The Kings won their eighth consecutive game at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday, beating the Ducks 3-1 to match the team’s longest home winning streak in more than three decades and move three points clear of idle Vegas in the battle for third place in the Pacific Division.
The Kings, who finished third the last two seasons, have two regular-season games remaining, both at home. Vegas has three games left. Since the All-Star break, the Kings are an NHL-best 13-2-1 at home.
“We want to play well,” said Kings interim coach Jim Hiller about the streaks. “You can play well and not win in this league; that happens on a lot of different nights. So we want to play well.
“We’ll take the wins. We want to win, of course. But we just want to be feeling good, whether that’s winning or playing well and maybe not quite getting it done.”
Read more: Kings beat Flames to clinch playoff berth for third consecutive season
The Kings’ goals came from Pierre-Luc Dubois and Matt Roy, both in the second period, and Kevin Fiala, with less than three minutes left in the third period.
Trevor Zegras accounted for the Ducks’ goal.
Dubois opened the scoring three minutes into the second period, wristing home a loose puck to the side of the net on a power play.
With the Ducks’ Olen Zellweger in the penalty box, Dubois, out on the right wing, centered a pass for Adrian Kempe, who couldn’t control it. The puck bounced to Viktor Arvidsson, whose shot deflected to Dubois, who lifted it over sprawling Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal for his 16th goal of the season.
Roy doubled the lead nine minutes later, beating Dostal cleanly with a right-handed rocket from the blue line for his fifth goal.
Zegras cut the lead in half with a wrister from the left faceoff circle to the far side late in the third period, his sixth goal of the season and his second in five days against the Kings, but Fiala matched that with a wraparound goal six minutes later. It was his fourth against the Ducks this season.
David Rittich, starting in goal for only the third time in more than three weeks, turned back 28 shots.
The Kings, who won three of four games against Ducks this season, will open the playoffs next week, most likely traveling to Edmonton to meet the Oilers for the third time in as many years.
“Everyone’s keeping tabs on the standings every day. So we’re familiar with it all,” Roy said. “Even though we clinched, every game is still important. We still want to move up in the standings and just keep keep elevating our game so that when the playoffs come, we’re ready to go.
“Every team is really good, so I think we’re ready for just about anybody. We know that we’re gonna be on the road, so it is what it is. We’re just ready to get going.”
The Kings played Saturday without forward Anze Kopitar, who also skipped the morning skate with what the team called a minor injury. The game was just the second Kopitar has sat out in the last three seasons.
Dubois centered the Kings’ top line in Kopitar’s absence.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
