Wright scores twice for Kraken in win against Kings

LOS ANGELES -- Shane Wright scored two goals in the Seattle Kraken’s 4-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday.

Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson also scored, and the Kraken (27-20-9) will enter the break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 having won five of their past six games (5-1-0). Joey Daccord made 25 saves, and Chandler Stephenson and Frederick Gaudreau each had two assists.

“I think we got something special brewing here,” Wright said. “We’ve, you know, strung a bunch of really good games together. Really big wins against divisional opponents, too. And, yeah, I mean, we’re just gonna keep building, keep pushing ourselves.”

Andrei Kuzmenko scored two goals, and Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves for the Kings (23-18-14), who have lost three of four (1-2-1).

“We just did a lot of things that were, I would say, uncharacteristic of us,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “To turn the puck over quite a bit defensively on breakouts, and then in the offensive zone, we just couldn’t get a good game going together. And despite that, we probably had a chance to tie it.”

Kuzmenko scored five-hole on a wrist shot on the power play at 7:42 of the first period to give the Kings a 1-0 lead. It was Kuzmenko’s 30th birthday, and he became the fifth player in franchise history to have multiple goals on his birthday (Butch Goring, Dave Taylor, Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille).

Wright tied it 1-1 at 9:16 on a backhand, cutting across the crease set up by Ryan Winterton below the goal line after picking off Jacob Moverare’s pass along the boards.

“I keep talking about Shane and how much I like the improvement of his 200-foot game, and the fact that he’s hitting goal posts and crossbars," Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. "Well, he’s not hitting goal posts and crossbars anymore. He’s putting them in the back of the net."

Larsson put Seattle up 2-1 at 10:14 on a one-timer from the inside hashes of the right circle.

“Especially with them on a back-to-back (following a 4-2 loss at the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday), we wanted to get on them early,” Los Angeles defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “It’s frustrating when we come in with the mindset that we want to take it to them right away, and they kind of flipped the script on us.”

Dunn made it 3-1 on the power play at 15:21, coming in off the rush to score five-hole with a backhand from the right circle. He has three points (one goal, two assists) during a three-game streak.

“I think there was a lot of plays tonight that we didn’t really talk about going into the game, or not a lot of set plays,” Dunn said. “Just more reading off each other and trusting each other to make the OKs that we see. And I think we created some pretty good chances, and we moved the puck pretty well.”

Kuzmenko cut it to 3-2 on the power play at 10:27 of the second period, finishing off the tic-tac-toe passing sequence from Kevin Fiala in the right circle to Adrian Kempe on the goal line to Kuzmenko on the inside hashes of the right circle for a one-timer.

“The second goal, of course, is a really nice play,” Hiller said. “So, yeah, that gave us life, but that wasn’t enough.”

Wright pushed the Kraken’s lead to 4-2 on the power play at 5:50 of the third period with a one-timer from the left circle off Gaudreau’s cross-slot pass. It was Wright’s second two-goal game in the past four after scoring twice in a 5-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

“I mean, great passes from everybody there,” Wright said. “Didn’t have to do much on the goals, they kind of set it up for me. I mean, just finding plays, and playing with smart players, just got to find some open ice, and guys were able to find me.”

NOTES: Kempe extended his point streak to eight games (11 points; five goals, six assists). … Jared McCann had an assist to extend his point streak to five games (nine points; four goals, five assists). … Stephenson has seven assists in his past six games. … Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz did not play because of a lower-body injury.