Kings hold on, win fourth in a row THE SCORE
KINGS 3, CANUCKS 2 Kings at Oilers, Thursday, 6 p.m., BSW
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA >> Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist to help the Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Monday night for their fourth straight win.
Blake Lizotte and Kevin Fiala also scored for the Kings, and Cam Talbot finished with 21 saves.
Brock Boeser and Sam Lafferty had goals for Vancouver, which snapped a three-game win streak. Casey DeSmith had 16 saves.
The Canucks had a chance to become the first team to clinch a playoff berth. However, they remained one point ahead of Colorado and Dallas for the top spot in the Western Conference standings.
Trailing 3-1, the Canucks pulled DeSmith in favor of an extra skater with just over 4 1/2 minutes remaining. The move paid off when Boeser's shot from the top of the right faceoff circle hit Kopitar's skate and deflected in past Talbot, pulling Vancouver within one with 2:54 left.
Boeser leads Vancouver with 37 goals on the season.
Canucks coach Rick
Tocchet called a 30-second timeout with less than a minute to go. With DeSmith once again out of the net, Vancouver pressed for the tying goal. The Canucks got a prime opportunity when the Kings' Drew Doughty was sent to the box for tripping with 21 seconds to go, but they couldn't bury a final shot during the stretch of 6-on-4 play.
The Kings took a 3-1 advantage late in the second, scoring twice in less than two minutes.
Lizotte put Los Angeles ahead 2-1 with 3:31 to go on a delayed penalty after Vancouver's Carson Soucy was clocked for tripping. With six skaters on the ice, Lizotte fired a one-timer that hit Canucks defenseman Ian Cole at the side of the net before pinging off Soucy's skates on the way in past DeSmith.
Kopitar got his 40th assist of the season on the play and has multiple points in four straight
Up next: games, with four goals and five assists across the stretch.
Kopitar scored his 24th of the season with 1:40 to go in the period as DeSmith got a piece of the veteran forward's long blast but couldn't hang on to the puck, which fell to the crease. Kopitar came around the back of the net and tapped it in to give the Kings a two-goal cushion.
The Kings went 0 for 2 on the power play while the Canucks were 0 for 1.