Sergeev makes 27 saves, Flames edge Kings

CALGARY --  Arsenii Sergeev made 27 saves to earn the win in his first NHL start as the Calgary Flames defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.

The Kings finished in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference and will play the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“For us, I don’t think it matters,” Kings coach D.J. Smith said. “Whoever we were going to play, we’d be the underdog and kind of coming from the back, we’re playing well. We know there’s going to be spurts where they’re going to be really, really good. But we’re going to have to look at it and manage those times. We’ve got some guys playing well here as well, so we’re going to find out.”

Los Angeles brought an eight-game point streak into the game (6-0-2) with the potential to move as high as second place in the Pacific Division. But wins by the Anaheim Ducks (5-4 against the Nashville Predators) and Edmonton Oilers (6-1 against the Vancouver Canucks) locked them into the second wild card regardless of their result against the Flames.

“Last month of the season’s probably been the best month for this team,” said Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who played in his final regular season game. “You’re carrying maybe the most momentum you’ve had all year into the postseason at the right time.

“Now this is a whole different animal. The intensity ramps up, everything ramps up. Every mistake, every little play magnifies now and we’re going to have to go out there and compete and just work our asses off.”

Morgan Frost, Zayne Parekh and Joel Farabee scored for the Flames (34-39-9), and Zach Whitecloud had two assists. Sergeev was recalled from Calgary of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis with Devin Cooley unavailable due to illness.

“I mean, it’s living the dream,” said Sergeev. “It’s everything I dream about. I’m so excited. I don’t have words right now. I’m just overemotional.”

Quinton Byfield scored his fourth goal in the past three games for the Kings (35-27-20), and Anton Forsberg made 18 saves.

Despite outshooting the Flames 10-2 in the first period, the Kings weren’t able to beat Sergeev, whose best save came at 10:23 when he reached behind to make a paddle save to stop a shot by Trevor Moore.

“You kind of had a feeling that he was going to have a good night tonight,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said of Sergeev’s debut. “He showed up this morning really not knowing what was going on or what was happening and he went from maybe you might skate this morning to maybe you might back up to you’re going to start. Pretty excited young man and I think he did a great job.”

Frost scored his team-leading 22nd goal of the season to put the Flames up 1-0 at 5:21 of the second period. Situated to the left of the net, Frost swatted a cross-ice pass from Matvei Gridin out of the air and past Forsberg for a power-play goal.

Byfield replied for Los Angeles 1:22 later at 6:43 to pull the Kings into a 1-1 tie. Byfield finished off a three-way passing play with Alex Laferriere and Moore, tapping a pass from Moore past Sergeev from the top of the crease.

“He’s just playing confident, he’s playing loose,” Smith said of Byfield. “He’s making plays. I think this is the player that I, myself, envisioned him always being. I think (what) a lot of people don’t understand with ‘Q’ is he learned the game the right way, playing under ‘Kopi’ and all these other centers that were ahead of him when he got here.”

Parekh scored the go-ahead goal at 6:08 of the third period when he snapped a shot from the left circle into the top corner over Forsberg’s left shoulder.

“I was in shock a little bit that I did that,” Parekh said. “We’ve got a lot of character in this room. It’s tough. You never come into these games not giving your best effort and putting your best foot forward. At the end of the day, guys jobs are on the line. You’ve got to show your best.”

Farabee scored his 20th goal of the season into an empty net at 19:20 of the third period for the 3-1 final.

“You have a good group of people and they want to see teammates have success and that’s a milestone for a lot of guys is to get 20 goals in the NHL is a pretty good thing,” Huska said.

NOTES: Kopitar finished his regular-season career with 452 goals and 864 assists for 1,316 points in 1,520 career NHL games. It’s the seventh-most career points by a born and trained European player. The only players with more points are Jaromir Jagr (1,921), Alex Ovechkin (1,687), Teemu Selanne (1,457), Evgeni Malkin (1,407), Jari Kurri (1,398) and Mats Sundin (1,349).