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Seattle Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer watches as Kings center Quinton Byfield looks to pass the puck during the second period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings right wing Arthur Kaliyev, left, vies for the puck against Seattle Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson during the first period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick makes a stop as Seattle Kraken center Matty Beniers watches during the first period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings center Blake Lizotte, right, skates away with the puck after Seattle Kraken left wing Jared McCann (16) and Kings center Andreas Athanasiou (22) went down during the first period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Seattle Kraken defenseman Cale Fleury, right, moves the puck away from Kings defenseman Jacob Moverare during the first period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Seattle Kraken left wing Jared McCann (16) looks to pass the puck during the first period of their game against the Kings on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings center Rasmus Kupari, center, moves between Seattle Kraken’s Will Borgen, left, and Alex Wennberg during the first period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings right wing Arthur Kaliyev, left, moves the puck away from the goal as Seattle Kraken left wing Jared McCann (16) pursues during the first period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Seattle Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer can’t stop a goal by the Kings’ Gabriel Vilardi during the second period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings center Gabriel Vilardi (13) and Seattle Kraken right wing Daniel Sprong (91) eye the puck as Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer, left, watches from the goal during the second period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Seattle Kraken center Matty Beniers eyes the puck during the second period of their game against the Kings on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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The Seattle Kraken’s Jordan Eberle (7) and Matty Beniers, left, react after Eberle scored a goal during the second period of their game against the Kings on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings center Blake Lizotte skates against Seattle Kraken left wing Jared McCann during the second period on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings center Trevor Moore is congratulated by teammates after scoring a goal during the second period of their game against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Seattle Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson (6) and goaltender Philipp Grubauer watch the puck during the third period of their game against the Kings on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson, right, and his teammates begin celebrating after their 5-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
By MARK MOSCHETTI Associated Press
SEATTLE — Lias Andersson picked a fine time to break through.
Andersson’s first non-shootout goal of the season snapped a tie early in the third period and the playoff-bound Kings beat the Seattle Kraken, 5-3, on Wednesday night.
Gabriel Vilardi, Phillip Danault, Trevor Moore and Andreas Athanasioiu also scored for the Kings. Jonathan Quick made 36 saves to earn his fifth consecutive win.
With a playoff spot and their first-round pairing against Edmonton already clinched, the Kings rested a handful of their regulars on Wednesday. Among them were team points leader Anze Kopitar (66 on 19 goals and 47 assists), and leading goal scorer Adrian Kempe (34).
“We had a lot of guys stepping into the lineup or maybe it was their first game back in a couple weeks,” Vilardi said. “They came out better than us in the first period – we weren’t very hard to play against. But Quickie made some big saves because that’s what he does, and it gave us a chance to come back.”
Jared McCann, Ryan Donarto, and Jordan Eberle scored for the Kraken, who lost their third in a row. Philipp Grubauer finished with 21 saves.
On the go-ahead goal, Brendan Lemieux picked up a loose puck behind the Seattle net and sent it out in front to Andersson, who was rushing toward the net and sent it past Grubauer to give the Kings a 4-3 lead at 2:39 of the third.
Seattle had a power play for 4 minutes, 43 seconds late in the third period, including 1:18 of a 5-on-3 advantage. But the closest it could come to the equalizer was a shot by Daniel Sprong that hit the left post.
Athanasiou had an empty-netter with 1:06 left to seal the win.
McCann gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with 1:01 left in the opening period with his team-leading 27th goal of the season. Seattle made it 2-0 just 2:24 into the second on Donato’s 16th.
The Kings tied it with two goals just 3½ minutes apart. Vilardi made it 2-1 at the 10:11 mark, ripping a shot past Grubauer from the upper part of the left circle, his fourth. Then at 13:41, Danault tallied his 27th.
“I don’t think we should have put ourselves in that situation” Kings coach Todd McLellan said of the two-goal hole. “I don’t think we played with any purpose in that first period. It was like we played because the game was scheduled, and that was really it. We had a lot to talk about (between periods). After that, I thought we began to play with some purpose.
“They totally responded, and I would have been disappointed if they hadn’t,” McLellan added. “That was expected of them. They’ve done that for seven months now.”
“Sometimes, you just need to be reminded of the importance of situations. They took it to heart and they did something about it. Even in the response after the first period, we got scored on right away, so we could have went the other way even more, but we dug in and credit them.”
The Kraken needed just 48 seconds to go back in front when Eberle stickhandled his way to directly in front of Quick and slapped it past him for his 21st.
Moore’s tip-in of a hard shot by Matt Roy got the Kings back into a 3-3 tie at 17:15. That was Moore’s 17th.
McLellan said these games are a testing ground to figure out who can be helpful during the postseason.
“We’re making decisions going forward on who can help us next week and if things go well for us, we plan to play for a long time, we need everybody involved,” he said. “If you can’t come into this environment and contribute, why would we believe you could do it three weeks from now in Round 2 or 3, if we’re fortunate enough to get there. I don’t think our guys, and there’s a lot of young players, first-time guys going through this, understood that. We had to make that real clear.”
NOTES
Wednesday was the third time in the last four games that the Kraken built a 2-0 lead, only to wind up losing. The first two were 6-3 at Minnesota last Friday and 3-2 at Dallas last Saturday. … The Kings won the season series, 3-1. … With the assist on Jordan Eberle’s second-period goal, Matty Beniers now has a point in seven of his first eight NHL games.
UP NEXT
The Kings close the regular season on Thursday night at Vancouver.
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