Kings edge Kraken, hand them 5th straight road loss

LOS ANGELES -- Adrian Kempe and Quinton Byfield scored for the Los Angeles Kings in a 2-1 win against the Seattle Kraken at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

Anze Kopitar had two assists, and David Rittich made 19 saves for the Kings (11-7-3), who had lost three of four.

It was Rittich’s third straight start allowing one goal, and he has held the opponent to two goals or fewer in five consecutive starts.

“Playing unreal, great saves everywhere,” Los Angeles forward Kevin Fiala said. “Too bad he couldn’t get the shutout here, but [it] doesn’t matter. We feel very comfortable with him in back. … Right now, he’s on top of his game.”

Brandon Montour scored, and Joey Daccord made 19 saves for the Kraken (10-10-1), who had won five of six. They lost their fifth straight road game.

“You can’t take shifts off,” Montour said. “I think we just have to come in with a consistent effort, and I think we’ll be good.”

Kempe scored his 10th goal of the season and fifth in four games to put the Kings up 1-0 at 4:19 of the second period. He beat Daccord with a wrist shot from the high slot to the blocker side.

Byfield, playing his 200th NHL game, then made it 2-0 on the power play at 6:03, scoring on a one-timer from low in the right face-off circle that was set up by Fiala.

“Yeah, jeez, it took a while, but there’s been a lot of ups and downs, obviously,” Byfield, who was selected by the Kings with the No. 2 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft and is in his fifth NHL season, said of the milestone. “Injuries, illnesses, so it was tough. … A lot of challenging moments in those 200 games, but to come across it still 22 (years old), so still young and hopefully a lot more (to come).”

Byfield assertively called for Fiala to feed him. His goal ended a 1-for-16 stretch on the man-advantage for Los Angeles over the previous six games.

“You just have to take it, take your chances, you know,” Fiala said. “And don’t overthink. Don’t overpass. If you get a shot, you go to the net. … And when the puck is bouncing your way, it’s going to go in.”

Byfield and Warren Foegele failed to convert on a short-handed 2-on-0 late in the period, unable to get the puck off its edge as they traded passes before Foegele’s shot from in tight was saved with 1:26 left.

“I haven’t seen too many of those,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “Puck stayed up on end, so I thought that ‘Foegs’ had a pretty good attempt from what he was given. … We could have used that one.”

Montour cut it to 2-1 at 18:26 of the third period on a slap shot from the left point with Daccord pulled for the extra attacker.

“We had 6-on-4, we had 6-on-5, and I’ll count that as a power-play goal,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “League won’t, but I might. But I think the mentality of just attacking and being shooters, both on our power play and 5-on-5, we passed up opportunities to shoot and get the puck to the net. There weren’t a ton, and you have to take them when you get them.”

Montour had two good chances to score earlier in the third, but Rittich saved his initial shot from the slot at 8:56 before Montour put the rebound off the post.

“The last period, the last 15, 12 minutes, obviously, we took it to them,” Montour said. “We’re creating chances, I hit a post, the game could have went a completely different way.”

NOTES: Kopitar has eight assists in his past six games, including three with multiple assists. … The Kraken have allowed nine goals in their past six games (4-2-0) and haven’t given up more than two goals in a game during that span.