Fischer nets 1st hat trick to lift Coyotes to victory
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Christian Fischer got his first career hat trick, Darcy Kuemper stopped 35 shots and the Arizona Coyotes rallied to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Fischer scored in all three periods to help the Coyotes beat Columbus for the first time in the last seven tries dating to 2015. Derek Stepan got the primary assist on all three.
Dylan Strome also scored for Arizona as backup Kuemper got his first win of the season in two starts.
Pierre Luc-Dubois scored and Sergei Bobrovsky had 22 saves in what was mostly a lackluster game for the Blue Jackets, even though they had 10 more shots on goal.
Dubois got credit for a goal 31 seconds into the game when he shot wide, then skated in to knock the puck out from behind the net. It ricocheted off Clayton Keller’s skate and trickled in as Kuemper leaned the other way.
It was one of the few mistakes the Arizona goalie made.
Fischer tied it 7:08 in with a one-timer. Strome made it 2-1 later in the first when he tipped in a shot from just outside the blue paint on a power play.
Fischer got his second 29 seconds into the second period on a rush with another pretty feed from Stepan. He beat Bobrovsky again 4:44 into the third, shortly after Columbus came up empty on its third power play.
Columbus defenseman Seth Jones made his season debut after spraining a medial collateral ligament in his right knee on Sept. 25.
Note
F Alex Galchenyuk made his season debut for the Coyotes. He was injured in a preseason game against the Los Angeles Kings on Sept. 18.