LA Kings: Wroblewski ‘couldn’t be happier’ for Alex Turcotte’s hat trick
By Ryan Sikes
LA Kings prospect Alex Turcotte logged his first professional hat trick on Sunday.
Alex Turcotte is getting hot at the right time. The LA Kings 2019 fifth overall pick tallied his first professional hat trick in the Ontario Reign’s 7-5 loss on Sunday and has seven points in his last five contests.
For Ontario, it was their third straight game in which they had a player record a hat trick. Mikey Eyssimont scored three goals and an assist in Wednesday’s 6-4 win. Adam Johnson followed with three goals in the Reign’s 7-4 win over San Diego on Friday. And on Sunday, Turcotte.
“He’d probably be the first one to admit that he was frustrated with some pucks not going in, but he’s putting in the extra work in the shooting room, and his practice habits have been very strong lately. And so I couldn’t be happier for the kid,” Wroblewski said of Turcotte.
The 20-year-old forward had goals in each of the three periods, including a powerplay goal in the middle frame. Defenseman Sean Durzi assisted on two of Turcotte’s goals while Akil Thomas tallied his 10th goal of the 2021 season.
The Reign have just two games left in the regular season before the AHL playoffs begin on May 18, with only Pacific Division teams competing to determine a champion.
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Below is the schedule (via TheAHL.com):
"2021 PACIFIC DIVISION PLAYOFFSPlay-In Series (May 18-19)Game 1 – Tue., May 18 – #4 vs. #7, 1:00 PT (at Irvine, Calif.)Game 2 – Tue., May 18 – #5 vs. #6, 7:30 PT (at Irvine, Calif.)Game 3 – Wed., May 19 – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7:00 PT (at Irvine, Calif.)Semifinal “A” (best-of-3; to conclude by May 24)Game 1 – #1 vs. Play-In winner (at higher seed)Game 2 – #1 vs. Play-In winner (at higher seed)*Game 3 – #1 vs. Play-In winner (at higher seed)Semifinal “B” (best-of-3; to conclude by May 24)Game 1 – #2 vs. #3 (at higher seed)Game 2 – #2 vs. #3 (at higher seed)*Game 3 – #2 vs. #3 (at higher seed)Pacific Division Finals (best-of-3; to conclude by May 29)Game 1 – Semifinal winners (at higher seed)Game 2 – Semifinal winners (at higher seed)*Game 3 – Semifinal winners (at higher seed)"