In Los Angeles Monday night, the Kings found some offense in the third period but by then it was too late as they trailed the visiting San Jose Sharks by a 3-0 score at that point.
Goals from Chris Tierney, Barclay Goodrow and Mikkel Boedker helped the Sharks build that 3-0 lead.
“You dial in a bit more when you’re playing a rival and you’re playing a division team when they’re ahead in the standings, for sure,” Tierney said. “We’re trying to catch them, hunt them down, so anytime you’re playing a team that’s ahead of you, you are going to bring your ‘A’ game.”
Trevor Lewis scored the lone Kings goal when he cut the deficit to 3-1 in the third period.
Martin Jones made 35 saves to pick up the win for San Jose who improved to 23-13-6 and are 9-2-4 in their last 15 games.
“We seem to be able to get pucks in behind their D and forecheck these guys pretty well,” Jones said. “That’s a big part of our game when we turn pucks over in the offensive zone and play down there, it makes everything a little easier.”
Joe Thornton added an empty-net goal late to seal it for the Sharks.
“They always bring out the best in us because we know we have to play well in order to win,” San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer said after the win.
For LA, it was their fourth straight loss as they dropped to 24-15-5.
“We’ve got to get our team game reset on both sides of the puck … and play with a level of urgency that’s necessary every shift,” LA head coach John Stevens said.
[WATCH:Â All Sharks vs. Kings highlights]
Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves in taking the loss.
“We talked before the game: We want to come out and have a good start and play good for 60 minutes. We didn’t play good at all for 60 minutes. We have to go back and look at some things and try to be better tomorrow,” LA’s Adrian Kempe said after the game.
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