The Kings continued their winning ways on Tuesday despite having nothing to play for in the standings. Having clinched home ice advantage for the first round against the Edmonton Oilers last night when they defeated the Oilers 5-0, the Kings rested Anze Kopitar, Quinton Byfield, Drew Doughty and Mikey Anderson, and were also without the injured Joel Edmundson for a fifth consecutive game. Inserted into the lineup in their place were Akil Thomas, who returned to the lineup for the first time since March 1st, Caleb Jones, who was recalled from the Ontario Reign and Kyle Burroughs, who rejoined the lineup for the first time since last week. Nonetheless, the Kings beat the Seattle Kraken 6-5 to close out their regular season road record at 17-19-5.
The Kings jumped out to a 2-0 late in the first period netting a pair of tip-in goals 1:09 apart. Samuel Helenius opened the scoring with 4:46 to go in the first period when he was awarded for driving the net. Deflecting in a Vladislav Gavrikov shot on a line rush, Helenius beat Joey Daccord with a tip going high glove for his third goal of the season. Just over one minute later, the Kings earned a power play and Alex Turcotte tipped in another puck to double the lead. After holding the blue line under pressure, Kevin Fiala moved the puck over to Adrian Kempe and Kempe put his outstanding vision on display by finding Turcotte on the backdoor. Turcotte deflected the pass into the net for his ninth goal of the season and gave the Kings a 2-0 lead they’d take into the first intermission despite being outshot 11-5 in the period.
The Kraken then evened the game with the first two goals of the second period, both coming during special teams play. First cutting the deficit to 2-1, Tye Kartye buried a shorthanded goal on a breakaway after chipping the puck past a pinching Kempe in the Kraken’s zone. Kartye’s sixth goal of the season came 5:26 into the period. Knotting the game at 2-2 13:24 into the middle stanza was Brandon Montour, who found the back of the net for the second time in as many games against the Kings. This one coming from a one-timer on the power play, Montour blasted his 18th goal of the season, the fourth most among NHL defensemen. Now even 2-2 with less than five minutes to go in the second period, the Kings responded with a pair another two goals of their own. Beginning with Warren Foegele’s 24th goal of the season, Foegele received the puck from Phillip Danault behind the net, sped out in front of the net and beat Daccord to the far post with a shot on the ice. Extending his career high in every major scoring category, Foegele now’s sits with 46 points (24-22=46) through 81 games. Putting the Kings back up by two goals was the Chatham, New Jersey native Alex Laferriere, who banged in his 19th goal of the season on a rebound in the crease after he and Fiala entered the zone on a 2-on-1. The Kings led 4-2 after 40 minutes.
Entering the final 20 minutes of road play in the regular season up by two, the Kings further extended their lead by two more goals to begin the third. The makeshift top line of Kempe, Turcotte and Andrei Kuzmenko teamed up early in the period to make it 5-2 1:41 in. Tying the team-high in goals with his 35th goal of the season alongside Fiala, Kuzmenko and Turcotte went tic-tac-toe to set up Kempe with a backdoor tap-in. Less than one minute later it was Helenius potting his second goal of the game. The 6-foot-6 Fin outmuscled his defensive opponent in front of the Kraken net and banged in a rebound for his first career two-goal game. With the Kings leading 6-2 with 15:00 to go in regulation, the Kraken made a push to make it interesting. Scoring three times in a span of 14:33, the Kraken made it a 6-5 game with 30 seconds remaining in regulation. Unable to find a sixth goal, the Kings walked away with another two points.
David Rittich returned to the net and stopped 29 shots on 34 attempts, earning his 16th win of the season.
