Laferriere scores 1st NHL hat trick, Kings cruise past Ducks

LOS ANGELES -- Alex Laferriere scored his first NHL hat trick in the Los Angeles Kings’ 6-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

“He was feeling it tonight,” said Kings center Anze Kopitar, who had three assists.

Quinton Byfield had a goal and an assist, and Drew Doughty and Trevor Moore also scored for the Kings (16-12-9), who had been held to two goals or fewer in each of their previous seven games (1-4-2). Anton Forsberg made 24 saves.

“I think, what, last game against Seattle, we had some good chances,” Kopitar said. “We just didn’t score. … When we were on that extended streak of not being able to put the puck in the net, you know, you get thinking and you get discouraged a little bit. So to see a few go in early tonight, especially after a break, it’s obviously a good thing, and hopefully we can continue building on that.”

Mason McTavish scored, and Lukas Dostal made 24 saves for the Ducks (21-15-2), who have lost six of eight (2-5-1).

“We kind of dug ourselves a hole and weren’t able to get ourselves out of it,” McTavish said.

Los Angeles opened with four unanswered goals in the first period.

Doughty gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 3:03. He and Byfield had a 2-on-1 rush started by Corey Perry at the offensive blue line, and Byfield found Doughty for a backhand shot at the top of the crease.

In addition to Doughty’s third goal of the season, Brian Dumoulin and Brandt Clarke each had two assists, giving Los Angeles a welcome boost of offense from its defensemen.

“I think it’s a couple games now to where they’ve been a little more active than maybe the start of the year,” Kopitar said. “Just opens up the ice a little bit more, obviously, another opting coming out of our zone and going into the zone. I mean, every team does it, so it’s nice to see the other guys do it and get rewarded for it.”

Moore scored 53 seconds later to make it 2-0 at 3:56 when Dumoulin’s centering pass took two deflections, with the second going in off Moore’s skate.

“It was like we hadn’t played in a long time, and it was very evident they were the hungrier team, and they set the tone right from the get-go,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said.

Laferriere extended it to 3-0 at 10:21 on a one-timer from the slot off a feed from Adrian Kempe, shortly after Forsberg stopped Cutter Gauthier’s wrist shot on a breakaway at 8:35.

“After I scored the first one, ‘Kopi’ was joking if I didn’t score that one, he wasn’t going to pass to me anymore, so I knew I had to bear down on that one,” Laferriere said. “But, no, I mean, those guys were finding me in the soft ice pretty much the last two games so many times, and wasn’t able to bury for them. Yeah, tonight I was able to.”

Byfield scored on the power play to push it to 4-0 at 19:02 on a redirection in the slot of Clarke’s long wrist shot. It was his first goal in 18 games.

McTavish’s power-play goal cut it to 4-1 at 10:02 of the second period, charging the right post to put in Beckett Sennecke’s sharp-angle shot from behind the net after it trickled across the paint.

Laferriere’s second goal made it 5-1 at 4:24 of the third period after he chased down Dumoulin’s bouncing stretch pass and scored on a breakaway with the backhand.

Laferriere then completed the hat trick at 13:15 on a long one-timer through traffic for the 6-1 final. He had five shots on goal after getting nine in a 3-2 loss to the Kraken on Tuesday.

“You get 14, sooner or later, they got to start going in,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “But those were some really nice goals too. He made some really nice plays. His line (with Kopitar and Kempe) was good. They complement each other pretty well.”

NOTES: Kopitar, who became the 29th player in NHL history with at least 850 assists, tied Philadelphia Flyers center Bobby Clarke (852) for 28th all-time. Kopitar also became the fifth player in Kings history to record 80 career three-point games. Marcel Dionne has the most (153). … Los Angeles’ six goals tied their most in a game this season, matching a 6-0 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 6.