Max Domi’s hat trick continues Coyotes’ domination of Oilers

Max Domi secured a hat trick and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored a game-winning overtime goal to push the Arizona Coyotes past the Edmonton Oilers.

BY CRAIG MORGAN

Jan 12, 2016, 11:05 PM Updated: Jan 13, 2016, 12:54 am

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Arizona Coyotes' Max Domi (16) gets a hug from teammate Anthony Duclair, right, after Domi recorded a hat trick against the Edmonton Oilers, as a member of the Coyotes Paw Patrol picks up hats thrown on the ice, during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. The Coyotes defeated the Oilers 4-3. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Max Domi handled his 15-game scoreless drought the way he’s handled everything else in his rookie NHL season: with veteran-like poise.

He got a haircut on Tuesday, he listened to his captain’s sage advice and he just kept shooting.

“When you’re going through tough times like that you just keep grinding it out and working on the little things,” he said. “Then one day you get lucky.”

Tuesday was Domi’s lucky day.

The Coyotes’ precocious rookie scored his first goal since Dec. 4, then decided he wasn’t finished, so he scored two more to post his first career NHL hat trick.

The Coyotes needed all of them plus Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s sixth game-winning goal of the season to rally from a two-goal deficit and defeat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3 in overtime at Gila River Arena.

The win extended the Coyotes’ point streak against the Oilers to 21 games (17-0-4). Since Dave Tippett became the Coyotes coach in 2009-10, Arizona is 22-2-4 against Edmonton. The Coyotes also improved to 10-1-2 against the Pacific Division, which is the best intra-division record in the NHL.

“It was a very average game until Max gave us a little spark,” said Tippett, who coached his 500th game with the franchise. “He’s still been getting chances but it seemed like he needed a break here or there. That first goal was one that went off a leg and right to him, but the good thing is he buried it. He capitalized on the chances and hopefully that will give him a little spark to get him going.”

With the three goals, Domi became the fourth Coyote to record a hat trick this season. Mikkel Boedker has two, Shane Doan has one and rookie Anthony Duclair has the other. The Coyotes lead the NHL with five hat tricks.

That is the most hat tricks the club has posted since tallying six in 2007-08. The franchise record is seven, set by Winnipeg in 1987 and 1992.

Domi’s three goals pushed him into second place in the rookie points race with 31. He trails Chicago’s Artemi Panarin by eight points. Nine of Domi’s goals have come on the power play, including two on Tuesday.

“Sometimes the puck goes in for you, sometimes it doesn’t so I guess tonight I was a little bit lucky out there,” he said.

The Coyotes’ power play is on a torrid pace after a tepid start. Arizona has scored 13 goals in its last 36 chances (36.1 percent). It’s no coincidence that the Coyotes are 8-1-2 in their last 11 games and surging in the Western Conference standings, where they now sit sixth overall and second in the division.

The last power-play goal was clearly the biggest. After Doan, Tobias Rieder and Ekman-Larsson survived an overtime shift that lasted more than two minutes with the Oilers pinning them in their zone, Edmonton forward Taylor Hall was whistled for high-sticking with 30 seconds left in OT.

Arizona got the faceoff back to the point, and with 8.9 seconds remaining, Ekman-Larsson blew one past goalie Anders Nilsson for the win.

“We had 20 seconds left there so I was just trying to get it to the net,” Ekman-Larsson said. “I was fortunate enough to get it in there.”

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