's initial shot.
Spurgeon cut it to 4-2 at 5:33, and Kunin made it 4-3 with 4:25 left. But Brown got behind Minnesota's defense with 2:13 to go and added an empty-netter 59 seconds later for the hat trick.
Vilardi completed the scoring.
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