LOS Angeles – During their first game since he won a place in the playoffs of the Stanley Cup, the sequence of four victories of Kings ended with a rare home defeat, when they fell to Seattle Kraken, 2-1, Monday evening in Crypto.com Arena.
A Kraken team that had scored 10 goals in its last two games won its third consecutive match on the road against a Kings team who won an emotional victory on Saturday against the probable opponent of the first round eliminators Edmonton.
The Kings (44-24-9, 97 points) failed to gain ground in their pursuit of the first place of Vegas (47-22-8, 102 points) in the race of the Pacific division, but they remained four points ahead of the third place of Edmonton Oilers (44-28-5, 93 points), which lost the Ducks, 3-2, in Anaheim. The three teams have five regular season games.
The Kings scored on the first Monday, and quickly, with Quentin Byfield, who was stealing warm -up, putting the hosts at only 1:48 in the first period, marking with a hand attached behind his back by a Shane Wright.
But the home team, whose electricity game went 0 for 3 in the night, failed to capitalize on an advantage of almost 2 minutes five against three and ended the following period.
Matty Beners equalized the scoring with just over a minute to play in the period, typing in a pass from Jamie Oleksiak who turned a pair of Kings players in the fold. Brandon Montour, Kraken’s most marked defender, set a new career record with his 17th goal of the season, scored with 31 seconds to send the Kings to their cloakroom down 2-1.
The defense of the Kings maintained the scoring in the second, supported by the solid continuous game of goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper. After granting two goals in the first period for the first time this season, Kuemper closed a pair of Eeli Tolvanen breaking chances and added a stick of rotation to a punctual chance of Jaden Schwartz to keep the Kraken in an advance of a goal.
Kraken goalkeeper Joey Daccord equaled Kuemper’s efforts in the third period, stopping 11 shots to keep visitors’ heads.
The Kings (29-5-4 at home this season) were without defenders Drew Doughty and Joel Edmundson, who were replaced in the programming by Kyle Burroughs and Jacob Moverare. Strike Adrian Kempe has not returned for the third period for personal reasons.
During the team’s morning skating, coach Jim Hiller minimized the potential for the match with Seattle to be a trap game and underlined the mental preparation 76 games in the season.
“If that is right, the body will be right,” said Hiller, pointing his head.
More to come to this story.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
