Phillip Danault of Victoriaville, Quebec registered his second career National Hockey League hat trick on Sunday. He accomplished the feat in a 5-1 Los Angeles Kings win over the New Jersey Devils at crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California.
Danault scored one goal in each period. He tied the game at one at 7:56 of the first period from Kevin Fiala and Vladislav Gavrikov. Danault then put the Kings up 3-1 at 12:23 of the second period from Matt Roy and Trevor Moore. Then with two minutes and 13 seconds left in the game, Danault scored into an empty net from Moore and Fiala.
In 2023-24, Danault has 14 goals and 22 assists for 36 points. He is a +9 with 12 penalty minutes, six power-play points, two shorthanded points, one game-winning goal, 458 faceoff wins, 47 blocked shots, 61 hits, 17 takeaways and 30 giveaways. Danault’s game-winning goal came in a 4-1 Kings win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario on Halloween. At the time the Kings went up 2-0 as Danault scored from Trevor Moore and Jordan Spence at 11:40 of the first period.
Danault’s shorthanded points also came in Kings’s wins. Both shorthanded points were shorthanded assists. The first came on November 20 in a 4-1 Kings win over the Arizona Coyotes. Danault helped set up Moore. The second came on January 15 in a 5-2 Kings win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Once again Danault helped set up Moore.
Danault’s first NHL hat trick came as a member of the Montreal Canadiens. Danault scored thrice in a 4-3 Canadiens win over the Vegas Golden Knights on December 22, 2018.
With the win, the Kings improve to a record of 31 wins, 19 regulation losses and 10 losses in extra time for 72 points. They lead the Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues by seven points for the last playoff spot.
