Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar each collected two point outings while Cal Petersen made 23 saves, enough to help the Los Angeles Kings get past the Seattle Kraken, 4-2 before 18,230 fans at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
The Kraken, looking to salvage wins in two of three games on the road trip when the two teams meet in a Monday 7:30pm rematch in Los Angeles, received goals from Daniel Sprong and Morgan Geekie, both scoring in back to back games.
The Kings owned a substantial advantage in offensive zone time in the first period and eventually cashed in on Gabriel Vilardi’s deflection at the net, 4:55 left in the frame on a left point blast by Olli Maatta.
Anze Kopitar then slipped behind the defense and tucked a forehand deke past Philipp Grubauer’s stick side for a 2-0 edge, 4:17 into the second period. The Kraken got back into the game when Daniel Sprong picked up speed through the right wing and uncorked a snap shot past Cal Petersen for his second goal in as many games with the Kraken.
Jordan Spence scored on a point blast for his first career NHL goal at 15:47 of the second period and Sean Durzi, earning his sixth point in five games, tucked a left circle power play goal at 3:35 for a 4-1 cushion.
With the game out of reach, Morgan Geekie persisted for one final Kraken goal on a bid from the slot with four seconds left in regulation.
Grubauer, falling short of his fourth win in five games, took the loss with 23 stops.
KRAKEN LINEUP AT LOS ANGELES, MAR. 26:
Donato-Wennberg-Eberle
McCann-Geekie-Lind
Rask-Gourde-Kuhlman
Sprong-Sheahan-Donskoi
Dunn-Larsson
Oleksiak-Soucy
Pouliot-Borgen
Grubauer
Driedger