Phillip Danault's hat trick carries Kings past stumbling Devils

Phillip Danault registered his second career hat trick and scored his first goals on home ice this season as the Los Angeles Kings overcame an early deficit and cruised to a 5-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday afternoon.

Los Angeles improved to 8-4-0 under interim coach Jim Hillier and posted its second straight lopsided win to pull even with the Nashville Predators in the wild-card race with 72 points.

Danault scored at home for the first time since March 6, 2023, by notching the tying goal in the first period and striking again in the second before scoring into the empty net with 2:13 left.

Alex Laferriere, who grew up a Devils fan in New Jersey, scored the tiebreaking goal for the Kings in the first period and Kevin Fiala scored a power-play goal 34 seconds after Danault's second tally.

Los Angeles goaltender Cam Talbot was beaten by Timo Meier 15 seconds in but finished with 30 saves.

Meier scored the NHL's second-fastest goal this season, but the Devils lost for the fifth time in seven games.

New Jersey goaltender Nico Daws was pulled for the second straight game after allowing four goals on 13 shots. Akira Schmid stopped nine shots.

Meier capitalized on a fluky bounce to easily put New Jersey ahead on the game's first shift by putting a backhander past Talbot following Quinton Byfield's errant clearing attempt.

Los Angeles tied it with 13:04 remaining when Danault came off the bench and finished off a breakaway after easily getting Fiala's long pass and skating past defenseman Luke Hughes.

The Kings got the lead nearly seven minutes after Danault's goal when Pierre-Luc Dubois prevented Kevin Bahl from clearing it along the boards and found Laferriere. The rookie finished it off when his shot from the top of the right circle trickled by Daws.

After Trevor Moore forced a giveaway in the defensive zone, the Kings kept the puck alive and Matt Roy slid the puck under defenseman John Marino's legs to Danault. The veteran -- who had scored his first 11 goals this season on the road -- sent the puck into the vacated right side of the net with 7:37 remaining.

Following Danault's second goal, Marino took a tripping penalty and Fiala cashed in with a well-placed shot from the right faceoff arm that sailed by Daws' left arm and chased him from the contest.