Kings’ odds don’t look good even after a 2-0 win over Canucks
Reporting from VANCOUVER, CANADA — The respirator has been unplugged and the last rites administered. But the Kings’ postseason hopes aren’t dead just yet.
Even with Friday’s 2-0 win over to the Vancouver Canucks, their road to the playoffs remains a painfully narrow one. With the St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames both clinching postseason berths Friday, only the Nashville Predators remain within reach of the Kings.
And even they aren’t that close.
The Kings trail Nashville by eight points with five games — worth a maximum of 10 points — to play. If they win all five and Nashville loses its final five, the Kings go to the playoffs. If the teams finish even in points, the Kings move on based on the NHL tiebreaker: more regulation and overtime wins.
However any combination of Nashville wins and Kings losses that total two will send the Predators to the postseason.
“I said it from day one, after the first period of the first game when our goalie went down, that we were going to just have to try to stay in the race,†Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said. “That’s all we can do.â€
And as long as they’re in the race, the Kings appear determined to make things interesting.
“We’re not going to give up,†said Jarome Iginla, whose power-play goal midway through the second period proved to be the game-winner. “We’ve got to make sure that we do our part. In one week things can happen. Teams can go cold. It happens.
“We’ve just got to focus on ourselves. So nobody’s quitting.â€
Instead they’re excelling, with Friday’s win giving them consecutive victories for only the second time since the first week of February and giving them consecutive wins on the road for the first time since January.
The Kings went ahead to stay in the second period on another milestone goal by Iginla, who redirected a hard Alec Martinez shot from the left faceoff circle around Vancouver goalie Ryan Miller for the 625th goal of his career, tying Joe Sakic for 15th on the all-time NHL list.
“That’s one that’s definitely very special to me,†Iginla said of the goal, his second game-winner in three nights.
Tyler Toffoli doubled the lead at the end of a 3-on-2 breakaway four minutes later. Jake Muzzin started the play, digging the puck out along the boards in the Kings end, then hitting Toffoli near the blue line.
Toffoli did the rest, skating deep into the Canucks’ zone, then waiting for defenseman Luca Sbisa to go to the ice inside the right circle before firing the puck over him and off the crossbar for his 15th goal of the season.
The two goals were welcome support for Jonathan Quick, the goalie who went down in that first game with a groin injury that kept him out four months. He made a season-high 35 saves Friday — 14 in the decisive second period —to post his second shutout and snap a personal three-game losing streak.
In those three losses, the team backed Quick with only one goal.
Now the Kings return to Staples Center for four games, three against teams that have already clinched playoff berths, before finishing the regular season against the division-leading Ducks in Anaheim. Nashville plays three of its final five on the road, but two of those are against Dallas and Winnipeg, teams that have already been eliminated from postseason contention
Follow Kevin Baxter on Twitter @kbaxter11
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