Ducks top Kraken, roll into Olympic break on a tear

ANAHEIM — The Ducks crescendoed their way into the NHL’s Olympic break, winning nine of their final 11 games after topping the Seattle Kraken, 4-2, on Tuesday night at Honda Center.

They led 4-0 and withstood a surge from Seattle in the final five minutes, most of which the Kraken spent with their goalie pulled.

The Ducks evened the season series and accumulated their most wins in any 11-game stretch this season after racking up eight victories in 11 chances back in November.

The Kraken had not only won four straight but had also beaten the Ducks in two of three prior meetings in 2025-26, and 11 of 16 all-time matchups. They fell behind the Ducks by two points for third place in the Pacific Division.

“This game was huge, to get those two points going into the break, and our team is doing a great job of battling toward what we want to do,” defenseman Jackson LaCombe said. “Everyone’s committing to playing better defense, and that’s shown over this last stretch. We’re really happy with where we’re at.”

Cutter Gauthier, Jacob Trouba, Alex Killorn and Ross Johnston each scored for the hosts. LaCombe and Jansen Harkins both had two primary assists. Lukáš Dostál stopped 26 shots in his final preparation for the Olympic tournament in Milan.

Jordan Eberle and Shane Wright each scored for Seattle, and Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves.

A brisk first period that saw only 10 total faceoffs, seven won by the Ducks, passed by with no score. But in the second, they seized control by drawing the evening’s first penalty and scoring its first goal before retroceding momentum and then scoring a vital second marker.

LaCombe fanned on a shot-pass before Gauthier alertly strode to meet the underpowered pass and flicked a shot with so little hesitation he appeared to surprise Grubauer. The puck banked in off the German Olympian to be for Gauthier’s team-leading 25th goal of the season.

After dominating possession and generating opportunities early and often in the middle frame, the Ducks then absorbed play from Seattle. The Kraken gained steam and sustained pressure, but they couldn’t convert.

Then, off a controlled breakout, Radko Gudas’ stretch pass for Ryan Poehling allowed the Ducks to chip the puck into the zone. Harkins skated it down and dropped it back to the blue line for Trouba. His explosive one-timer found the net to the far side through two big bodies, those of the Ducks’ Johnston and Seattle’s Jamie Oleksiak.

It was Trouba’s ninth goal of the season and his first since Jan. 13. He’s on pace to comfortably eclipse his career-best total of 11 from 2021-22 with the New York Rangers.

“They had a couple shifts right before that that were in their favor, and it was a dangerous couple of shifts. It was a one-nothing game, anything could happen,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We saw that the first two times we played them, when we might have, territorially, had an advantage, but they’re patient and play a smart team game, so that was huge.”

Trouba picked up a penalty during a scrum resulting from a hit after the horn on Troy Terry, who just returned from an upper-body injury, by Jacob Melanson. Melanson didn’t see the ice in the third period.

During the resulting four-on-four situation, the Ducks scored a mere 24 seconds into the final frame, meaning they struck in the final minute of one period and the first minute of the next.

Ian Moore gained the offensive zone and made a drop pass for LaCombe. He found Killorn for a sharp-angle shot that beat Grubauer thanks in part to the effort of Poehling in front. The goal was Killorn’s seventh of the campaign, and his fifth since the calendar turned.

“The late goal [in the second period] and then the early goal in the third took us almost out of the game,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said.

The Ducks slathered on another goal after a bad hop for Grubauer as he attempted to play a puck behind the net. Harkins pounced, sliding a pass in front to Johnston for an uncontested nudge. The enforcer’s third goal tied a single-season career high and his 13th point augmented what was already his career-best scoring output.

“You go in trying to anticipate if he does miss it, or try at least make him think about it a little bit. You go in fast and give yourself a chance to make a play on it,” Harkins said.

With 4:26 to play, the Kraken denied Dostál his first shutout of the year when their leading scorer, Eberle, recorded an academic marker.

The Kraken pulled Grubauer with well over three minutes left. The crowd was thinking about free chicken for a fifth goal and Dostál was of one mind with the fans.

Unfortunately, his attempt at a goalie goal was knocked down by Tye Kartye and then deposited into the cage by Wright. Wright has two more goals (five) and four more points (10) against the Ducks than he has against any other franchise.

“We had some good pushes, but they were a little late. You get down a couple goals and it’s tough to get back,” former Ducks defenseman Brandon Montour said. “We had a couple chances, there was a hit post I think, just not enough time.”

The Ducks will send LaCombe, Gudas, Dostál, Mikael Granlund and prospect Damian Clara to the games in Italy, while Leo Carlsson will miss the tournament due to his thigh injury.