In Seattle, the Kraken’s Oliver Bjorkstrand scored with 2:28 left in regulation on Saturday to tie their match with the Los Angeles Kings, 2-2.
It took nine rounds of the skills portion of the evening’s affairs to get a decision, a 3-2 win to the Kings on a deciding marker from Carl Grundstrom.
“Obviously, kind of a relief to win that game,” Los Angeles’ Phillip Danault said. “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.”
The relief was from snapping a three-game schneid LA had been riding.
The Kings improved to 17-6-4.
Cam Talbot made 17 saves in the win.
Adam Larsson scored at 6:45 of the opening stanza to give the Kraken a 1-0 ;ead.
“He’s a warrior,” Bjorkstrand said. “He battles every game and is always ready to play. That’s impressive. That’s a lot of games.”
Trevor Moore knotted the game up at 1-1 with a strike 13:32.
“They scored the first goal, but we kept doing our thing and it worked out,” Danault said.
Anze Kopitar scored at 17:16 of the middle frame for a 2-1 lead to LA after 40 minutes.
“I thought tonight we deserved to win,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “We played a good, solid game, and if we wouldn’t have won it, [it] would have stung a little bit.”
“Battle level was high, and that’s a big part of our game,” Seattle’s Yanni Gourde said. “If we do that on a consistent basis, we’re going to win more games than we’re going to lose.”
The Kraken dropped to 10-14-8.
“I think we worked really hard getting back in that game,” Gourde said. “We battled hard in the third. Didn’t give them much. We kept pushing and pushing and eventually got our break.”
Newly acquired Tomas Tatar debuted for the Kraken in the game.
“He was solid,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “He’s had an awful lot happening over the last 24 hours. He gave us good minutes. He makes a lot of little plays out there that might go unnoticed, so it was a good start for him.”
Joey Daccord made 36 saves in the loss.
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