OTTAWA - If Mikkel Boedker is trying to make up for lost time, he's off to a good start.

The Arizona Coyotes winger scored a hat trick in a slump-busting 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre. Boedker, who missed the last 37 games of 2014-15 after having his spleen removed, now has four goals in eight games so far this season.

The victory stopped the Coyotes losing streak at four games, while extended Ottawa's winless drought to four.

"The win is the most important thing, but obviously for selfish reasons, it feels really good to get on the board and with a hat trick, it makes it extra special," said Boedker, a former first-round pick who had 14 goals in 45 games when he had surgery in January. "It was a good team win, a good collective win."

Winger Brad Richardson broke a 1-1 tie with his first of the season with 5:29 left in the third, diving to fire home a loose puck 78 seconds before Boedker provided a cushion off a Senators defensive zone breakdown. Boedker's third came with 2:01 left and Senators goalie Craig Anderson on the bench for an extra attacker.

Defenseman Cody Ceci was the lone Senator to beat Coyotes goalie Anders Lindback, who had 35 saves in his first start of the season.

Goalie Craig Anderson stopped 22 shots in the Senators' net.

"We just wanted to play a real hard, simple road game and put pucks in deep and work our way into the game," said Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, who found out late Saturday afternoon he'd be without first-line center Antoine Vermette because of a lower body injury he had been trying to play through. "Lindback was excellent and Boedker was very opportunistic. Losing Vermette before the game, we knew we had to hunker down and we were pretty solid."

Already without a couple of key veterans in injured winger Clarke MacArthur and defensemen Marc Methot, the Senators lost second-year winger Curtis Lazar in the first period after a collision along the boards. No updates were available after the game.

The Senators are still looking for their first home win after four tries.

"I don't have an answer for it, I don't think anybody can put their finger on why it is," said winger Bobby Ryan, who had eight shots on goal. "I'm sure we'll have a lengthy conversation about it this week. You can't get behind the 8-ball at home.

"It wears on you, taking aside the fact fans come and they pay their money, they want to see wins and not 4-1 losses," continued Ryan, whose team completes a four-game homestand Wednesday against the Calgary Flames. "Like I said earlier, you can't stay in the hunt losing points at home. Especially when you're on a homestand and you haven't found a way to get anything out of it."

Boedker scored the lone goal of a first period that saw both teams register eight shots on goal.

With just under two minutes until the intermission, he took a pass from defenseman Oliver-Edman Larsson and neatly stepped around the reigning Norris Trophy winner, Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson, before charging to the net and beating Anderson with a backhand just inside the goalie's glove-side post.

The Senators had the only power play in the first period, and twice during the opportunity Ryan was stopped cold by Lindback. At even strength moments later, center Kyle Turris was sent in alone, but Lindback denied him as well.

Ceci brought the Senators even from a 1-0 deficit with his first of the season, at 18:11 of the second period, with Ottawa's 24th shot on net. Ryan set up the goal with a nice backhand pass through the slot.

"It's really frustrating," Ceci said of the outcome. "It was a pretty terrible end to a good hockey game. It was close throughout the whole game. We had a lot of chances with the power play. The puck wasn't finding its way in the net.

"They got that late one and we kind of deflated."

Cameron thought the Senators were deflated well before that.

"We were so bad in the first period, in terms of competing and executing," he said. "They just out-structured us. We ended up chasing our tail, chasing our tail … negative energy because you're chasing. Handed them a goal, they came 200 feet right through our team, so now they're gone to another level.

"I thought we rebounded a bit in the second, but still, our compete level and our execution level didn't allow us to sustain enough pressure to beat their structure. They made it hard for us and we didn't accept the challenge."

Asked if he sees bad habits creeping into the Senators game, Cameron was blunt.

"It's our compete," he said. "Simple as that. You can't have any habits if you don't compete."

NOTES: Senators LW Mike Hoffman missed the game with a lower-body injury that isn't expected to keep him out long. To fill his roster spot, the Senators recalled C Mac McCormick, who made his NHL debut. ... Coyotes C Antoine Vermette missed the game with a lower-body injury, snapping his iron-man streak at 482 games, the second longest of all current players. ... Senators D Marc Methot missed his third game after a concussion. Earlier in the day, Methot said he felt great and was good to go. ... Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said he gave G Anders Lindback his first start of the season to rest No. 1 goalie Mike Smith and provide him with a chance to spend a few days working with goalie coach John Elkin. Consequently, for the fifth time eight games, the Senators faced a backup. ... The Coyotes play the fourth of a five-game trip when they travel to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Monday. The Senators next see action Wednesday, when their four-game homestand concludes with a visit by the Calgary Flames.