*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
Losing streak? Not anymore. Trevor Moore scored, Carl Grundstrom contributed the shootout winner, and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Seattle Kraken with a 3-2 shootout victory on Saturday night in Seattle.
Entering play with 3 straight losses, the Kings righted the ship to improve to 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, sitting in 3rd place in the Pacific Division at 17-6-4. The Kings improved to an NHL best 12-1-1 on the road after having won their first 11 road contests to open the season.
Kings center Phillip Danault said of the win that "Obviously, kind of a relief to win that game. We knew we weren’t playing well the last couple of games, so it was a big game for us. Doing it that way was very stressful, but it was fun."
It was the Kraken who drew first blood to start the game. Adam Larsson scored 6:45 into the game, tallying his second goal of the season to make it 1-0 Kraken, assisted by Devin Shore and Vince Dunn. Moore scored for the Kings to tie the game 1-1 after one period, scoring his 14th goal of the season with assists going to Danault and Kevin Fiala.
On the power play late in the second period, Anze Kopitar scored his 12th goal of the season, putting the Kings ahead 2-1 with Adrian Kempe and Quinton Byfield getting assists. The only goal of the 3rd period came with 2:29 left, when Oliver Bjorkstrand tied the game for the Kraken with a power play goal, forcing overtime.
After overtime went scoreless, it was on to the shootout. The first two rounds went scoreless before Kempe and Kailer Yamamoto scored in round 3. After two more scoreless rounds, the teams combined for 5 goals, with Grundstrom's goal in round 9 proving to be the difference.
Getting the start for the Kings on the road was Cam Talbot, who was able to get the win to improve to 13-5-2 to start his tenure with the Kings. Talbot stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced from the Kraken, good for a .895 save percentage.
The starter for the Kraken across the ice from Talbot was Joey Daccord, who got the OT loss as his record now sits at 5-5-7 through 18 games. Daccord made 36 saves out of the 38 shots the Kings sent his way, giving him a .947 save percentage.
Kraken forward Yanni Gourde said after the game that "Our battle level was high. That's a big part of our game. If we do that on a consistent basis, we are going to win more games than we're going to lose. We’ve just got to find ways to find ways to find more pucks in the o-zone."
The Kraken get back in action with a road tilt on Monday against the Dallas Stars, with Daccord listed as the starter. The Kings travel to face the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, with Talbot projected to get the start.
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