Kings hold off Kraken, tie franchise record with 48th win

SEATTLE -- Samuel Helenius scored twice, and the Los Angeles Kings held off the Seattle Kraken for a 6-5 win at Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday.

“It feels good,” Helenius said after his first multigoal game in the NHL. “I’m not maybe known about goals, so it’s nice to get two in the same night. So, I’m happy for that.”

Adrian Kempe and Alex Turcotte each had a goal and an assist, and Vladislav Gavrikov and Kevin Fiala each had two assists for the Kings (48-24-9), who have won four straight and tied their franchise record for wins in a season (2015-16).

David Rittich made 29 saves and stopped Chandler Stephenson on a penalty shot in the first period.

“I like the win,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “This was a hard back-to-back. We had some key players out of the lineup, it didn’t mean anything for us in the standings, as far as movement, and we won the hockey game. That’s what I like about the win.”

Los Angeles, which has clinched the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Division, will have home-ice advantage in the Western Conference First Round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers, who will finish as the No. 3 seed from the Pacific.

Tye Kartye, Brandon Montour, Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers and Eeli Tolvanen scored for the Kraken (35-41-6), who closed their season with three losses in their final four games. Joey Daccord made 18 saves.

“I felt the game was a little bit of a microcosm of our season,” Seattle coach Dan Bylsma said. “There was a positive amount of good in the first period, for sure, but we let the game slip away a little bit.”

Helenius made it 1-0 at 15:14 of the first period, redirecting Gavrikov’s shot-pass over Daccord’s left shoulder.

Turcotte pushed it to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 16:23, deflecting Kempe’s feed through the seam into an open net behind Daccord.

“I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity (playing on an elevated line),” Turcotte said. “I was definitely a little nervous before the game, more so than others this year, I would say. But I think it got me in the right mindset to play my game and do my best out there.”

Kartye cut it to 2-1 on a short-handed breakaway at 5:26 of the second period after he tipped a loose puck past Kempe at the Seattle blue line.

“I’m not too much of a dangler, so I just tried to shoot it there,” Kartye said. “When you have too much time to think about it, sometimes you can overthink it.”

Montour tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 13:24, one-timing an Andre Burakovsky feed from the point through traffic and over Rittich’s glove. It was Montour’s 18th goal, extending his career high.

“Obviously, a strength of mine is offense and shooting the puck, so nice to see some go in this year,” Montour said. “But again, I mean, it doesn’t matter. I came here with one focus to win and get to the playoffs, and we didn’t do that as a group.”

Warren Foegele gave the Kings a 3-2 lead at 16:05, walking into the crease from below the goal line and wrapping a backhand around Daccord and past his left pad.

Alex Laferriere extended the lead to 4-2 at 17:17, finding Fiala’s rebound after a 2-on-1 rush.

Kempe slapped Turcotte’s feed into an open net at 1:41 of the third period to make it 5-2, and Helenius scored his second of the game 57 seconds later to make it 6-2, swatting Jacob Moverare’s rebound over Daccord’s right pad.

“That was awesome,” Turcotte said of Helenius. “I was hoping he was going to get the hat trick, obviously.”

Schwartz got Seattle back within 6-3 at 5:12, one-timing Jamie Oleksiak’s low-to-high pass over Rittich’s blocker from the left circle, and Beniers cut the deficit to 6-4 with a power-play goal at 13:34 by tapping Jordan Eberle’s cross-crease pass over Rittich’s glove.

With Daccord off for an extra attacker, Tolvanen scored a power-play goal with 28 seconds left, one-timing Shane Wright’s feed from the left circle over Rittich’s glove for the 6-5 final.

NOTES: Kempe has nine points (two goals, seven assists) on a four-game point streak. … The Kings scored five goals in four consecutive games for the second time in the past 30 years, following a four-game stretch from Feb. 11-18, 2023.