Kings move into 8th by beating Sharks 5-2

The stakes were raised for the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks roughly midway through their game Tuesday night. Three-point games between Phoenix-Dallas and Calgary-Colorado meant that whoever won would take sole possession of eighth place in the Western Conference -- and whoever lost would lose precious ground to everybody. L.A. grabbed the ring with a 5-2 victory in front of a sellout crowd and playoff-like atmosphere at Staples Center. The Kings bumped Phoenix out of eighth because they've played one fewer game. Los Angeles is looking more and more like a playoff team, and the Kings again got contributions all around with a shorthanded goal, a power-play goal and a goal from their defense. Previously struggling Dustin Penner added a goal with 4:06 to go for insurance and Jeff Carter added an empty-net goal as L.A. won its fifth in a row. San Jose showed desperation and resiliency late but lost their second game in as many nights in the latest of an erratic six-week episode. The Sharks are 7-13-4 since Feb. 4 and lost on consecutive nights to Anaheim and the Kings after beating Nashville and Detroit. Anze Kopitar gave L.A. a 3-1 lead with a wrist shot from the high slot with 16 minutes remaining, but the Kings failed to put the game away when they didn’t score during two separate two-man advantages. San Jose came back with a tic-tac-toe play from Martin Havlat to Logan Couture to Dan Boyle, who scored high from the right side to pull the Sharks to 3-2 at 6:56 of the third. But Penner beat Antti Niemi with a wrist shot to make it a two-goal game again. L.A. had issues with San Jose’s forecheck in the first half of the second period, but the Kings weathered it and came out with a 2-1 lead and a 16-5 shot advantage. Kopitar skated behind the net and fed a pinching Alec Martinez for a one-timer that beat Niemi to the glove side at 15:49 to give the Kings a 2-1 lead. Justin Williams took a hit from Marc-Edouard Vlasic to free up Kopitar. Havlat continued to sizzle since his return from a hamstring injury, and it was an important response for the San Jose. Just 22 seconds after the Sharks gave up a shorthanded goal, Havlat carried the puck into the zone, fired from the high slot and put in his own rebound at 15:48 of the opening period for his fourth goal in three games. Mike Richards has been quiet statistically but he provided a 1-0 lead for L.A. with his third shorthanded goal this season. Willie Mitchell cleared the puck from behind his own to spring Richards on a 2-on-1 with Jeff Carter. Richards wristed a shot past Niemi at 15:26. Richards has only three goals since Christmas, and one of those is an empty-net goal. His 26 shorthanded goals since 2005-06 are the most in the NHL.