LOS ANGELES –– With heat at their backs and a less competitive opponent in their faces, the Kings handled their business in a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, moving closer to securing a playoff berth.

Elsewhere in the division, the Calgary Flames won to clinch first place in the Pacific Division. Second-place Edmonton and fourth-place Vegas were idle Thursday but both prevailed on Wednesday, exerting pressure on the Kings to dispatch the struggling Blackhawks.

The victory stretched the Kings’ advantage over Vegas back to five points and re-established their two-point gap behind Edmonton. The top three teams in the division are guaranteed playoff spots, with the fourth-place finisher left dueling Nashville and Dallas for the Western Conference’s two wild-card berths.

Centers Phillip Danault and Anze Kopitar scored for the Kings, as did wingers Andreas Athanasiou and Trevor Moore. Defenseman Alex Edler and winger Adrian Kempe added two assists apiece. Jonathan Quick earned his fourth win across a stretch of five consecutive starts, stopping 15 shots.

Winger Patrick Kane tallied for Chicago, which has lost nine of its last 11. Rancho Cucamonga native Collin Delia saved 31 of 35 shots before exiting the game in the third period with a lower-body injury.

The third period remained a one-goal game until there was 8:15 left, when the Kings scored twice in 15 seconds.

First, Athanasiou added an insurance goal after he stole the puck along the wall and sped ahead for a partial breakaway, which he finished against pressure while deking from forehand to backhand and back to his forehand for a sweep-in goal.

The Kings struck again in transition when Edler sent Arvidsson ahead with speed. He challenged defenseman Jake McCabe and got Delia to commit before sending the puck to Moore for an uncontested tap-in off his backhand. Delia sustained an injury attempting to dive back into position at the back post.

With less than five minutes left in the second period, Chicago had cut its deficit to a goal with a power-play score. After some fumbling around in the neutral zone, the Blackhawks executed a tic-tac-toe play between Dylan Strome, Alex DeBrincat and Kane, whose sharp angle shot banked off Quick’s pad and into the net. The three-time Stanley Cup champion’s 91 points lead the Hawks and his 26 goals are second to only DeBrincat.

The Kings mounted a 21-6 advantage in shots as the midway point of the game approached, but only a one-goal lead. That changed thanks to Kopitar, who won an offensive zone faceoff and then scored a goal when Edler’s shot glanced off him, off Delia and into the net. Kopitar’s goal placed him one shy of his 12th 20-goal campaign.

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The Kings drew the game’s first penalty but the best chance during their power play came for short-handed Chicago when forward Sam Lafferty’s breakaway was denied by Quick’s pad.

Their second man-advantage effort went swimmingly, when Kempe’s shot from above the left faceoff circle was deflected before Danault deftly redirected the wobbling puck off his backhand. The goal was Danault’s 26th, twice as many as he’d scored in any previous NHL season. It extended his point streak to seven games and his goal streak to five. He is the first Kings player since Marián Gáborík in 2014 to have a goal in five straight games.

More to come on this story.

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The Kings host the Ducks on Saturday night.