Utah is five points ahead of the Nashville Predators for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist, and Anze Kopitar scored for the Kings (29-26-18), who have lost five of six (1-2-3).
Darcy Kuemper allowed five goals on 16 shots before being replaced at the start of the third period by Anton Forsberg, who made 11 saves.
Los Angeles, which began a season-long seven-game homestand, remained one point behind the Predators for the second wild card into the playoffs.
“I can tell you this, people say it’s luck and there’s bounces. You make your own luck in this world,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “You do it right long enough, things happen. We didn’t come ready to play good enough today.”
Kerfoot put the Mammoth up 1-0 at 2:31 of the first period, tapping in John Marino’s centering pass from the right face-off circle after he split the defense and crashed the net.
“I think I can still get better,” said Kerfoot, who has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in 26 games after missing the first 36 games of the season because of core-muscle surgery, and 12 games in January and February because of an upper-body injury. “I want to give more to the team, just about going out there and doing it, and this is the time that everybody wants to be playing, so no better time than that.”
Cooley made it 2-0 at 16:33 off a set play by Sergachev, who dumped the puck off the end boards in the offensive zone and it bounced out in front for Cooley to score five-hole.
