Martin Jones made 26 saves to win his Seattle debut as the Kraken defeated the host Los Angeles Kings 4-1 on Thursday night.
Jaden Schwartz, Brandon Tanev, Alex Wennberg and Adam Larsson scored for the Kraken, who took three of four points on their season-opening trip to Southern California. Jones improved to 20-7-3 in 30 career decisions against the Kings, the team he broke into the NHL with in 2013-14.
Alex Iafallo scored for Los Angeles, and Jonathan Quick stopped 18 of 21 shots.
The Kraken, who went 3-for-5 on the power play in a 5-4 overtime loss at Anaheim a night earlier, struck early with the man advantage. Andre Burakovsky sent a pass across the slot to Jordan Eberle, whose shot was stopped by Quick’s sprawling save. The rebound sat at the top of the crease, and Schwartz was able to backhand the puck into the open side of the net at 5:21 of the first.
The Kings tied it on Iafallo’s unassisted power-play goal at 7:43. The Kraken’s Morgan Geekie won a faceoff in his own end back to Jamie Oleksiak, who tried to bank the puck off the end boards. The puck took an awkward bounce and squirted right to Iafallo behind the net, and he stuffed a wraparound past an unsuspecting Jones.
The Kraken regained the lead at 6:08 of the second. Will Borgen sent the puck to Tanev in the right-wing corner. Tanev spun past a defenseman, skated just outside the goal line and put a wrist shot into the roof of the net.
Seattle made it 3-1 at 13:08 of the second, just two seconds after a power play expired. Matty Beniers fed Wennberg near the right post, and he spun and slid the puck between Quick’s pads. Oliver Bjorkstrand got the secondary assist.
Larsson tallied on a short-handed empty-netter from center ice with 1:01 remaining to complete the scoring.
–Field Level Media
