The Los Angeles Kings look to set a new franchise record for wins and extend their winning streak to five games when they wrap up the regular season hosting the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.
The Kings (48-24-9, 105 points) are the second seed in the Pacific Division heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs and will have home-ice advantage against their division-rival Edmonton Oilers in the first round.
Los Angeles wrapped up a brief two-game road trip with a 6-5 win over the Kraken in Seattle on Tuesday night, matching the franchise record for wins in a season (48) set during the 2015-16 season.
“I like the win,” said Kings coach Jim Hiller. “This was a hard back-to-back. We had some key players out of the lineup, it didn’t mean anything for us in the standings, as far as movement, and we won the hockey game. That’s what I like about the win.”
Samuel Helenius scored twice, and Adrian Kempe scored a goal and an assist as the Kings improved to 8-2-0 over their last 10. Alex Laferriere, Alex Turcotte, and Warren Foegele also scored, while Kevin Fiala and Vladislav Gavrikov contributed two assists each in the victory.
David Rittich made 29 saves to improve to 16-13-2 with an .889 save percentage and 2.77 goals-against average in 33 games this season.
In 50 games, starter Darcy Kuemper is 31-11-7 with a .922 save percentage and a 2.02 GAA.
Kempe paces the Kings with 73 points in 81 games and shares the team’s goal-scoring lead (35) with Fiala.
The Flames head to Los Angeles looking to complete a sweep of the season series against the Kings. Calgary has won both meetings between the two clubs this season — 3-1 on Nov. 11 and 2-1 on Jan. 11.
Eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, Calgary (40-27-14, 94 points) has won three straight and is 6-1-3 in its last 10.
On Tuesday, the Flames wrapped up a three-game home stand with a 5-4 shootout victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Morgan Frost scored twice, including the shootout winner, and Nazem Kadri added a goal and an assist for the Flames, who were officially eliminated from playoff contention despite the win.
Mikael Backlund and Adam Klapka also scored, while Matt Coronato added a pair of helpers.
“At the beginning of the year no one believed in us,” said Backlund. “We believed in ourselves from Day 1 starting in training camp. Right away we got the sense everyone was buying in and was believing and when everyone buys in and believes, you can achieve some big things.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to playoffs, but we battled all the way to the end. We were so resilient all year and that says a lot about this group. We were playing for each other all year.”
Dustin Wolf made 38 saves to improve to 29-16-8 with a .910 save percentage and a 2.64 GAA in 53 starts this season.
With the two helpers, Coronato has seven points (four goals, three assists) during a six-game point streak. Kadri’s team-leading 33 goals is a career best for the Flames forward.
–Field Level Media
