In Las Vegas, Andreas Athanasiou and Lias Andersson scored in the first period to give the Los Angeles Kings a 2-0 lead over the Golden Knights. The early push was enough 
to end a three-game skid for the Kings in a 4-2 win on Wednesday night.
“Every game is huge at this point,” Andersson said. “It’s a tight league and a lot of good teams. We treat every game as a playoff game now. [We] don’t get too stressed about the standings, just trying to take it one game at a time.”
Calvin Petersen made 40 saves in the win.
“Every night is important,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s important for the evolution of our organization, but it’s important pointwise for us to put ourselves in a position to play later than the regular schedule.”
William Karlsson scored in the middle frame to cut the score to 2-1, and Shea Theodore potted a goal in the third period for the Knights.
“We emphasize a good start every night,” Vegas’ Mark Stone said. “The last three haven’t been good, but at the same time, there’s points in a game where we can get back into it. Tonight, we fell a little too far”
LA replied to Karlsson’s goal with markers from Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Alex Iafallo in the second period.
“It was one of those nights,” Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said. “You have to give them credit. They played with desperation that we didn’t match.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves in the loss.
“I don’t think it’s fatigue,” DeBoer said of Fleury, who started 17 of 18 games from Feb. 9-March 17. “Since [goalie] Robin [Lehner’s] come back, we’ve tried to give him some good rest. It’s not all on him. He’s had a lack of support in those instances from our group.”
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