Anze Kopitar and Blake Lizotte scored 1:51 apart late in the second period as the visiting Los Angeles Kings won their fourth straight game, a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.
The Kings helped their playoff push as they played the role of spoiler against the Western Conference-leading Canucks.
Vancouver (45-19-8, 98 points) could have become the first team in the league to punch its ticket to the postseason with a win.
The Canucks needed to beat the Kings (38-22-11, 87 points) and have Vegas beat St. Louis in the only other game of the night to clinch. The Golden Knights won 2-1 in overtime, but the Canucks couldn’t get the job done in the seventh game of a season-high, nine-game homestand.
Kevin Fiala also scored and goalie Cam Talbot made 21 saves for the Kings, who opened a four-game road trip by moving to within one point of the Edmonton Oilers for second place in the Pacific Division. Kopitar finished with two points.
Sam Lafferty and Brock Boeser scored and Casey DeSmith stopped 16 shots for the Canucks, who are trying to lock down their first division title since 2013.
Fiala opened the scoring 7:01 into the first as the Kings took advantage of a neutral-zone turnover and bad line change by the Canucks. Fiala took a pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois and snapped home his 24th goal of the season.
Lafferty tied it 1-1 at 12:50 of the first on a superb individual effort. Lafferty came off the side boards and drove to the net where he split the defense. He showed veteran poise by waiting for Talbot to go down and then tucked it in the corner.
The Kings then scored two quick goals late in the second period to break the 1-1 deadlock.
Lizotte made it 2-1 at 16:29. His shot from the right side ricocheted off both skates of Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy and slipped past goalie DeSmith, who was screened by Los Angeles’ Trevor Lewis.
Soon after that, Kopitar circled the net during a wild scramble in front of the net. The puck squirted loose, allowing him to tuck it into the open side with 1:40 left in the period.
Boeser rounded out the scoring with a third-period marker, but the Canucks’ late rally fell short.
–Field Level Media
