Anleitungen » LOS ANGELES (AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) Los Angeles Kings center Jeff Carter had plenty of time to work on his shooting and stick handling as he recovered from surgery to repair a cut tendon in his ankle that sidelined him for 55 games.Carter is making up for lost time with his scoring prowess since returning for the stretch run Jaroslav Halak Jersey Womens , leading the Kings in a contested playoff chase.Carter completed a hat trick by scoring with 4:25 left and the Kings beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 on Thursday night.”Carter had a hell of a game,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. ”He’s a world-class player.”Carter scored for the third consecutive game, helping the Kings open a two-point lead over the Anaheim Ducks for third place in the Pacific Division before the Freeway Faceoff rivals meet Friday night in Anaheim.Carter capped his sixth career hat trick on a wrist shot from the left dot to give the Kings the lead at 15:35 of the third period. It was Carter’s 13th goal in 17 games since returning from injury, and his 59th multi-goal game in his 900th career appearance.”It’s just his presence in a lot of areas checks a lot of boxes, but he’s a production guy,” Kings coach John Stevens said. ”He ends up in the scoring areas, he goes to the tough areas. He scores goals that other guys can’t.”Carter has five goals and two assists during a three-game point streak.Jack Campbell made 20 saves for his second career win, and the Kings won consecutive games for the first time since winning three in a row Feb. 17-20. Anze Kopitar added an empty-net goal with 1.7 seconds remaining, and Tyler Toffoli had two assists.Kevin Connauton scored for the second straight game and Max Domi had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes, who had won two straight over the Kings. Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves.Despite being in the mix to finish with the worst record in the NHL, Arizona has been playing as well as any team in hockey over the last two months. The Coyotes, who were 14-7-1 in their previous 22 games and coming off back-to-back wins over Stanley Cup contenders Vegas and Tampa Bay, continued that strong form.However, they never had an answer for Carter.”I think that can go in the memory bank and find ways to win that next year,” Domi said. ”It’s a good test for us Steven Kampfer Jersey Womens , but a really good learning experience, too.”Los Angeles made it 2-all when Carter redirected Dion Phaneuf’s shot from the blue line in for a power-play goal at 11:49 of the second period, canceling out Domi’s backhand for his ninth goal at 5:14.Connauton put the Coyotes ahead 1-0 at 12:26 in the first period with his third goal in two games, but Carter tied it up at 1 with 27.5 seconds remaining by tipping Derek Forbort’s shot past Kuemper for his 350th career goal.”They’re all playoff games for us now,” Carter said. ”One of my roles on this team is to provide offense, so if I can keep putting them in the net that’s a good thing.”NOTES: Kopitar set a new career-high with his 35th goal. . Campbell improved to 2-0-2 as Jonathan Quick’s backup since the Kings traded Kuemper to the Coyotes on Feb. 21. .. Coyotes rookie defenseman Trevor Murphy picked up his first assist on Domi’s goal. It was Murphy’s second point in four career games. … Clayton Keller’s 10-game point streak ended.UP NEXTCoyotes: Host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.Kings: Visit the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.— Nick Jensen was just a Minnesota boy who played his first three seasons in Detroit.Then he walked into the Washington Capitals‘ locker room and saw the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov, who welcomed their newest defenseman with open arms.“I never knew them before this and I just see them on TV, and it’s a little star-striking right away,” Jensen said.Jensen isn’t a star, but he and winger Carl Hagelin sure fit the mold of low key trade-deadline acquisitions who can pay big dividends during a long playoff run. The Capitals learned last year in getting defenseman Michal Kempny how a seemingly small trade can make a big difference, and the defending Stanley Cup champions are among the teams that made low-risk moves at last month’s trade deadline in hopes of reaping a high reward.Vegas paid a big price to land winger Mark Stone, Winnipeg gave up its first-rounder for center Kevin Hayes and both teams are better for those pickups. Yet recent history shows contenders who tinkered rather than making a splash at the deadline got it right.“To bring in people that are going to take major roles from some of your core guys, it starts to create some issues,” Washington coach Todd Reirden said. “Any time you have a chance to improve your players and acquire depth and give them a better opportunity to win Laurent Brossoit Jersey Womens , you don’t ever pass it up. But it’s something that seems like it’s been a successful one for us last year with a little bit of an under the radar acquisition and then this year the same thing.”Before the 2018 Capitals, the 2016 Penguins got Hagelin and defenseman Justin Schultz before the deadline, and a year later added Ron Hainsey and Mark Streit for blue line depth and repeated as champions even without Kris Letang. The 2015 Blackhawks similarly added forwards Antoine Vermette and Andrew Desjardins and defenseman Kimmo Timonen before winning their third championship in six seasons.While Columbus went all in to get forwards Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel even with Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky set to be free agents, other playoff teams tweaked to fill existing holes. Nashville paid reasonable prices to upgrade up front with Wayne Simmonds and Mikael Granlund. Winnipeg made perhaps its most important pickup with unheralded defenseman Nathan Beaulieu and Pittsburgh responded to injuries by trading for defensemen Erik Gudbranson and Chris Wideman.“We feel like we picked up some good pieces,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “But for the most part, this is the group that we’ve got to get on the page and get going in the right direction.”Perhaps one reason minor deadline moves have as big an impact as substantial ones is there’s only a quarter of a season for players to get acclimated to their new teammates. It’s an ongoing process of watching video, studying and adjusting and it all happens on the fly in the midst of valuable games.“You have to make an impact pretty quickly,” Gudbranson said. “Just play my game, be physical, make the simple play, be solid and just communicate quite a bit.”TICKING CLOCKSNHL general managers have approved adding small digital clocks embedded in rink boards in all four corners beginning next season, an improvement that could add the odd goal or two because players won’t have to look up at a scoreboard for the time anymore.“It’s a good idea,” Flyers winger James van Riemsdyk said. “You have an awareness of how much time is on the clock no matter what, but to see it, especially toward the end of a period or whatever may be happening Timothy Liljegren Jersey Womens , I think it’s only a good thing for players to have that.”The league’s Board of Governors must approve the idea first for it to become a reality in all arenas.HITCH’S MEMORYThe goal that haunts Buffalo Sabres fans isn’t etched in Ken Hitchcock’s memory. Twenty years since he coached the Dallas Stars to the Cup — a series that ended with Brett Hull’s infamous “skate in the crease” overtime goal — Hitchcock has barely watched the game.“I watched the game that we lost to New Jersey (in the 2000 Final) 20 times, and I know every shift,” said Hitchcock, who now coaches Edmonton. “I know everything that went on in that Jersey game. But I never looked at (Game 6 in 1999) until it came up in the summer on the NHL Network, and there was a one-hour highlight package that they show on games. That’s the first time I saw it.”GAME OF THE WEEKThe Blue Jackets need all the points they can get as they claw for a playoff spot, and it doesn’t get much bigger than their game against the Penguins on Saturday night.LEADERSGoals: Alex Ovechkin (Washington), 45; Assists: Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay), 77; Points: Kucherov, 108; Ice time: Drew Doughty (Los Angeles), 26:58; Goals-against average: Jordan Binnington (St. Louis), 1.68; Save percentage: Binnington, .933.