On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Kings were looking to lock up the Pacific Division crown but will need to wait until Sunday when the Anaheim Ducks visit Washington.
Mark Scheifele scored the lone in the skills competition Saturday to give the Winnipeg Jets a come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Kings.
The loser’s point did not clinch the division title for LA.
“The frustrating part is that we didn’t get the job done tonight,” Los Angeles center Anze Kopitar said. “We certainly had every opportunity to win the division, and the bottom line [is] we didn’t do it.”
With the point, the Lings are one up on the Ducks but the Ducks have that game in hand and can clinch the top spot Sunday in their finale.
“It’s frustrating that we didn’t finish that game out,” Los Angeles defenseman Jake Muzzin said. “We left [Quick] out to dry, and it’s disappointing. We’re going to have to change our attitude before the playoffs start, or else we’re not going to last long.”
The Kings have not won a division title in 25 years.
The Jets rallied from a 3-0 deficit to steal the win.
In the second period, the Jets got goals from Andrew Copp, Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler to erase the big lead the Kings had built.
“It was awesome,” Scheifele said. “To come back in a game like that against a team that’s pushing pretty hard to get first in the Pacific, it’s definitely big for us.”
Andy Andreoff, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson scored for LA.
“We had the start that we wanted and for whatever reason, we stopped playing,” Kopitar said. “Obviously, we made a bunch of turnovers that resulted into their goals. The start was good, but the second and third period were not very good.”
Ondrej Pavelec made 26 saves in regulation and the overtime session and stopped all three shooters in the skills competition.
“It’s always great when you come back from down 3-0,” Pavelec said. “We started skating. They had trouble [handling] us in our zone. The first half of the game, they spent the whole time in our zone. … We had a great start to the third.”
Jonathan Quick took the loss on 28 saves.
Now the Kings wait.
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