Lias Andersson’s first goal of the season for Los Angeles broke a tie early in the third period, leading the 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 playoff-bound Kings. Jonathan Quick made 36 saves, securing his fifth straight win.
With a playoff spot and a first-round pairing against Edmonton already secured, the Kings rested several regulars, including team points leader Anze Kopitar and leading goal scorer Adrian Kempe.
“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 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, who lost their third consecutive game. Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves.
On the go-ahead goal, Brendan Lemieux retrieved a loose puck behind the Seattle net and passed it to Andersson, who scored to give the Kings a 4-3 lead at 2:39 of the third period.
Seattle had a power play for 4 minutes, 43 seconds late in the third period, including 1:18 of a 5-on-3 advantage, but the closest they came to scoring was a shot by Daniel Sprong that hit the left post.
Athanasiou sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 1:06 remaining.
McCann gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with 1:01 left in the first period, scoring his team-leading 27th goal of the season. Seattle made it 2-0 just 2:24 into the second period on Donato’s 16th goal.
Los Angeles tied it with two goals 3 1/2 minutes apart. Vilardi scored at 10:11, ripping a shot past Grubauer from the left circle, followed by Danault’s 27th goal at 13:41.
“I don’t think we should have put ourselves in that situation,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said of the two-goal 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.”
The Kraken needed just 48 seconds to regain the lead when Eberle stickhandled his way to the front of the net and scored his 21st goal.
Moore tied the game at 3-3 with a tip-in of a hard shot by Matt Roy at 17:15, marking his 17th goal of the season.
“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 single 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 first two were 6-3 at 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.
