Kings fall to Kraken but stay four points ahead of Oilers
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Matty Beniers and Brandon Montour scored 54 seconds apart late in the first period and the Seattle Kraken held off the Kings 2-1 on Monday night.
Beniers scored his 19th goal of the season when he went hard to the net to put home a rebound into an open net to tie it at 18:35. Montour scored with 30.6 seconds left in the period, beating Darcy Kuemper on the goaltender’s glove side to set a career-high with 17 goals.
Joey Daccord made 28 saves for Seattle.
Alex Ovechkin scored in the second period against the Islanders Sunday, touching off a celebration after he broke Wayne Gretzky’s NHL scoring record.
Quinton Byfield scored his 20th goal and Kuemper finished with 26 saves for the Kings, who saw their four-game winning streak end two nights after clinching a playoff spot for the fourth year in a row. The Kings dropped to 29-5-4 at home this season, but remain four points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers for second in the Pacific Division with five games left. The Oilers lost 3-2 to the Ducks on Monday.
Byfield scored just 1:48 into the game. He was tangled with Shane Wright in front of the net after a faceoff, deflected a Kyle Burroughs point shot and finished with a one-handed shot. Byfield took sole possession of fourth on the Kings’ scoring list this season, breaking a tie with Anze Kopitar. Adrian Kempe leads the team with 33.
Takeaways
Kraken: Seattle has scored 12 goals in the last three games, while allowing just two, to remain perfect on a five-game road trip.
Kings: Kuemper kept it a one-goal score by making three great stops in the second. He denied Eeli Tolvanen on two breakaway attempts and he reached behind to make a stick save on Jaden Schwartz’s shot on a wide-open net with 2:42 left.
Key moment: The Kings only managed one shot on goal during a five-on-three power play for 1:51 in the first period.
Key stat: Montour has the fourth-most goals among defensemen this season, behind only Cale Makar (30), Zach Werenski (20) and Jakob Chychrun (20).
Up next: The Kraken play at Utah on Tuesday, and the Kings host the Ducks on Thursday.
