Kings fail to gain in Pacific, lose to Ducks, 3-1 Kings one point clear of Vegas for third in Pacific


In Anaheim, the Ducks delayed the Los Angeles Kings from improving their status in the Western Conference playoff race, and Pacific Division race with a 3-1 win on Tuesday night.

Lukas Dostal made 36 saves in the win.

The Ducks moved to 26-48-5.

“We play hard all the time, and we’re a tough team to play against,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. “We’ve flirted with that throughout the year.”

The Kings dropped to  41-26-11, and are one point clear of the Vegas Golden Knights for third in the Pacific Division.

“We thought it might be easy,” Los Angeles interim coach Jim Hiller said. “It is never easy in the National Hockey League.”

Never look past a team with nothing to lose.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but there’s been a lot of change in the lineup, the consistency hasn’t been there, and the last couple games we’ve had the same lineup, which was nice,” Cronin said. “You could see the chemistry that was there tonight and the last game as well, so I’m happy for them. They deserve to win more games than we’ve won this year.”

LA took  a 1-0 lead at 5:50 of the opening stanza on marker from Akil Thomas.

“We know they have a lot of skill and a lot of young talent, and they’re playing pretty freely right now,” LA’s Trevor Lewis said of the Ducks. “I thought we had a pretty good first 10 minutes, and then things kind of got away from us. We were starting to get in their game a little bit and turning pucks over. Second period we played pretty well but let them hang around, and they’ve got some skill and their goalie played really well.”

The Ducks’ Frank Vatrano scored tied it 1-1 at 17:46, scoring off a rebound of his initial shot. n.

“Our first 10-12 minutes I thought were great playing Kings hockey,” Los Angeles’ Blake Lizotte said. “We kind of drifted away from that. A few guys went on their own page more than we’d like.”

Alex Killorn scored at 1:51 of the third period to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead, hitting off a power play.

“It’s hard to score goals in this league, so whenever they get taken away, it’s pretty tough,” Killorn said. “I was happy I could get it back quickly.”

Trevor Zegras pushed the lead to 3-1 at 5:50, scoring after a turnover by LA.

“To not play that many games, it’s tough to just jump back in and play the game that you know you can play,” Killorn said of Zegras. “For him, the more games he gets, the better he’s getting.”

Cam Talbot had 24 saves in the loss.