VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Kings can officially wash their hands of the regular season and begin focusing on the playoffs.
Brock Boeser scored his second goal of the game with 29.7 seconds left in overtime and the Vancouver Canucks handed the Kings a 3-2 defeat on Thursday night.
Kings forward Dustin Brown wore the “C” on his jersey that is usually reserved for Anze Kopitar after announcing earlier on Thursday that he will retire at the end of the Kings’ playoff run, and the team delivered a spirited effort despite a lack of incentive with their playoff matchup already locked in place.
“I think it’s appropriate, a long-serving guy who lifted the cup wearing the ‘C’,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said of the decision. “Tip of the hat to Anze for thinking of that, executing it and making it happen. That wasn’t management-driven or coach-driven, that just goes to show how tight those individuals are and what they mean to each other. A very honorable thing.”
The Kings (44-27-11) dominated for much of the game, taking a 2-0 lead into the third period on goals by Adrian Kempe and Gabriel Vilardi.
The Canucks (40-30-11) rallied in the third with goals by Boeser and Alex Chiasson.
Vancouver, playing its final home game of the season, got a 33-save effort from Spencer Martin. The Kings’ Cal Petersen had 26 saves.
Vancouver pressed in the dying seconds of overtime, throwing several shots at Petersen before Boeser took a rebound at the top of the crease and fired it in for his 23rd goal of the season.
Martin made a pair of dazzling saves about two minutes into overtime, first stymying Blake Lizotte on a two-on-one, then scooping up a backhanded shot from Andreas Athanasiou moments later.
Chiasson scored the equalizer for the Canucks 14:31 into the final period, backhanding a bouncing rebound from a Quinn Hughes shot. The puck appeared to hit the stick of defenseman Troy Stecher before sailing up and over Petersen into the back of the net.
A power-play goal got the Canucks on the board after Carl Grundstrom was called for hooking midway through the third.
Boeser fired a one-timer from the top of the slot 6:52 into the frame, cutting the deficit to 2-1. Elias Pettersson registered an assist on the play for his career-best 67th point of the season.
“The third period, I think we had already moved on to Edmonton,” McLellan said. “We didn’t play a real good third period, back-to-back games, made sure everybody got an opportunity to experience a tight game in different situations. I really think our minds were moving forward. We did check well early in the game, the first two periods, but the third wasn’t particularly well-played on our behalf.”
After more than 35 minutes of scoreless hockey, the Kings took control late in the second period. Vilardi opened the scoring 15:08 into the second with a shot from above the faceoff circle that sailed through traffic and beat Martin on his glove side.
Kempe pushed the lead to 2-0 when he beat defenseman Travis Dermott in a race to the Vancouver net and slid a shot under Martin’s pad. The goal was Kempe’s 35th of the season.
Boeser nearly evened the score moments earlier off a two-on-one.
Elias Pettersson and Boeser sprinted into the L.A. zone with Pettersson controlling the puck. He slipped a pass to Boeser across the slot and the right wing unleashed a quick wrist shot from in close. Petersen dove across the crease and got his blocker in the puck’s path just in time.
The Kings dominated the game even before finding the back of the net, outshooting Vancouver 23-8 halfway through the second period.
Martin kept Vancouver in the game with a series of solid saves, even after he lost his stick for an extended period. The stick was knocked out of his hand midway through the second when a blast from Athanasiou went off the shaft, sending the stick flying into the corner. The Canucks goalie also weathered six minutes of penalty time in the first.
McLellan spent plenty of his post-game press conference praising Brown, who will have a retirement press conference on Friday in El Segundo.
“He had made his mind up I think a while ago but didn’t want to disrupt our run to the potential playoffs. Once we were in, it was game day, so everything was rushed a little bit,” he said of Thursday’s midday announcement. “He deserves more than a day and he’ll get more than a day.
“An unreal human being and not just the hockey part, there’s so much more to Dustin Brown than just skates, sticks, shots and (Stanley) Cups. Watching him behave around the rink as a father, leadership skills in the locker room, husband, all of those things are very high quality. The Kings, L.A., hockey in general, are all lucky to have him for as many years as he had.”
Brown’s pending retirement could also provide added incentive for a franchise that is back in the playoffs for the first time since being swept by Vegas, 4-0, in the first round in 2018.
“It gives us something to rally behind and they can grab onto it,” McLellan said. “There’s a story behind teams that go on runs, there’s a motivating element to it and maybe we’ve found ours before we even start. I know the group will want to play for him and with him and we’ll see where the journey takes us.”
The Canucks improved to 32-15-9 under Coach Bruce Boudreau, the former Ducks coach who was hired after the team got off to a miserable start this season.
“I just haven’t seen any quit in them,” Boudreau said. “I mean, we’ve had a couple of bad games where we’ve had goals scored on us in the first period, and we haven’t looked very good, but those have been few and far between.
“This is a group of men that just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and eventually – it’s not going to be this year but in the very near future – they’re gonna push through and have a great season.”
UP NEXT
The Kings’ regular season is over. They next face Edmonton in a best-of-seven first-round series that will begin next week.
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