Michael Bunting produced a hat trick in his ninth NHL game and the visiting Arizona Coyotes bettered their playoff hopes with a 5-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night.
Adin Hill made 36 saves in his seventh straight start, all within the past 14 days, and the fourth-place Coyotes expanded their cushion over fifth place in the West Division to five points.
Derick Brassard also scored one of three power-plays goals for Arizona, and Alex Goligoski, Jakob Chychrun and Conor Garland contributed two assists each.
Drew Doughty and Andreas Athanasiou scored, and Calvin Petersen made 28 saves for the Kings, who have lost six of seven.
Bunting, playing in his fourth game since making his season debut on Wednesday, scored his first two goals in the opening five minutes.
Brassard tacked on another at 7:28 of the first to quickly push the Coyotes ahead 3-0.
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The Kings got a goal back before the end of the period when Doughty scored on a power play to make it 3-1 at 16:07.
Bunting re-established the three-goal lead when he got to another loose puck in front of the net and pushed it across the goal line to make it 4-1 at 8:48 of the second period.
Athanasiou pulled Los Angeles back within 4-2 at 2:10 of the third period when he scored from in close off a feed from Kale Clague.
Christian Dvorak made it 5-2 when he scored into an empty net with 33.1 seconds left.
The Kings committed four minor penalties in the first period and the Coyotes scored on two of the power plays.
Bunting sent a one-timer past Petersen for a 1-0 lead at 2:43. He then chipped in a rebound from in close to make it 2-0 at 4:11.
Chychrun registered his first career hat trick in a 3-2 overtime win at the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
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–Field Level Media