By MARK MOSCHETTI Associated Press
SEATTLE — Lias Andersson picked a fine time to break through.
Andersson’s first 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.
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.
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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.
NOTES
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). … 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.
More to come on this story.
UP NEXT
The Kings close the regular season on Thursday night at Vancouver.