Perlini scores first NHL hat trick for Blackhawks in win against Coyotes

CHICAGO -- Brendan Perlini got his first NHL hat trick for the Chicago Blackhawks in a 7-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes at United Center on Monday.

"It's obviously great," said Perlini, who played 153 games for the Coyotes from 2016-18. "I just wanted to get the win in general, but to do that was awesome. I'll never forget that one."
Perlini completed the hat trick when he scored with four seconds left for the 7-1 final.
WATCH: [Coyotes vs. Blackhawks highlights]
"He's skating, he's really involved," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "He's winning races and puck battles, and then the offensive side of his game has the opportunity to come through. Really happy for him. Obviously, it was a big night for him, playing against his old team."
Brandon Saad, Chris Kunitz, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews scored, Alex DeBrincat had two assists, and Corey Crawford made 24 saves for the Blackhawks (30-30-9), who are five points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Chicago has won three straight games after losing four of its previous five.
"Yeah, it's exciting," Saad said. "After last game, we felt good. It's nice to get a character win like that in an away barn (2-1 win at the Dallas Stars on Saturday) and be able to buckle down defensively. We haven't done that in a while. And tonight, we made some more plays and scored more goals, but I think defensively we played really well."
Richard Panik scored for the Coyotes (34-30-5), who lost for the second time in 10 games and are one point behind the Wild. Calvin Pickard made 15 saves in relief of Darcy Kuemper, who allowed four goals on 16 shots.
"It's part of being a goalie," Pickard said. "You're going to have to be called upon at different times in a game. Obviously, loud building, they were buzzing pretty good up 4-1, got to step right from the dressing room and step right up into the game.
"Give them credit, they were unbelievable, they were making plays, they were the [Harlem] Globetrotters for a while and they earned some good goals. It's just one game for us, the nice part about it is we can bounce back tomorrow (against the St. Louis Blues)."
Panik gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead at 4:27 of the first period when he got his own rebound, skated around Crawford, and scored on his backhand.
Perlini scored on a breakaway to tie it 1-1 at 6:38.
Saad gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead at 8:09 when he deflected a pass from Toews in the crease.
Perlini made it 3-1 at 3:16 of the second period when he scored from the slot.
Kunitz gave Chicago a 4-1 lead at 6:26 when he scored into an open net off a backhand pass from David Kampf. Pickard relieved Kuemper following the goal.
Kane made it 5-1 at 8:50 when he scored from below the right face-off circle off a pass from Artem Anisimov.
Toews scored his 30th goal on a penalty shot to make it 6-1 at 14:08 after he was slashed from behind by Jakob Chychrun on a breakaway.
It is the first time Toews has reached 30 goals in a season since 2010-11, when he scored 32. His NHL career high is 34, set in 2008-09. He has 71 points, marking the first time he's reached 70 since 2010-11, when he had an NHL career-high 76.

They said it

"We just had too many guys that had bad, like terrible nights. It's on me, I didn't get these guys prepared. I don't know, maybe we should have done something differently yesterday (at practice), but I'm going to take the bullet on this one because I think that maybe I could have done something different. Some guys were just, they weren't ready to play." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet
"It's huge. We still know we're right there. This year it's been like really in and out as far as a couple games go by and some teams are in it, then some teams are out of it. We know that we're still right there. As long as we keep putting good games together and wins together, we'll be around." -- Blackhawks forward Brendan Perlini on the playoff race in the Western Conference

Need to know

Toews (30), Kane (41) and DeBrincat (37) are the first three Blackhawks to each score at least 30 goals in a season since Tony Amonte, Eric Daze and Steve Sullivan in 2000-01. … Kane has 48 points (19 goals, 29 assists) in his past 27 games and has had at least one point in 31 of his past 35. … Coyotes forward Christian Dvorak has four points (two goals, two assists) during a three-game point streak.

What's next

Coyotes: At the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, FS-A, NHL.TV)
Blackhawks: At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS)