The Los Angeles Kings were in Calgary Tuesday looking to keep pace with the Anaheim Ducks. They did just that with a 5-4 see-saw win in overtime.
Jeff Carter put an end to the game with 40 seconds elapsed in the extra session.
Milan Lucic (two goals), Andy Andreoff and Kris Versteeg also scored for LA.
Jeff Carter scored winner in Calgary – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“Your goal to when you start the season is to make the playoffs, and then finish as high up in the standings as you can,” Lucic said. “That’s still a goal of ours before the playoffs start, but I think the most important thing moving forward is get our game and identity back to what it was that got us the playoff spot.”
The win, coupled with the Anaheim Ducks loss in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets, leaves both teams tied atop the Pacific Division with 99 points.
The Ducks and Kings go at it on Thursday in LA.
“It’s a big game,” Carter said. “We want to win the rest of the games here and get on a roll. I think the main focus is really dialing in our game. We’ve got a lot of work to do still, cleaning up some errors in our game and whatnot. We’ve got a few games left here to do it.”
The Flames got goals from Mikael Backlund, Hunter Shinkaruk, Mark Giordano and Deryk Engelland.
“[Los Angeles] used their size to their advantage, but I really liked the way that we competed,” Flames coach Bob Hartley said.
LA has two games left on the schedule and the Ducks have three.
“You get 47 wins in a year and your goal going into the year is to try and get 100 points, and we’re close,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. “That’s pretty good for a team that didn’t make the playoffs last year.”
Jhonas Enroth picked up the win despite a couple of mis-reads on shots that went in; Joni Ortio took the loss.
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