Korbinian Holzer scored his first NHL goal in more than two years, and rookie Sam Steel also tallied as the Anaheim Ducks concluded a disappointing season with a 5-2 home-ice victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.
John Gibson made 44 saves -- 20 of them in the third period -- for Anaheim.
While the 30 other teams will play on Saturday, the Ducks (35-37-10, 80 points) are the first club to finish their campaign. Anaheim will miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2011-12.
The Kings (30-42-9, 69 points) will finish at the bottom of the Western Conference. They conclude their campaign Saturday against the visiting Vegas Golden Knights.
This marks the first time since 2003-04 that both the Kings and Ducks failed to make the playoffs in the same season and only the second time since 1996-97.
Los Angeles forward Michael Amadio opened the scoring with a rebound tally at 11:51 of the opening period, his sixth goal of the season, but the Ducks regrouped and ran away with the one-sided win.
Carter Rowney drew the hosts even a couple of minutes later when he buried a loose puck that came to him in the slot, and then Holzer finally turned on a red light in the NHL midway through the game.
Playing only his 39th NHL game since his last goal came April 2, 2017, against the Calgary Flames, Holzer pinched from his point position and took a crossing pass from Max Jones that he one-timed home and celebrated robustly.
After Daniel Sprong buried a shot late in the second period, Steel scored his fifth goal in as many games 8:34 into the third period to make it 4-1.
Los Angeles' Carl Grundstrom and Anaheim's Jakob Silfverberg traded late goals to round out the scoring. Silfverberg's empty-net tally during a two-point game gave him a career-best 24 goals.
Jones and Cam Fowler both collected two assists in the win.
Jack Campbell stopped 28 shots for the Kings.
--Field Level Media
Los Angeles | Anaheim | |
Michael Amadio 1 | Points | Jakob Silfverberg 2 |
Michael Amadio 1 | Goals | Jakob Silfverberg 1 |
Matt Roy 1 | Assists | Cam Fowler 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Sam Steel 1 |
Jack Campbell .875 | Save Percentage | John Gibson .957 |
Jack Campbell 28 | Saves | John Gibson 44 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Los Angeles | 46 | 2 | 0-5 | 1-1 | 22 | 30 |
Anaheim | 33 | 5 | 0-1 | 5-5 | 30 | 22 |