Kings thump Wild, ride Brown's hat trick to 5th straight win

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.

NOTES: The Kings are 6-1-1 in their past eight home games, winning four straight. . Stalock made his seventh straight start to tie his career high. . Wild F Kevin Fiala did not have a point, ending the longest point streak of his career at six games.

UP NEXT

Wild: At Anaheim on Sunday night.

Kings: Host Colorado on Monday night.

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