Kings already looking ahead after 4-2 victory over Ducks

There was little time for the Kings to savor their 4-2 victory over the Ducks on Saturday night, not with the congestion in the Western Conference playoff race.

Five teams are separated by five points, from seventh-place Dallas at 75 to 11th-place Calgary at 70. Realistically, there are two slots up for grabs and the Kings are three points behind the Stars and trail eighth-place San Jose by a point.

“There ain’t no weak sisters,” Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said Sunday after practice.

He was speaking about the conference race but also about the Kings’ next opponent. They are at Nashville on Tuesday, and the fifth-place Predators are on a 10-0-2 run at home.

“It’s a tough place to play,” Sutter, speaking after Saturday’s game, said of Nashville. “They haven’t lost at home since Christ was a child.”

Said Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell, joking: “I think it’s the country music scene. Since their inception in the league, they’ve always been terrific at home. Real tough team to play against, disciplined. They play their style and everyone buys in.

“The last game we played there we felt we should have won.”

The Kings lost, 2-1, at Nashville last Monday. Since then they have beaten the Minnesota Wild and the Ducks. They have not won three straight since mid-November.

Against Anaheim, goalie Jonathan Quick made 29 saves for his 26th win of the season and forward Jeff Carter scored his first two goals since joining the Kings.

Carter’s linemate, center Mike Richards, had three assists, and the third member of the line, Dwight King, added two assists. The other goals came from captain Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar, who scored an empty-netter.

The Ducks’ goals were scored by defenseman Sheldon Brookbank and rookie forward Devante Smith-Pelly. Anaheim were 0 for 4 on the power play and the Kings scored two power-play goals.

“It was some of the worst calls I’ve seen in a long time,” Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “A game of this importance, we can’t have officiating making calls like that. I mean, there’s three penalties that weren’t penalties.”

One of the power-play goals was scored by Carter, who put the Kings up, 3-1, in the second period before Smith-Pelly scored 13 seconds later to cut the Ducks’ deficit to one.

Carter had not recorded a point in his first three games after joining the Kings in the trade that sent Jack Johnson to Columbus on Feb. 23.

“I’ve always been told that if you’re getting chances, [goals are] going to come,” Carter said Saturday. “It’s something that’s always kind of stuck with me and I just kind of went with it.”

Mitchell spoke about the chemistry between Richards and Carter.

“Sometimes you have little stretches where your legs feel good, your hands feel good, everything is clicking,” Mitchell said. “Then you have stretches where as hard as you’re working and focusing, sometimes it’s not going as planned.

“With Carts, it’s been a lot of change and travel. He said he felt like it’s starting to click as far as finding his legs and his timing.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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