Kings defeat Canucks, move back into 2nd wild card in West

LOS ANGELES -- Adrian Kempe scored twice, and the Los Angeles Kings moved back into the second wild card from the Western Conference with a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday.

“I think everyone knows what’s on the line,” Kempe said. “Just kind of digging in more. Details are a lot better than maybe earlier in the year. ... But, yeah, we’re playing solid.”

Joel Armia and Trevor Moore also scored, Artemi Panarin had two assists, and Anton Forsberg made 24 saves for the Kings (33-26-19), who have won three in a row and are 4-0-1 in their past five games.

“It’s exciting,” Kings defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “Just one game at a time, and hopefully we keep getting two points.”

Los Angeles moved one point ahead of the Nashville Predators, who lost 4-1 at the Utah Mammoth on Thursday and have played one more game. The Kings would lose the tiebreaker to the Predators if it came down to that.

“I mean, at the end of the day, you just got to get the job done.” Los Angeles interim coach D.J. Smith said. “Whether you’re chasing or not chasing or you’re up, you just got to find ways to win games. And right now, we’re finding ways to win games.”

Marcus Pettersson scored, and Nikita Tolopilo made 22 saves for the Canucks (22-48-8), who have lost four straight and 10 of their past 11.

“They keep grinding, they keep fighting,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said. “That’s a big, big heavy team, and we kept going at them, and we controlled the second period.”

The Kings took a 1-0 lead 1:29 into the first period. Brandt Clarke skated the puck around the net before finding Kempe in the low slot for a one-timer that beat Tolopilo five-hole.

“That’s something that we’ve been talking about maybe over the last couple of weeks, we haven’t had as good of starts, but I think last game against Nashville (a 3-2 shootout win on Monday) was really good. I think tonight was good as well, and obviously it’s nice when you get rewarded with a goal,” Kempe said. “I was wide-open in the slot, so it was nice to get the start going.”

Pettersson tied it 1-1 at 14:17 when his slap shot from above the left circle deflected in off Brian Dumoulin’s skate as the defenseman battled with Marco Rossi in the crease.

Armia put Los Angeles back up 2-1 at 15:48. Jared Wright forced a turnover in the neutral zone that was collected by Scott Laughton, who then dropped the puck back to Armia for a wrist shot from the high slot.

“I think (Tolopilo) would have wanted that one back, I think,” Foote said. “It was 1-1, and they get the next one and we got frustrated.”

Kempe extended the lead to 3-1 at 19:31 of the second period. He positioned himself on the inside hash marks of the right circle and redirected Edmundson’s slap shot from the right point.

“It was big,” Kempe said. “Obviously, going into the third with a two-goal lead instead of one is a bit of a difference, but I think, yeah, the momentum changes a lot quickly there.”

Kempe has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in his past seven games, including eight points (six goals, two assists) in his past four.

Panarin has seven points (one goal, six assists) during the Kings’ five-game point streak and 25 points (eight goals, 17 assists) in 22 games since being acquired from the New York Rangers on Feb. 4.

“Well, they’re big boy players, and the League is run by the big boys,” Smith said. “You look at the best teams in the League, they all have stars and they all have guys that make plays at big times, and right now that line is doing that.”

Moore made it 4-1 at 9:15 of the third period. Alex Laferriere’s shot from the blue line was first redirected by Canucks defenseman Elias Pettersson in an effort to break up the play before Moore got a touch on it.

“Throughout the season you’ll see teams kind of lower their standard going into games like this,” Edmundson said. “Vancouver, they beat Colorado not long ago (8-6 on April 1), and they’ve been playing good hockey. They got young guys that are trying to make an impression, and you know, it’s a huge game for us, so we have to approach every game like a playoff game right now.”

NOTES: Kempe has 71 points (34 goals, 37 assists) in 77 games this season. He is the eighth player in Kings history to have at least 70 points in three straight seasons. ... Edmundson reached 20 assists for the first time in his 11 NHL seasons.