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Kings coach John Stevens told Dustin Brown last summer he could still be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL after failing to hit that threshold for five consecutive seasons.
In retrospect Frank Ragnow Jersey , Stevens might have undersold what Brown is still capable of achieving.
Brown scored his fourth goal of the game 23 seconds into overtime and the Kings moved into third place in the Pacific Division with a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
Brown scored on a one-timer from the left circle to put the Kings one point ahead of Anaheim in the division, with Anze Kopitar setting up his 28th goal of the season. Brown set a career high with his 61st point.
”I thought his game was trending in the right direction last year,” Stevens said. ”I said if you’re not at least a 20-goal scorer again, then I don’t know what I’m doing. And he kind of laughed, but you could see he believed it, too. And he is.”
Brown is the 14th player in Kings history to score four goals in a game and the second to do so this season. Kopitar did it on March 22 against Colorado.
Tobias Rieder also scored, and Daniel Brickley had an assist for his first point in his NHL debut. Jonathan Quick made 23 saves for the Kings’ fourth win in five games.
Drew Doughty had an assist to become the fourth Kings defenseman with 50 in a season. Doughty also set a career high with his 60th point.
Matt Dumba scored for the second straight game, and Nate Prosser had a short-handed goal for the Wild, who will play Winnipeg in the first round of the playoffs.
Ryan Murphy and Eric Staal each had a goal, and Alex Stalock made 23 saves. Mikko Koivu had three assists and Mikael Granlund had two assists.
Brown got his first hat trick since Feb. 25, 2012, by scoring with 49.3 seconds left in the second.
Prosser tied it at 4-4 at 9:24 of the third period after Staal scored his 41st at 5:42 during a delayed penalty to cut the deficit to 4-3.
”There’s a lot of good you can take from this game,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”You battled back against the team that’s the best third-period team in the League. They stayed with the program and consequently got rewarded for it a little bit.”
Brown got the Kings on the board 55 seconds into the game, but Murphy tied the game at 1 when his shot into traffic redirected off Christian Folin and past Quick at 3:12, and Dumba put the Wild ahead at 5:02.
But Brown kept creating scoring chances. He made it 2-all when he scored during a 5-on-3 power play at 7:42 Pharoh Cooper Jersey , waiting at the front of the net to score off Jeff Carter’s centering pass.
”You just plug away really,” Brown said of his turnaround. ”I got an opportunity this year to play big minutes and be a huge part of the team. That’s probably the more important thing is that I was able to help the team make the playoffs.”
However, Brown was more concerned with how the Kings let the Wild back into the game and what it might portend headed into the playoffs.
”I don’t know what it is in our DNA, but we seem to make it hard on ourselves a lot,” Brown said. ”The thing is we do that and then we come back and win, so the stats probably lie a little bit when you see the record holding a lead after two periods. We try to get heroics every night, which is probably something we need to avoid next week.”
NOTES: Kings F Torrey Mitchell and D Paul LaDue did not play because of flu-like symptoms. The Kings recalled F Jonny Brodzinski and D Oscar Fantenberg from their AHL affiliate on Thursday, but both were scratched against the Wild. … The Wild signed D Louis Belpedio to a two-year, entry-level contract on Thursday. Belpedio, a third-round draft pick of the Wild in 2014 who played college hockey at Miami of Ohio, could make his NHL debut on Saturday.
UP NEXT
Wild: Visit the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.
Kings: Host the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
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Russell Westbrook is averaging a triple-double, so he gets plenty of attention. Ricky Rubio just had a triple-double , earning him some time in the headlines. Donovan Mitchell has been great in his first three playoff games, so the fascination with the rookie star is only growing.
It’s easy to notice those guys.
Rudy Gobert should be getting noticed as well.
Utah is taking a 2-1 lead into their Western Conference first-round series against Oklahoma City on Monday night, and Gobert is probably as responsible for the Jazz being in that position than anyone. He’s controlling the backboards Taco Charlton Jersey , he’s changing shots, he’s thwarting Westbrook and he’s showing why he’s the likely Defensive Player of the Year.
”It makes the guards’ jobs a lot easier,” Mitchell said of the French safety net with the 7-foot-9 wingspan who protects the rim for the Jazz. ”You feel more secure on the wing. … The whole season, I’ve been saying if somebody gets by me, it’s like, `All right, go ahead, try it. Because I’ve tried it. And it doesn’t work.”
Westbrook probably would agree: He’s 1 for 7 in this series with Gobert waiting at the rim for him.
There’s two Game 4s on the schedule Monday, with Houston at Minnesota leading off before the Oklahoma City-Utah game. The Rockets fell in Game 3 to the Timberwolves on Saturday, but still lead that series 2-1.
Westbrook is not happy, and the reigning NBA MVP wasted little time in vowing that things will be different in Game 4. He was talking about slowing down Rubio, but he might be better served getting himself going again. Going back to the regular season, Westbrook hasn’t shot better than 40 percent in any of his last six games – the worst such streak of his career.
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Here’s a look at Monday’s games:
ROCKETS AT TIMBERWOLVES
Rockets lead 2-1. Game 4, 8 p.m. EDT, TNT.
NEED TO KNOW: The Timberwolves bounced back from a 20-point loss in Game 2 with a sellout-crowd-inspired 16-point victory over the Rockets in Game 3 that was the franchise’s first win in the playoffs since 2004. Jimmy Butler had 28 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 16 rebounds for the Timberwolves Jim McMahon Jersey , who were more aggressive than they were in Games 1 and 2. ”I felt like they outworked us, and that should never happen,” Rockets guard Gerald Green said.
KEEP AN EYE ON: The Rockets shooting 3-pointers. They needed 41 attempts to make 15 behind the arc in Game 3, as many as the Wolves swished in 27 tries. Harden was just 3 for 8, his rainbows often drifting to the left, as the Wolves kept up what has been a better-than-usual defensive performance in this series. ”We’re just making it harder on them, making them take tough shots and just trying to find ways to stop a high-powered offense,” Towns said.
PRESSURE IS ON: Rockets center Clint Capela. After a 24-poin/t, 12-rebound production in Game 1, Capela had only seven points on six shots in Game 3. On the other end of the court, Towns finally got going after two bad games thanks in part to Capela’s defense. The Rockets could use a strong response from the Swiss standout in the attempt to keep the Wolves from tying the series.
INJURY UPDATE: Butler, who missed a total of 21 games this season due to trouble with his right knee, clutched his left ankle in pain after twisting it late in the first half of Game 3. He didn’t miss any time, though, and didn’t even acknowledge the injury when asked about it in his postgame interview. ”At the end of the day if you tell your mind it doesn’t hurt Greg Zuerlein Jersey , it doesn’t,” Butler said.
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THUNDER AT JAZZ
Jazz leas 2-1. Game 4, 10:30 p.m. EDT, TNT.
NEED TO KNOW: Utah has won each of its last five first-round series as the No. 5 seed, and the Jazz are halfway to extending that streak. The crowd in Salt Lake City was extremely loud on Saturday and will likely be again on Monday. The Thunder are 5-6 in their last 11 games, and no one needs to remind them of how low the success rate is for teams that go down 3-1 in a series.
KEEP AN EYE ON: Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook from deep. Paul George has been great from 3-point range (15 for 31) in the three games, but Westbrook and Anthony are a combined 9 for 31. The Thunder need to get something going consistently from the perimeter to soften up Utah’s stout interior defense.
PRESSURE IS ON: Utah. Most would think it’s the team trailing that would feel the most pressure, but Utah has a chance to take total command of the series. A loss would be doubly deflating; not only would the Jazz lose home-court, but they would go back to Oklahoma City for Game 5 with the Thunder thinking they have control of the matchup.
INJURY UPDATE: Westbrook was getting treatment on some sort of upper-body issue in Game 3 and was coy about it afterward, pointing out that most players are ailing at this time of year. But if he’s limited in any way, that’s obviously a huge problem for the Thunder.
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AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this report
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