Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist as the host Los Angeles Kings defeated the expansion Seattle Kraken 4-2 Saturday night.
Gabriel Vilardi, Jordan Spence and Sean Durzi also scored for the Kings and Adrian Kempe added two assists. Goaltender Cal Petersen made 23 saves.
Daniel Sprong and Morgan Geekie scored for Seattle, which fell short in its bid for the first three-game winning streak in franchise history. Philipp Grubauer stopped 23 of 27 shots.
The Kings opened the scoring at 15:05 of the first period on a failed Seattle clearance attempt. Vilardi kept the puck in the offensive zone and sent a pass to Olli Maatta at the left point. Maatta’s low slap shot from just outside the top of the faceoff circle was redirected over Grubauer’s left shoulder by Vilardi.
Kopitar made it 2-0 at 4:17 of the second. Kempe started the play with a long stretch pass to Alex Iafallo, who carried the puck over the blue line and split two defenders. He dropped the puck to Kopitar on the right wing, and the Kings’ captain skated across the top of the crease before lifting a forehand over a sprawling Grubauer.
The Kraken pulled within 2-1 at 6:29 as Sprong scored for the second consecutive game after being acquired from Washington. Sprong took a pass from Carson Soucy at the top of the left faceoff circle in his own end, crossed to the right wing while skating through the neutral zone and beat Petersen high to the near post from just inside the faceoff dot.
The Kings restored their two-goal advantage at 15:47 on Spence’s first NHL goal, a wrist shot from the right point that beat a screened Grubauer.
Durzi scored a power-play goal at 3:35 of the third to make it 4-1. Kopitar’s shot was deflected wide right of the net but the puck took a lively bounce off the end boards and came out the left side, with Durzi putting a one-timer inside the near post before Grubauer could get all the way across the crease.
Geekie tallied on a rebound with four seconds to play to cap the scoring.
–Field Level Media