The Los Angeles Kings overtook the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights for third place in the Pacific Division on Thursday as the NHL regular season concluded and first-round playoff matchups were confirmed.
The Golden Knights (45-29-8, 98 points) could have sealed third in division with a win over the long-eliminated Anaheim, but the Ducks emerged with a 4-1 victory at Las Vegas.
That gave the Kings a chance to move up, and they took advantage by rallying for a 5-4 overtime win against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. Los Angeles, needing just one point to move past Vegas, trailed Chicago 4-3 before Viktor Arvidsson scored on a power play with 1:21 to go.
Once the game went to OT, the Kings were assured of third place in the Pacific. However, they ended their night on a high note when Adrian Kempe scored six seconds into the extra session, tying for the fastest overtime goal in NHL history.
The results set up Los Angeles for a first-round postseason series against the Pacific’s second-place team, the Edmonton Oilers (49-27-6, 104 points). The teams are meeting in the opening round of the playoffs for the third season in a row, after Edmonton eliminated Los Angeles in both 2022 and 2023.
The Golden Knights will go up against the West’s No. 1 seed, the Central Division champion Dallas Stars (52-21-9, 113 points), in a rematch of last season’s conference finals. Vegas downed Dallas in six games last year en route to winning its first Stanley Cup.
The Pacific champion Vancouver Canucks (50-23-9, 109 points) will square off with the Nashville Predators (47-30-5, 99 points). The matchup of the second- and third-place teams in the Central will feature the Winnipeg Jets (52-24-6, 110 points) and the Colorado Avalanche (50-25-7, 107 points).
The Presidents’ Trophy-winning, the New York Rangers (55-23-4, 114 points), will oppose the Washington Capitals (40-31-11, 91 points) in an all- Metropolitan Division matchup. The Carolina Hurricanes (52-23-7, 111 points), who came in second in the Metro, will face the division’s third-place team, the New York Islanders (39-27-16, 94 points).
The Florida Panthers (52-24-6, 110 points) won their last four games to steal first place in the Atlantic Division from the Boston Bruins (47-20-15, 109 points). Florida will open the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning (45-29-8, 98 points) in an intrastate clash, while Boston will meet the Toronto Maple Leafs (46-26-10, 102 points).
Game 1 of the Islanders-Hurricanes and Maple Leafs-Bruins series will open the Stanley Cup playoffs on Saturday. The Lightning-Panthers, Capitals-Rangers, Avalanche-Jets and Predators-Canucks series begin on Sunday, with the Golden Knights-Stars and Kings-Oilers matchups starting on Monday.
–Field Level Media
