Ducks beat Kraken, leap them in standings in closing sport earlier than break

Cutter Gauthier scored his team-leading 25th goal of the season as the Anaheim Ducks defeated the visiting Seattle Kraken 4-2 Tuesday night.

Jacob Trouba, Alex Killorn and Ross Johnston also scored and Jackson LaCombe and Jansen Harkins added two assists apiece for the Ducks, who won their second in a row and for the ninth time in their past 11 games to move past Seattle and into third place in the Pacific Division entering the Olympic break. Goaltender Lukas Dostal made 26 saves.

The Kraken, who saw their four-game winning streak snapped, will have a chance to regain that spot in the standings as they have one game left, Wednesday night in Los Angeles, before their three-week hiatus.

Seattle’s Jordan Eberle scored on a tip-in of Jared McCann’s shot at 15:31 of the third to spoil Dostal’s bid for his first shutout of the season.

The Kraken’s Shane Wright tallied at 17:29 after Dostal’s attempt at an empty-net goal was knocked down.

Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer stopped 27 of 31 shots.

Tuesday’s game completed the regular-season series between the division rivals, with the teams splitting the four matchups.

The Ducks outshot Seattle 11-7 in a scoreless first period.

Anaheim opened the scoring at 4:01 of the second on a one-timer from the top of the right faceoff circle by Gauthier past a screened Grubauer just after a Kraken penalty had expired.

The Ducks made it 2-0 on defenseman Trouba’s goal at 19:27 of the period. Harkins carried the puck down the right wing before dropping a pass back to Trouba for a slap shot from the point that made it through a maze of players in front of the net.

Anaheim extended its lead to 3-0 as Killorn tallied just 24 seconds into the third on a wrist shot from low on the right wing through a screen.

Johnston made it 4-0 at 13:54 after Grubauer mishandled the puck behind his own net.

–Field Level Media