Lias Andersson’s first goal of the season broke a tie early in the third period, leading the Los Angeles Kings to a 5-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night.
Gabriel Vilardi, Phillip Danault, Trevor Moore, and Andreas Athanasiou also scored for the Kings, who are playoff-bound. Jonathan Quick made 36 saves, securing his fifth consecutive win.
With their playoff spot secured and a first-round matchup against Edmonton set, the Kings opted to rest several key players, including points leader Anze Kopitar (66 points on 19 goals and 47 assists) and leading goal scorer Adrian Kempe (34 goals).
“We had a lot of guys stepping into the lineup, or maybe it was their first game back in a couple of weeks,” Vilardi said. “They came out better than us in the first period – we weren’t very hard to play against. But Quickie made some big saves because that’s what he does, and it gave us a chance to come back.”
Jared McCann, Ryan Donato, and Jordan Eberle scored for the Kraken, but they are now losing three straight. Philipp Grubauer finished with 21 saves.
The game-winning goal came when Brendan Lemieux retrieved a loose puck behind the Seattle net and passed it to Andersson, who was rushing toward the goal. Andersson beat Grubauer to give the Kings a 4-3 lead at 2:39 of the third period.
Seattle had a power play for 4 minutes and 43 seconds late in the third period, including a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:18, but the closest they came to tying the game was a shot by Daniel Sprong that hit the left post.
Athanasiou added an empty-net goal with 1:06 left to secure the win for Los Angeles.
McCann opened the scoring for Seattle with his team-leading 27th goal of the season, giving the Kraken a 1-0 lead with just over a minute left in the first period. Donato made it 2-0 early in the second period with his 16th goal.
Los Angeles responded with two goals in quick succession to tie the game. Vilardi made it 2-1 with a shot from the left circle at 10:11, and Danault tied it at 2-2 with his 27th goal at 13:41.
“I don’t think we should have put ourselves in that situation,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said of the early deficit. “I don’t think we played purposefully in that first period. It was like we played because the game was scheduled, and that was really it. We had a lot to talk about (between periods). After that, I thought we began to play with some purpose.
“They totally responded, and I would have been disappointed if they hadn’t,” McLellan added. “That was expected of them. They’ve done that for seven months now.”
Seattle quickly regained the lead just 48 seconds later when Eberle stickhandled in front of Quick and scored his 21st goal of the season.
Moore tied the game again for the Kings at 3-3 with a tip-in of a shot by Matt Roy at 17:15 of the second period, marking Moore’s 17th goal.
“We’ve got to be able to take teams like that on,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Certainly, there are areas where we don’t quite match up yet on every shift. But even in those areas, we have to be able to take on that battle and take on that fight, even if it’s not the perfect matchup. You can abdicate and walk away from that, or you can take it on. We need to keep looking for people who are willing to take on that battle every single time.”
Game Notes
Wednesday marked the third time in the last four games that the Kraken built a 2-0 lead, only to lose. The previous two losses were 6-3 against Minnesota last Friday and 3-2 at Dallas last Saturday. The Kings won the season series 3-1. With an assist on Jordan Eberle’s second-period goal, Matty Beniers now has a point in seven of his first eight NHL games.
UP NEXT
- Kings: Play at Vancouver on Thursday night.
- Kraken: Host San Jose on Friday night.
