Ducks Win Fifth Straight Pacific Title, Beating Kings In OT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Nate Thompson scored his first goal of the season to tie it with 8:26 to play and Shea Theodore won it in overtime, helping the Anaheim Ducks clinch their fifth consecutive Pacific Division title with a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night.

Theodore scored on a breakaway to end the Freeway Faceoff, but the Ducks (46-23-13) had already locked up a first-round playoff date with the Calgary Flames by earning a point in their 14th consecutive game down the stretch (11-0-3).

Patrick Eaves and Antoine Vermette also scored and Jonathan Bernier stopped 15 shots as the Ducks held off Edmonton for the top spot in the Pacific.

Dustin Brown scored a tiebreaking goal with 12:05 left for the Kings, who missed the playoffs for the second time in three years.

Kyle Clifford and Drew Doughty also scored for the Kings.

The Ducks are the first NHL team to win five straight division titles since the Vancouver Canucks claimed the last five Northwest Division crowns from 2009-13. Anaheim is just the seventh team to win at least five straight in NHL history.

After Clifford evened it with a tipped shot late in second period, Brown tipped a shot by Jarome Iginla through a screen to beat Bernier. The Oilers needed to beat Vancouver while the Ducks lost in regulation to win their first division title since 1987.

But the Ducks pressed for an equalizer, and Thompson tipped a shot by Brandon Montour just enough to send it trickling underneath Jonathan Quick.

Quick made 20 saves for the Kings, who haven't won a playoff round since winning their second Stanley Cup in 2014. They were eliminated with several games to play this spring despite acquiring Ben Bishop and Iginla near the deadline.

A "Go Kings Go!" chant had just started at Honda Center when Eaves beat Quick with a wrist shot 27 seconds after the opening faceoff for his 11th goal in 20 games since Anaheim acquired him from Dallas.

Eaves left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury.

Clifford tied it late in the second period, snapping his 30-game goal drought.

The game was the finale in the 44-year career of Kings broadcaster Bob Miller, who received a standing ovation that lasted the length of the first commercial break during the first period. Essentially all Southern California hockey fans grew up listening to Miller, who acknowledged the cheers with waves.

NOTES: Ducks LW Nick Ritchie served the first game of his two-game suspension for punching Chicago's Michal Rozsival on Thursday. Ritchie also will miss the playoff opener. ... Ducks D Hampus Lindholm returned from a three-game absence with an upper-body injury. ... Ryan Getzlaf had three assists and finished with 73 points to become the Ducks' leading scorer for the fifth consecutive season, while Anze Kopitar's nine-year reign as the Kings' leading scorer ended. The Slovenian center managed just 52 points in the lowest-scoring full season of his 11-year NHL career.

UP NEXT

Kings: Season is over.

Ducks: Host Flames in Game 1 of the first round.