LOS ANGELES — Seattle cracked a window and Nashville opened a door but the Kings couldn’t pass through either entrance, instead falling kerplunk against the Utah Mammoth, 6-2, at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday evening.

The team ahead of the Kings by a point in the wild-card race, the Predators, was pummeled similarly by Montreal, while the Kraken now trail the Kings by just a point after losing in a shootout to Buffalo.

The Kings haven’t won at home since March 5 and haven’t taken consecutive contests at Crypto.com Arena since Jan. 5. Since then, they’ve won just three of 15 decisions on home ice.

Utah, which occupies the top wild-card spot, won for the second time in its past five games, with both victories coming against the Kings.

Adrian Kempe scored one goal after assisting on another by Anže Kopitar. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper was removed from the match at the second intermission and relieved by Anton Forsberg.

Logan Cooley and Alex Kerfoot each struck twice for Utah. Nick Schmaltz added a goal before Jack McBain tacked on an empty-netter. Mikhail Sergachev contributed four assists and captain Clayton Keller had two, both of the primary variety. Karel Vejmelka made 29 saves.

The Kings showed signs of life 4:34 into the third period, with Kempe flinging a shot to the short side through traffic for his team-topping 27th goal of 2025-26.

With over six minutes to play, the Kings pulled the goalie down three, only to see McBain find the vacated net.

The second period brought no respite for the Kings, who allowed their only two goals, leaving themselves on a steep incline at intermission.

There was symmetry to a night where the Kings trailed by two goals at the end of the first period and two more at the end of the second, while also going 0-for-2 on both the power play and penalty kill (they’d later kill one penalty).

That factored into Utah’s fifth goal, when Schmaltz scored with the extra man as 3:43 displayed on the clock. It was a broken play after Sergachev’s one-timer hit Cooley and found Keller, who sent the puck into the slot for Schmaltz to go skate-to-stick and pop one past Kuemper.

Utah had gone up 4-1 at the 12:37 mark, off Kerfoot’s second tally. All of Utah’s even-strength goals resulted from counterattacks.

Ian Cole skyhooked the puck out of the Utah zone, allowing Kerfoot to skate under it and challenge Drew Doughty, who slid just before a patient Kerfoot ripped a shot far side as Dylan Guenther was arriving at the back post.

The Kings have won just six of 37 games this season in which their opponents scored first, and that was their task after falling behind 2:31 into the game. They’d go down 2-0 at 16:33, recoup a goal 78 seconds later and then finish the frame trailing 3-1 after allowing a man-advantage marker.

Kopitar scored his 12th goal of the year to halve the Kings’ deficit, facing Kempe and tipping his shot home from the doorstep. But exactly two minutes afterward, the Kings were picking the puck out of their own net, with nine seconds left in the period.

Cooley’s second celebration came during a power play, when he juked Mikey Anderson, beat Kuemper far side and barked some choice words at Doughty afterward.

On his prior goal, Cooley had burned Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin and Mathieu Joseph when he skated down a long pass off the end boards and slammed the puck through Kuemper’s five hole.

Kerfoot had broken the ice after John Marino intercepted Anderson’s flipped puck in the neutral zone, allowing Kerfoot and Marino to execute a give-and-go sequence that ended with a redirection goal.