The Kings dropped their final game of the 2024-25 regular season on Thursday night in the rescheduled game with the Calgary Flames. Originally set to take place on January 8th, the game between the two clubs was postponed due to the LA wildfires. Now making up the game on the last night of the NHL’s regular season, the Kings fell 5-1 in a game that had no impact on the standings. With neither team suiting up their full lineup, the Kings were without Adrian Kempe, Trevor Moore and Phillip Danault, while the Flames had four players make their NHL debut’s and went without Jonathan Huberdeau, Joel Hanley, Rasmus Andersson, Connor Zary and others.
It was a relatively low event game through the first 40 minutes as just one puck found the back of the net. Coming off of the stick of Nazem Kadri, the veteran center beat David Rittich after stepping out from behind the Kings net and rifling an in-tight wrist shot past the Czech’s glove for his 34th goal of the season. The Flames led 1-0 after two periods and 18-15 in shots.
Unlike the two previous periods, it was a goal-filled final period of the regular season. With five goals in total coming in the final 20 minutes, it was the visitors who had the upper hand on this occasion. Pushing the lead from one-goal game to a four-goal game in the span of 2:19, two Flames players earned their first’s while Kadri extended his career high in goals to 35. First making it a 2-0 game, the undrafted 25-year-old Sam Morton netted his first career goal on nifty tic-tac-toe play entering the Kings zone. Just over one minute later, Kadri connected on a one-timer on a 2-on-1 after crushing a pass from Dryden Hunt to push the lead to 3-0. Less than one minute after that, the 2024 ninth overall draft pick Zayne Parekh tipped in his first career goal in his NHL debut. Parekh, a defenseman, found himself in the high slot after sustained zone time and redirected a Mikael Backlund point shot to make it a 4-0 game with 11:36 remaining. The Flames added a fifth goal just past the halfway mark of the period and it was Backlund beating Rittich with a wrist shot on the high glove side. Now trailing 5-0 with 6:11 to go in the game, the Kings earned themselves a power play. Putting out five players who all worked their way up from the Ontario Reign, Brandt Clarke fed Jordan Spence for a one-timer and Taylor Ward, who was making his NHL debut banged in the loose rebound. Ward, who made franchise history on Thursday by becoming half of the first father-son duo (Dixon Ward) in Kings history to play for the organization also became the father-son duo to each score a goal for the Kings. The Kings eventually fell 5-1 and close out the regular season with a 48-25-9, tying the franchise record in wins and points.
Rittich stopped 24 of 29 shots.
