{"id":598109,"date":"2026-04-12T00:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/598109\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T00:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:50:11","slug":"artemi-panarin-scores-los-angeles-kings-shut-down-edmonton-oilers-to-boost-their-playoff-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/598109\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemi Panarin scores, Los Angeles Kings shut down Edmonton Oilers to boost their playoff chances"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Anton Forsberg<\/a> made 27 saves in his third shutout of the season, and the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> greatly bolstered their playoff chances with a 1-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Artemi Panarin<\/a> scored on a first-period breakaway in the regular-season home finale for the Kings (34-26-19), who won their fourth straight game and moved three points clear of their nearest competitor for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Los Angeles is also just two points behind Vegas and Anaheim for third place in the Pacific Division.<\/p>\n

Forsberg earned his 11th career shutout while LA throttled the high-powered Oilers, who have knocked the Kings out of the playoffs in each of the past four postseasons. They also shut down NHL scoring leader Connor McDavid<\/a>, who was left visibly frustrated after being called for two minor penalties, including a key holding call with 5:33 to play.<\/p>\n

Connor Ingram<\/a> stopped 19 shots for the first-place Oilers, who failed to get the one point necessary to clinch their seventh consecutive playoff spot.<\/p>\n

This loss means Vegas and Anaheim both have the opportunity this weekend to leapfrog the two-time defending conference champions for the top spot in the Pacific Division. The Golden Knights face Colorado on Saturday night and the Ducks host Vancouver on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Edmonton played without injured forward Jason Dickinson<\/a> and lost forward Max Jones<\/a> to an undisclosed injury during the game.<\/p>\n

Forsberg might have unseated Darcy Kuemper<\/a> as the Kings\u2019 first-choice goalie for the postseason after yet another strong performance down the stretch combined with Kuemper\u2019s noticeable struggles since returning from the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The victory might have been the final home game for retiring Kings captain Anze Kopitar<\/a>, but the victory makes that much less likely.<\/p>\n

Fans still serenaded Kopitar with chants of \u201cKopi! Kopi!\u201d after the final horn.<\/p>\n

Kopitar took the microphone and teared up while he thanked the fans, saying: \u201cWe\u2019re going to do our absolute best to come home for a couple more games in the playoffs, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panarin did all of the scoring in the first period by stripping the puck from Evan Bouchard<\/a> at the Kings\u2019 blue line and skating away for a top-corner breakaway. Panarin has nine goals since joining the Kings in a trade with the Rangers.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Oilers: Host Colorado on Monday.<\/p>\n

Kings: At Seattle on Monday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nhl<\/p>\n

Greg Beacham, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Anton Forsberg made 27 saves in his third shutout of the season, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752,82],"class_list":["post-598109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}