Kings not losers against Sharks

Intrigue and moral victories, of sorts, apparently exist in the final days of the NHL season.

There was some of the first in the San Jose camp. And a bit of the second for the Kings, who handed the Sharks their first loss in regulation since Feb. 20, winning 4-2 on Thursday night in front of 17,759 at Staples Center.

Anze Kopitar scored the winner at 14:22 of the third period, his 31st goal of the season.

Kopitar then punctuated the night with an empty-netter with 3.5 seconds left. Dustin Brown assisted on both of Kopitar’s goals.

Then there was the obligatory scoreboard-watching update. Tampa Bay lost earlier in the night to Washington, so by winning, the Kings are now tied with the Lightning for the fewest points (71) in the league, raising the suspense for Monday’s NHL lottery for the No. 1 draft pick.

Back to the intrigue on the ice. . . . .

Sharks Coach Ron Wilson changed his mind after saying he would rest ironman goalie Evgeni Nabokov against the Kings, planning instead to let him play in the final game of season Sunday in Dallas.

So much for the march on NHL history and Martin Brodeur’s existing record of 48 wins in a single season, which was set last season. Of course, it’s always a coach’s prerogative to change his mind.

And there was Nabokov on the ice in pursuit of Brodeur’s mark.

The intrigue behind his appearance turned out to be a moot point. Nabokov, with the one game left in the regular season, remained at 46 wins, two behind Brodeur and one behind Bernie Parent (1973-74) and Roberto Luongo (2006-07).

Wilson said afterward that upon further consideration they went for it, wanting Nabokov to have a shot at the record.

“He’s a great goalie,” the Kings’ Derek Armstrong said of Nabokov, who faced 26 shots. “They’ve got a great hockey team. I think tonight we played a great third period, a good team effort tonight.”

The Sharks had gone 18-0-2 since Feb. 20.

Despite the many woes of this season, the Kings have often played well against the Sharks, mostly in San Jose, winning three times at HP Pavilion. This was their first win against the Sharks at Staples Center this season.

They gave it a credible effort after a typical falter in the opening minute, giving up Joe Thornton’s goal only 36 seconds into the game. The Kings took a 2-1 lead into the third period on second-period goals by Brian Willsie (third of the season) and Raitis Ivanans (sixth).

San Jose tied it at 2-2, scoring on its first power-play opportunity of the game. With the Kings’ Alexander Frolov off for hooking, the Sharks needed only 35 seconds to score with Joe Pavelski’s finishing off a nice passing play, at 3:03 of the third.

“It felt good to get a win back, especially against this team,” Kings rookie goalie Erik Ersberg said. “They’ve gone 20 games without a loss so it’s good that we could break that streak. It was a fun game.

“The first goal was kind of my fault, so I felt a little bad about that, but I guess it’s better to have that in the first minute than the last minute. You have to look at it like, ‘There’s 59 minutes to make up for it.’ So that’s how I looked at it.”

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com