Kings follow big acquisition with loss to Kraken

LOS ANGELES — Hours after the Kings scored big in the trade market by picking up dynamic and creative winger Artemi Panarin, they could have used him on the ice at Crypto.com Arena, where they fell to the Seattle Kraken, 4-2, on Wednesday night.

The Kings lost for the third time in four games. Panarin will not join them until after the Olympic break, which will span Feb. 6-24. They are three points back of a playoff spot as well as of the Kraken and the Ducks, who reentered a points tie for third place in the Pacific Division.

Seattle bounced back from a defeat against the Ducks at Honda Center 24 hours earlier that snapped a four-game win streak.

“Especially with them at the end of a back-to-back [set], we wanted to get on them early, forecheck and play our game,” Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “But they got three [goals] in the first period, and they were taking it to us. That was kind of unacceptable on our behalf.”

Andrei Kuzmenko scored two power-play goals on his 30th birthday for the Kings, both assisted by Kevin Fiala. Darcy Kuemper had 19 saves.

Shane Wright tallied twice to bookend Seattle’s scoring. In between, Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn notched a goal apiece. Chandler Stephenson and Frédérick Gaudeau each chipped in two assists. Joey Daccord stopped 25 shots.

The birthday boy Kuzmenko blew out the candles and did more than wish the puck into the net, igniting the offense by way of a power-play marker 7:42 after the opening draw.

Kuzmenko had a calm exchange along the left-wing boards with Clarke, receiving the puck back above the faceoff circle. He glided forward cautiously, selling a pass with his eyes before sneaking a shot through an unprepared Daccord’s five hole.

“Power plays are such important moments in every game. If you score one goal or two goals on the power play, it’s a beautiful thing in the game for you,” Kuzmenko said. “Today, it was good, but today was a bad result also [in the game].”

Seattle then clapped back with three unanswered goals at 9:16, 10:14 and 15:21 to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.

Ryan Winterton picked off Jacob Moverare’s backhanded rim-around pass, dishing the puck to Wright for a forehand-to-backhand move that beat Kuemper cleanly.

Another turnover singed the Kings just 58 seconds later when Alex Laferriere couldn’t handle Clarke’s pass in the corner of the defensive zone. That set in motion a sequence culminating in Larsson’s kneeling redirection goal from between the hash marks.

Dunn converted on the power play, giving the Kraken two goals from defensemen. He got the puck just in front of the red line during a neutral-zone regroup, challenging Joel Edmundson and dashing to the net for a backhand goal.

“That was not a good game for us,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “I didn’t think we had much all night [in terms of] legs. Execution was few and far between. There were six minutes where they scored, but [overall] we just weren’t sharp.”

Kuzmenko struck again on the extra man, 10:27 into the middle frame. After Fiala and Adrian Kempe played a close-range game of pitch-and-catch with Fiala falling as he made the final pass, Kempe zipped the puck into the slot for Kuzmenko and goal No. 13 of the mercurial Russian’s campaign.

“That gave us life, but it wasn’t enough,” Hiller said.

As 14:10 remained in the game, Wright scored his second goal, this one on the power play off a silky centering feed from Gaudreau. It was his third goal in two nights after scoring just eight in 54 prior appearances this season.

All four Seattle goals came either off turnovers or after penalties, with Kempe’s 4-minute infraction with 4:10 to play also quelling any aspirations of a comeback in the dying embers.

“We took too many penalties. We just did a lot of things that were uncharacteristic. We turned the puck over quite a bit, on breakouts and in the offensive zone,” Hiller said. “Despite that, we probably had a chance to tie it, until the fourth goal killed any chance of that.”