Kings beat Flames 4-1 to clinch spot in NHL playoffs
The Los Angeles Kings clinched a playoff spot by looking like a playoff team as they hosted the Calgary Flames on Thursday night. The Kings were in control for much of the 4-1 contest on the west coast.
Smothering was one way to describe the Kings effort as they kept the Flames off the scoreboard until nearly halfway through the third period. There was no spoiler role in store for the Flames on this night.
But at least they found ways to smile.
One play in particular had Jonathan Huberdeau sharing a laugh with one of the officials just before the Kings opened the scoring on the powerplay in the first period.
Defenceman Daniil Miromanov dropped his broken stick as a flying puck came his way and he basically gave it the Jason Kelce long snap between the legs back to a teammate on the other side of the rink. It wasn’t quite as funny when Kevin Fiala scored on the ensuing man-advantage.
Viktor Arvidsson scored in the opening minute of the second period, and rookie Akil Thomas’s tip-in made it 3-0 Kings heading into the third period.
Huberdeau was smiling again after he deflected Miromanov’s shot past Kings goalie Cam Talbot, but the two-goal deficit was as close as the Calgary Flames would come.
They pulled their own netminder, Jacob Markstrom, with lots of time left, but Arvidsson scored his second of the night into an empty cage with just over three minutes in regulation.
Outside of a bit of a back and forth first period, it was pretty much all Kings.
The Flames wrap up their three-game California road trip on Friday against the Anaheim Ducks.
