LOS ANGELES — The Kings ended their three-game losing streak as Trevor Moore’s second career hat trick led to a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
It was a reversal of fortune after a road trip that saw them win one game by one goal, then lose three in a row, ending with a defeat in Winnipeg in which Moore failed to score on a shorthanded breakaway 10 seconds before Cole of the Jets. Perfetti scored the winning goal. Moore, who missed 23 games last year, has appeared in every game this season and has already surpassed his career high by a margin of 12 goals, thanks in part to his second career hat trick.
“We knew the match was important for us. It wasn’t our best road trip, and it wasn’t a masterpiece tonight, but we held on,” Moore said, breaking his relative stoicism to call a hat trick “the greatest thing coolest ever.”
Moore’s next goal will be his 30th, which leads the team.
“It seems vindicating, I guess, but mostly it feels good to be able to play as many games as I have so far this year, hopefully all 82. It feels good to be healthy “Moore said.
Wednesday’s win moved the Kings five points ahead of the St. Louis Blues for the final Western Conference wild-card spot and three points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for third place in the playoffs. in the Pacific Division with seven games remaining. St. Louis and Vegas were inactive Wednesday.
Moore proudly represented the San Fernando Valley with his trio of goals. Kevin Fiala scored on a breakaway and assisted on Adrian Kempe’s power play goal. Pierre-Luc Dubois recorded his first three-point game as a King with three assists and Viktor Arvidsson added two assists. Cam Talbot made 21 saves as the Kings ended their longest losing streak since the midseason 1-6-4 skid that cost former coach Todd McLellan his job.
Phillip Danault (upper body injury) missed his third straight game and will not accompany the team for Thursday’s game at San Jose.
Andre Burakovsky and Brian Dumoulin each scored a goal for Seattle. Philipp Grubauer stopped 22 shots.
With 3:03 left, Moore beat Jordan Eberle to a loose puck in the neutral zone and charged forward to slide the puck through Grubauer’s five holes, completing the Thousand Oaks native’s first hat trick since November 2022.
“Kevin’s goal really got (the fans) out of their seats, and then Mooresy had to score another one, and that got them out of their seats again,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said . “We’ve had some very loud, rowdy crowds and, believe me, they’re coming for the guys.”
The Kings and Kraken traded goals midway through the third period, with the Kraken responding at 11:20 to the Kings’ insurance marker 35 seconds earlier.
Yanni Gourde stole the puck in the neutral zone and started a back-and-forth play with Brandon Tanev who generated a dangerous shot for himself before recovering the puck and finding Dumoulin behind the play to reduce the deficit for the visitors at 4-2.
The Kings had cushioned their lead after Blake Lizotte’s diving block sent Fiala racing for a breakaway goal that saw him wait for Grubauer and put the puck on the roof for the No. 26 tally. year.
The hosts looked set to take their chance on victory, but a minor double penalty for sticking high to Lizotte, whose twig appeared to be raised in Jared McCann’s face by McCann himself, added intrigue to the last 20 minutes of the match.
Oliver Bjorkstrand nearly scored, hitting the inside of the post, and shortly after, he made a cross-court pass to Burakovsky for a goal with 14:20 left.
The Kings headed into the second intermission with a three-goal lead – a situation which has now seen them win 30 of 33 times and earn at least one point in all 33 cases – as another contained frame tripled their advantage on two goals from Moore at the 7:39 and 11:49 marks.
Moore scored his second goal of the game after Arvidsson’s rebound in the neutral zone allowed him to advance the puck to Dubois, who found a trailing Moore for a snap, then a forehand-backhand on his follow-up offer.
“We were creative offensively and obviously it was tough for Moore, he had a few chances in Winnipeg and today he gets a hat trick so it’s great to see,” Arvidsson said. “He intervened.”
Moore’s previous tally came after he extended the Kings’ offense by picking Tomas Tatar’s pocket as Tatar attempted to exit the Seattle zone. That sparked a sequence that culminated when Moore deflected Matt Roy’s shot pass from the left point to the right post.
“He works like crazy,” Hiller said of Moore. “He’s one of the guys we talk about, as usual with guys who work and don’t score as much, he’s a guy who scores like crazy this year but he’s such a hard worker as anything the world feels good when he scores because he has a good work ethic and they also appreciate the little things he does.
Two teams with temperate approaches produced a predictably uneventful period, with the Kings scoring the only goal of the sequence on the power play and killing their own penalty.
Fiala had lit up Burakovsky in the neutral zone, but later, at the same time, he took a penalty. The Kings killed the penalty to maintain their one-goal advantage.
They had gained that advantage 9:24 into the game on a play in which all five Kings skaters touched the puck, which ended with the Swedish connection between Arvidsson and Kempe in the slot for a redirection, his 24th goal in 2023-24. Fiala, who speaks Swedish, had the assist on a play that Hiller called a “superb execution” to open the scoring.
“We have to get going here and we have to warm up before the playoffs,” Moore said. “You know the hottest team in the playoffs can be dangerous and we want to be that team.”
California Daily Newspapers
