Kings falter in the third period in a 5-2 loss to the Sharks

Now there are six games remaining for the Kings to reclaim their form and try to summon their championship pedigree.

Or, quite simply, get their act together, as Kings forward Jeff Carter said the other day, only in far more interesting fashion.

Others may be using other words after the Kings lost for the fourth time in their last five games. On a night in which the San Jose Sharks clinched a playoff spot, beating the Kings, 5-2, on Monday, the Kings continued their recent run of substandard third periods.

They gave up three consecutive goals to the Sharks, starting with Joe Thornton’s game winner, at 4 minutes 28 seconds of the third period on a power play with Carter off for hooking.

In their last three games, the Kings have been outscored, 8-1, in the third period.

They were able to get away with it Saturday against the draft-lottery-bound Edmonton Oilers.

But not at SAP Center against the likes of Thornton and Joe Pavelski, who scored once and assisted on the game winner.

Kings center Vinny Lecavalier, who bounced back from a rough go against Edmonton, scored twice for his ninth and 10th goals of the season. It was the 50th time Lecavalier has had a multiple-goal performance in his long career.

Earlier in the day, the Los Angeles chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Assn. announced that Lecavalier is the Kings’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy given each season in recognition for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

“I think we still should have won the game,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “I don’t know if we necessarily outplayed them, but we had so many opportunities to get that go-ahead goal. [Martin] Jones played well in net obviously. They got a couple of lucky bounces, especially at the end when we could have tied it up and made it 3-3.”

The Kings are mindful that the Sharks are a potential first-round opponent. With their loss, the race in the Pacific Division tightened even more so. The second-place Ducks won at Edmonton and pulled within a point of the Kings, and the Sharks, in third, are four points behind the Ducks.

“It’s a good team and we might see them in the playoffs,” Doughty said. “We showed that it’s going to be a tough match both ways. Those are the fun games when both teams are battling hard.”

Whatever happens in the next two weeks of the regular season, and, after that, one thing is certain.

You will see numerous replays of a certain stick save.

Kings All-Star goalie Jonathan Quick turned all world in the waning seconds of the second period and produced a leading candidate for save of the year, robbing forward Logan Couture.

Quick managed to slide over, somehow got his stick up and deflected the shot, which then managed to hit the crossbar.

Doughty, who was the only man back on the two on one, also thought it had gone in, along with Couture and the 17,066 on hand.

“That was a pretty awesome save,” Doughty said. “I was in front of the net when it was happening and I was just waiting for the buzzer to go off and say goal. Somehow it didn’t go in.

“I don’t even know how he saved it because I was laying on the floor. It was a great save.”

It was a drop-the-mic-type save and then go skate off the ice. Unfortunately, Quick and the Kings had to come back for the third period.

“That save should have given us momentum going into the next period and show us that Quickie makes a big save and now it’s our turn to return the favor,” Doughty said. “We could have done a better job at that.

“Even when you think you have the whole net, sometimes Quickie is so fast to get over there. You can never be too sure of yourself when he’s in there.”