LOS ANGELES — Pierre-Luc Dubois and Matt Roy ended long goal droughts as Los Angeles Kings stunned the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 to extend home winning streak to eight consecutive games.
Brady Tkachuk had two goals and an assist, Drake Batherson scored the only goal in the shootout as the Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-4.
Kevin Fiala also scored for the Kings, who have won five of their last six, and David Rittich stopped 28 shots.
They have a three-point lead over Vegas with two games remaining in the regular season. The Golden Knights hold the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Los Angeles and Vegas have clinched playoff spots, but seeding is still up for grabs in the final days of the regular season.
“We want to play well,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said according to AP. “You can play well and not win in this league that happens a lot of different nights. So we want to play well, and we´ll take the wins.”
The Kings extended their home winning streak to eight games, their longest run since 2010-11. They are 13-2-1 on home ice since Hiller took over from Todd McLellan on Feb. 2. That is the second-best mark in the league since the all-star break.
“I´m not sure, to be honest. I wish I had the answer to that one. To be good at home, especially at the end, it brings confidence in us,” said Dubois, who found the net for the first time in 14 games.
Shane Pinto and Thomas Chabot also scored for Ottawa, which swept the season series against the Canadiens 3-0 and extended its winning streak against Montreal to nine games. Joonas Korpisalo made 21 saves for Ottawa.
Cole Caufield had two goals for Montreal, while Mike Matheson and Alex Newhook also scored. Cayden Primeau stopped 40 shots.
Tkachuk set a career high in goals with 37 but with the Senators long out of playoff contention, he didn’t feel like celebrating.
“I mean, in the grand scheme of things it doesn´t really mean much,” said Tkachuk. “Like I said this morning, it wasn´t about individual goals this year it was more team goals and unfortunately we didn´t hit them and I think there´s a lot of lessons to be learned this year.”
It was bittersweet for Senators interim coach Jacques Martin, who coached his final game at Canadian Tire Centre as he will not be behind the Ottawa bench next season.
“It´s been great,” Martin said. “I enjoyed the opportunity to come back and hopefully help the team understand what it takes to be in the playoffs, how you need to play on a nightly basis, help the players grow and maybe get better.
“As an organization I think we have some work to do, but I think we´re headed in the right direction.”
With the game tied 3-3 Newhook put a shot on net that deflected in off Ottawa´s Jakob Chychrun to put Montreal up 4-3 with 4:11 left in regulation. But with Korpisalo on the bench Chabot tied the game at 4-all with 1:05 remaining.
“The fact that we´ve been in so many (close games) this year, those are reps you can´t buy,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis.
“They´re real reps. Sometimes you´re up protecting a lead, you´re trying to crawl back, you´re trying to get back in the game.
“Obviously, the overtimes and the shootouts, they are what they are, but I think as we keep progressing, we´ll find ourselves on the other side of them.”
Tkachuk tied the game, 3-3, with his second power-play goal of the game 47 seconds into the third period.
Montreal took a 2-1 lead 1:37 into the second period when Caufield slid the puck under a sprawled out Korpisalo.
Ottawa cut the lead back to one with a power-play goal at 8:36. Claude Giroux dropped a pass back to Pinto who snapped a shot from the slot. Caufield replied with a power-play goal to put the Canadiens up 3-2.
Montreal opened the scoring with a short-handed goal in the first period when Matheson broke in alone and beat Korpisalo stick side.
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