Crouse scores 3 times in Coyotes' 5-3 win over Senators

OTTAWA, Ontario -- — Lawson Crouse had a hat trick, Nick Schmaltz extended his point streak with a goal, and the Arizona Coyotes beat the Ottawa Senators 5-3 on Monday night.

Schmaltz has 15 points in his last six games (six goals, nine assists) and Crouse's goals came three different ways: one at even strength, one on the power play and shorthanded.

“It’s a special feeling,” Crouse said. “I’ve said it in a few interviews now: You always want to be out there and try to make the biggest difference you can make. And to get my first hat trick tonight in front of some friends and family, it’s a really good feeling. To cap it off with a win makes it that much more special.”

Barrett Hayton added an empty-net goal for the Coyotes and Scott Wedgewood made 40 saves to pick up his 10th win of the season.

The Coyotes take the season series, having beaten Ottawa 8-5 in Arizona.

“I think there was a stretch over 20-some minutes that they didn’t have a shot and we’ve got to find ways to score and our power play can’t give up a shorthanded goal,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “We tie it in the third after having the puck the whole time and we make a real careless play and you lose the game.”

Josh Norris had two goals for the Senators, Connor Brown also scored and Filip Gustavsson stopped 12 shots in his first NHL start since Feb. 20.

“I thought we deserved a lot better,” Norris said. “We did a lot of really good things and we’ve just got to take care of the puck, not give up a shorty and probably win the game so it’s frustrating.”

Ottawa trailed 3-2 to start the third, but tied things up at the seven-minute mark when Brown buried a Brady Tkachuk rebound. The Coyotes regained the lead 16 seconds later as Schmaltz took a pass in front and beat a sprawled Gustavsson.

An eventful first period ended with the teams tied at 2. In the opening minutes, Tkachuk went hard to the net and Norris was there to jam home the rebound.

“In that kind of a game, you can look at it two ways,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “You can look at our performance, and really, it was not very good. Let’s not kid ourselves. But you can look at it as ... even though it was not as good as we wanted, we found a way to stay with it. We knew we could win the game even if we did not play the way we wanted to.”

Crouse then scored back-to-back goals for the Coyotes. The first was a great shot high glove side and the second was on the power play as he tipped a Shayne Gostisbehere point shot.

Norris tied the game on the power play with his second of the night.

Crouse's hat trick was completed late in the second period, beating Gustavsson shorthanded after taking advantage of a Senators giveaway and winning a foot race for a loose puck to break in alone.

NOTES

Senators: A healthy scratch the last five games, Tyler Ennis returned to the lineup in place of Adam Gaudette.

Arizona: Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun suffered a lower-body injury on Saturday night versus the Boston Bruins and will be out of the lineup two to four weeks.

UP NEXT

Coyotes: At Montreal on Tuesday night.

Senators: Host Columbus on Wednesday night.

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