mammoth

There is bad news and good news to report on the Kings’ push for a fifth straight playoff berth.

First, the bad.

With a chance to move into a playoff position Saturday, the Kings came out flat and were routed 6-2 by the Utah Mammoth at Crypto.com Arena, leaving them a point out of postseason position.

It was the Kings’ most one-sided loss in more than a month, not exactly the way it wanted to start its final sprint to the postseason. And that left coach D.J. Smith with more questions than answers with nine games left in the season.

“We were not sharp in any facet of the game. It’s not good enough,” said Smith, after Utah scored two goals on the power play and three in transition.

“We’re going to ask ourselves why. Why we weren’t ready. What didn’t we do? The excuses really don’t matter. We’ve got to be way better than we were tonight.”

But wait, it gets worse.

Saturday’s game was also the first of a seven-game homestand, matching the Kings’ longest in 15 years. But that’s not the advantage it would appear to be since only the Vancouver Canucks and New York Rangers have been worse at home than the Kings this season.

“I don’t know what it is,” Smith said. “Last year we couldn’t lose here. Right now, we don’t lose very much on the road. That’s in your head. People say it’s luck. You make your own luck.

“We didn’t come ready to play today. And whether it’s our building or the road or wherever we played this game, that isn’t good enough.”

The Kings are also bucking history since 18 of their losses have come in either overtime or a shootout. Just one team — the 2012 Florida Panthers — have lost that many games after regulation and made the playoffs since the shootout was adopted 21 years ago.

Kings forward Quinton Byfield tries to shoot in front of Utah Mammoth defenseman Nate Schmidt during the second period Saturday.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

If the Kings had won just half those overtime games, they’d be a point back of the Pacific Division-leading Ducks. Instead, they appear to be going backward at the worst possible time, dropping seven of their last 10 games and nine of 14 since Smith replaced Jim Hiller behind the bench.

And suddenly there’s traffic in their rear-view mirror, with four teams bunched no more than three points behind them in the Western Conference standings.

Despite all that, the Kings took the ice against Utah with a chance to control their own playoff destiny, only to play with little urgency, falling behind for good 2½ minutes after the opening faceoff on the first of two goals by fourth-line winger Alexander Kerfoot.

Kerfoot entered with three goals on the season and nearly doubled that in two periods against the Kings. For a team with everything to play for, the Kings looked distracted and disinterested.

“I don’t know what it was,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “There’s no excuses for the way we performed.”

Now for the good news — and there is some.

Despite the loss, the Kings are still just a point out of the second wild-card berth — with two of their final six regular-season home games coming against Nashville, the team that currently owns that final playoff berth. Win those two, and the Kings are back in the driver’s seat.

“We’re still in the thick of things,” said captain Anze Kopitar, whose career ends when the Kings’ season does. “We’re not out by any means. But we’re going to have to play much better.”

Added Doughty: “Take it one [game] at a time and win every one.”

A wild-card is no longer the Kings’ only — or even clearest — path to the postseason, however. The Vegas Golden Knights, the team directly ahead of the Kings in the Pacific Division standings, have lost six of their last 10, whittling their lead to four points over the Kings in the battle for the division’s third and final postseason berth.

Pass them and the Kings will likely face the Edmonton Oilers — again — in the first round of the playoffs. The opportunities are there for the taking. But the Kings need to play like they want them.

“We’ve got three days to figure it out, and then we’ve got nine games [left],” Smith said. “We’re going to turn the page and find a way to be better for the next one. It’s got to be a playoff mentality.

“You can’t dwell on it. You’ve got to move on. But you’ve got to get better and you have to learn from why we lost the way we lost tonight.”

SALT LAKE CITY — Nick Schmaltz scored his second goal of the game at 1:46 of overtime to give the Utah Mammoth a 4-3 victory over the Kings on Sunday night.

Schmaltz carried the puck in on a two-on-one rush with defenseman Mikhail Sergachev on his left and fired a snap shot between goalie Darcy Kuemper‘s legs.

After the Kings controlled play in the three-on-three overtime and nearly ended it on Alex Laferriere’s shot that went off the right post, Kevin Stenlund won a faceoff against Quinton Byfield to set up Schmaltz’s seventh winning goal of the season.

Artemi Panarin tied it for the Kings with 3:30 left in regulation with his 25th goal of the season. His shot from deep on the far right side eluded goalie Karel Vejmelka.

Schmaltz pushed his career-high goals total to 26 and reached 63 points to match his career high set in 2024-25. Lawson Crouse scored twice in the first period and added an assist, and Vejmelka made 33 saves to help Utah end a four-game home losing streak. The Mammoth hold the first wild card in the Western Conference, five points ahead of Nashville.

Byfield had a goal and an assist, and Laferriere also scored for the Kings. Kuemper stopped 30 shots.

The Kings are two points behind Nashville for the final wild-card spot.

Alex Killorn broke a tie off a scramble at 9:09 of the second period, Lukas Dostal stopped 29 shots and the Ducks beat the Utah Mammoth 4-1 on Friday night to pad their Pacific Division lead.

After the puck was cleared off the goal line behind goalie Vitek Vanecek, the Ducks’ Beckett Sennecke ended up with it on the left side and slipped a pass to Killorn for a shot before Vanecek was set. Killorn also had two assists.

Ryan Poehling, Cutter Gauthier and Mikael Granlund also scored to help the Ducks — playing without suspended defenseman Radko Gudas — rebound from a 3-2 overtime loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday night at home. They moved three points ahead of Edmonton in the division.

Gudas served the fourth game of a five-game suspension for kneeing Auston Matthews in a loss at Toronto on March 12. Matthews tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee and will miss the rest of the season.

Poehling tied it with 6:23 left in the first, beating Vanecek with a nifty move on a shorthanded break. Poehling took a pass from Killorn, sped down the left side, cut right and shot against the grain to the left.

The Ducks (38-27-4) put it away with two empty-net goals, with Gauthier scoring his 36th goal on the first.

Dylan Guenther scored his 34th goal of the season for Utah — at 1:48 of the first of the Mammoth’s second shot on goal.

Utah remained six points ahead of the Kings for the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

The Mammoth (36-28-6) opened a four-game homestand. They had won two straight on the road, beating Dallas 6-3 on Monday night to snap a four-game losing streak and topping Vegas 4-0 Thursday night.

Up next for the Ducks: vs. Buffalo at Honda Center on Sunday.