The LA Kings are looking to secure home-ice in the first round of the NHL playoffs and entering Thursday's game against the Anaheim Ducks the magic number was only six. That number has now dropped to four after an impressive 6-1 win over the Ducks.
These are some of the top takeaways from that game.
Power play proves to be the difference for the LA Kings
The LA Kings have struggled on their power play for almost the entire season, outside of a brief improvement last month after the addition of Andrei Kuzmenko. On Thursday, the power play was the story but for a good reason as they converted on three of their six opportunities.
With Drew Doughty sitting the game out, the Kings elected to go with five forwards on their first power play opportunity and the decision immediately paid dividends. They were able to control the puck and moved it around until it got down to Andrei Kuzmenko in the corner.
Kuzmenko was able to make a move before finding Quinton Byfield in the slot who didn't miss the one-timer and gave the Kings a 1-0 lead.
The Kings stuck with this five forward look for most of the game as Brandt Clarke was the only notable defenseman who saw time on the power play at 1:13.
The other two power play goals were both by Kevin Fiala who leads the Kings in the category with 12 on the season, which is a career high for him.
Andrei Kuzmenko ties career-high in assists in a single game
Andrei Kuzmenko has been a great addition to the Los Angeles Kings as he has almost seamlessly fit into the top line alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe but also has made an impact on the power play. In the game against the Ducks, he would tie his career-high in assists with three in the game and two of them came on the power play.
In the past 11 games, Kuzmenko now has 14 points with five goals and nine assists with a +/- of +8. If he remains in the positive, it will only be the second time in his career he has accomplished that and is close to tying his career high of +9, which he set as a rookie.
The Kings are going to have to make a decision about whether or not to re-sign Andrei Kuzmenko and with the way he has played and how he has fit in this offense, it feels like a no-brainer to get a deal done.
Darcy Kuemper extends his streak to 15 games
It was another impressive performance by Darcy Kuemper as he allowed only one goal against the Ducks on 29 shots. He has now gone 15 straight games allowing two or fewer games and it is the second-longest streak in NHL history since the 1959-60 season.
This recent stretch of games has solidified himself as a Vezina Trophy finalist and he is now second in the league in goals against per game at 2.01 and save percentage at .922%. The performance of Darcy Kuemper has been one of the best stories for the LA Kings and one of the reasons they are in the position they are to secure home ice in the playoffs.