Kevin Fiala leads playoff-bound LA Kings’ 6-1 rout of Anaheim Ducks in the Freeway Faceoff

LOS ANGELES AP Kevin Fiala scored two of Los Angeles three power-play goals and captain Anze Kopitar and Quinton Byfield had a goal and an assist apiece in the Kings - preeminence over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night Alex Laferriere and Jordan Spence also scored for the playoff-bound Kings who have won five of six after dominating the final Freeway Faceoff of the season Second-place Los Angeles is four points ahead of third-place Edmonton with four games left in the race for home ice in what will perhaps be the fourth consecutive first-round meeting for the Pacific Division clubs Andrei Kuzmenko and Adrian Kempe had three assists apiece and Darcy Kuemper made saves Cutter Gauthier scored his fifth goal in three games for the Ducks who are wrapping up their seventh consecutive non-playoff season the longest drought in either Southern California organization s history Lukas Dostal stopped shots Byfield scored his st goal just seconds after the opening faceoff Gauthier got the th goal of his promising rookie season early in the second but Kopitar put Los Angeles back ahead three minutes later with his own th goal Takeaways Ducks Gauthier and Carlsson have been a formidable duo late in another lost Ducks season The -year-old Carlsson set up four of the -year-old Gauthier s five goals in his current surge Kings Anaheim is a poor penalty-killing club but LA s normally dismal power play which began the night in a four-game -for- drought hadn t scored thrice in a tournament since Oct Key moment Kopitar scored seconds after Gauthier s goal reaching goals for the th time in his career Key stat Fiala has goals after his sixth multi-goal challenge of the season Kempe has goals for Los Angeles which hadn t had two -goal scorers since Up next The Avalanche visit the Kings on Saturday and the Ducks on Sunday AP NHL https apnews com NHL Source