The Kings were playing for history Thursday and the Calgary Flames were playing for pride. Pride won, with Nazem Kadri scoring twice and and Sam Morton, Zayne Parekh and Mikael Backlund also scoring to give the Flames a 5-1 win in the final game of the NHL regular season.
Taylor Ward, making his NHL debut, got the only Kings goal late in the third period, long after the outcome had been decided. The goals by Morton and Parekh also came in their first NHL games.
The loss, the Kings’ first in five games, left them with 48 wins and 105 points for the season, matching the team record in both categories.
Still, the Kings will enter their first-round playoff series with the Edmonton Oilers on Monday as the hottest team in the Western Conference, having won eight of their last 10. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played in Los Angeles on Wednesday before the series moves to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4.
The Flames, meanwhile, will miss the playoffs for the third season in a row after being eliminated earlier in the week in a shootout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. But they didn’t go quietly against the Kings, taking the lead to stay on Kadri’s first goal two minutes and 15 seconds into the second period.
Morton doubled the lead 6:05 into the third period, opening the floodgates with Kadri scoring his team-leading 35th goal less than a minute later, followed by goals from Parekh and Backlund three minutes apart.
Ward got his goal with just more than six minutes to play. It marked the first time in five games the Kings failed to score at least five goals.
The Kings rested leading scorer Adrian Kempe and regular goaltender Darcy Kuemper as well as center Phillip Danault and winger Trevor Moore, which allowed Ward to become the first son of an NHL player to play for the team. Ward’s father, Dixon, also a winger, appeared in 537 NHL games for six teams, including the Kings, between 1992-2003.
Thursday’s game was supposed to be played Jan. 8 but was postponed because of wildfires in Southern California. The Kings used the rescheduled date to honor first responders.