In Los Angeles, Viktor Arvidsson scored the first and last goals of the game for the Kings in a 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets in Saturday matinee.
The Kings matched a franchise record by pushing their active point streak to 11 games.
“I think that for the majority of these games we’ve won, we’ve kind of outplayed the other team for almost 60 minutes, and that’s an important thing to be able to do, to take into the playoffs,” said Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty, who had a goal and an assist. “So I really like the way we’ve playing right now, but we got to keep it going as the playoffs approach.”
Joonas Korpisalo made 25 saves in the LA win.
“That is something that we can hang our hats on and that we’re pleased about,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “We feel like we’ve got to protect the goaltenders and help them out.”
The Kings moved to 42-20-10.
Pierre-Luc Dubois‘ power play goal was the lone strike for the Jets.
“I think everyone is frustrated right now,” Dubois said. “Everyone wants to win. We can’t drop too many points. It was a big game for us to see where we’re at. We did some good things but can do a lot better.”
Winnipeg dropped to 41-30-3, and are just four points clear of the Calgary Flames for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. Calgary defeated the San Jose Sharks, 5-3, on Saturday.
LA took a 2-0 lead, after Arvidsson scored in the first, on a goal from Alex Iafallo.
Dubois scored late in the middle frame to trim the lead to 2-1.
In the third, Doughty scored 27 seconds into the period for a 3-1 lead to LA.
“I definitely looked at my goal total and was like, ‘Eh, I’m not going to do worse than my first year in the League (six goals in 81 games in 2008-09).’ Haven’t been happy about it all year,” Doughty said. “You get hot at times, and obviously I’m a little bit hot right now scoring goals. So it feels good to finally get back on the score sheet, but I don’t want to waste them all before the playoffs come, that’s for sure.”
Arvidsson then added an empty-net goal for the 4-*1 final.
Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves in the Winnipeg loss.
“They’re a team that if you get down by a couple, they are hard to play against,” the Jets’ Josh Morrissey said. “We gave up a couple goals off face-offs. You don’t want that to happen. A couple little details either way is the difference.”
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