Kings lose to Canucks in OT, still gain on 3rd in Pacific

VANCOUVER -- The Los Angeles Kings gained ground on third place in the Pacific Division despite losing 4-3 in overtime to the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.

Jake DeBrusk won it with his second goal of the game at 2:58 of overtime for Vancouver. He choked up on his stick to convert a backdoor pass at the right post from center Elias Pettersson, who had two assists.

The Kings are 13-20 in games that go past regulation this season.

“The good thing is we only got one more game where we're going to deal with these 3-on-3 overtimes,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “We get to overtime (in the Stanley Cup Playoffs), you're going to play 5-on-5, and we're going to find out.”

Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere each had a goal and an assist for the Kings (35-26-20), who were playing the second half of a back-to-back after clinching a playoff spot with a 5-3 win at the Seattle Kraken on Monday. Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves.

Los Angeles, which is 6-0-2 in the month of April, moved into a tie in points (90) for third in the Pacific with the Anaheim Ducks, who lost 3-2 at the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. The Ducks own the regulation wins tiebreaker with the Kings (25-22).

Laferriere said he didn’t think the team had a letdown against Vancouver after the emotional win in Seattle, in part because they can still finish as high as second in the Pacific and gain home-ice advantage in the Western Conference First Round, or as low as the second wild card and face the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.  

“We know how important all these games are,” Laferriere said. “We know we can pass anybody in the standings on any given night. It was a sense of relief for us to know that we clinched, but we knew that we still wanted to push and get as high up in the standings as we could.

“In times like this, you got to kind of focus and lean on your leaders, and Drew (Doughty) and (Anze Kopitar) are those guys for us, and they're telling us how it feels like 2012 in here, and how they were stringing together some games at the end of the season and crept in and then they went on to win the Cup. So, for us right now it's about continuing to trend positively with our game and kind of stringing those along and just trying not to take any huge dips, and I think we're going to be in a good spot going into Game 1.”

Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves for the last-place Canucks (25-48-8), who have won three in a row for the third time all season, and the first since winning four in a row from Dec. 14-20.

“It’s not a fluke what happened these last three games,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said. “These teams are pushing. They all wanted to beat us because of their own destinies. We’re doing things right. We’re playing as a team. They’re sticking to the game plan.”

Vancouver, which hadn’t won at home since March 17, finished the season 9-27-5 at Rogers Arena, their worst home record in team history.

“It's been a tough go, especially for the fans,” DeBrusk said. “The biggest thing I've noticed is how the seats are still pretty much packed, and it's a good crowd every single night. ... So, it was nice to get that one and hear the crowd for one last time this year.”

Defenseman Elias Pettersson put the Canucks ahead 1-0 at 9:21 of the first period with a shot from the top of the left circle that went under the blocker of a screened Kuemper.

Byfield tied it 1-1 at 17:15. He got behind Canucks forward Brock Boeser on a 2-on-2 rush and redirected a cross-ice pass from Laferriere past the extended right pad of Lankinen.

Byfield has scored in five straight road games (seven goals).

DeBrusk scored a power-play goal from the edge of the crease 52 seconds into the second period to put Vancouver back in front 2-1.

Adrian Kempe responded just 12 seconds later to tie it 2-2. The Kings cycled the puck behind the net up to Kopitar at the left face-off dot, from where he spotted Kempe alone at the right post for a backdoor tap-in.

Kempe has 10 goals in his past nine games.

“You got that line and then you got [Byfield’s] line that's scoring every night, too,” Smith said. “For a team that wasn't scoring a ton, we're scoring, and we're going to need that to continue in the playoffs. Obviously, it's going to get way tighter and chances are going to be hard to come by, but it's going to be fun.”

Laferriere put Los Angeles ahead 3-2 at 2:17. His initial redirection of Doughty's point shot was stopped by Lankinen, but Laferriere collected his own rebound and slid a backhand past the right pad of the goaltender.

Zeev Buium tied it 3-3 at 9:20 of the second on a pretty give-and-go play. He sent a feed down low to Nils Hoglander from the top of the right circle, skated down into the low slot, and buried the return pass into an open net. It was his first goal since Jan. 23 (25 games).

“I’m proud of them,” Foote said. “They’re grinding. That’s a big, heavy team.”

NOTES: Kopitar’s assist was his 864th, which is the 11th-most in NHL history by a player with a single franchise, and the third-most among active players behind Sidney Crosby (1,107) and Evgeni Malkin (874) of the Pittsburgh Penguins. ... DeBrusk has scored 19 of his 23 goals on the power play this season, which is tied with Tony Tanti (1983-84) for the fifth-most in a single season in team history.