Alex Laferriere notched his first career hat trick for the Los Angeles Kings in a 6-1 win against the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.
Quinton Byfield had a goal and an assist, Anze Kopitar had the secondary assist on each of Laferriere goals and Anton Forsberg made 24 saves for the Kings, who were 1-4-2 in the seven games before the Christmas break.
Mason McTavish scored and Lukas Dostal made 24 saves for the Ducks, who have dropped four of five (1-3-1).
The Kings had not scored more than two goals in each of the previous seven games, but they scored four in the first period while outshooting Anaheim 17-7.
The first scoring play began after Ducks forward Troy Terry tried to pass back to Olen Zellweger at the point, but the puck was intercepted by Corey Perry, leading to an odd-man rush.
Perry passed the puck to Byfield, who then fed Drew Doughty with a backhand and he scored from in close for a 1-0 lead at 3:03.
Los Angeles added to its lead 53 seconds later when Brian Dumoulin passed the puck to Trevor Moore in front of the crease. The puck banked off Moore’s skate and into the net to make it 2-0 at 3:56.
After Forsberg stopped Cutter Gauthier on a breakaway at 8:35, the Kings made it 3-0 at 10:31 when Adrian Kempe made a feed from behind the Anaheim net to Laferriere in the slot and he scored with a one-timer.
The Kings went on their second power play of the opening period and capitalized when Byfield scored with a tip to extend the lead to 4-0 with 58 seconds left.
The Ducks were on a power play when they scored the only goal of the second period. A loose puck went to the side of the crease and McTavish was there to lift it into the top of the net from in close to cut it to 4-1 at 10:02.
Laferriere scored on a breakaway to make it 5-1 at 4:24 of the third and completed the hat trick with a one-timer from the high slot at 13:15, his 10th goal of the season.
