SEATTLE — Brett Kulak broke a second-period tie with his first goal of the season, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Seattle Kraken 6-3 on Monday.

Kulak, acquired from Edmonton in December as part of the trade for goalie Tristan Jarry, scored for the first time since last year’s Western Conference final. The defenseman ripped a one-timer to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead with 5:15 left in the second.

Several other unlikely offensive contributors chipped in for the Penguins (23-14-11). Fellow defenseman Parker Witherspoon got the scoring started with a wrister from the point that slid past Seattle goalie Joey Daccord for his third of the season.

Pittsburgh center Connor Dewar scored short-handed in the first period and added an empty-net goal with 29.6 seconds remaining. Dewar’s first goal marked the third straight game the Kraken (21-18-9) have yielded a short-handed goal.

After falling behind 2-0, the Kraken tied it on goals from forward Ben Meyers and defenseman Ryan Lindgren. Meyers’ goal was his career-high fifth of the season. Eeli Tolvanen also scored for Seattle, which has lost four straight and six of seven.

Justin Brazeau scored early in the third for the Penguins to make it 4-2. Rickard Rakell added an insurance goal before Dewar’s empty-netter. Pittsburgh won for the second time in three games following a three-game skid.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby had two assists in his 1,400th career game. Stuart Skinner stopped 20 shots.

Daccord made 26 saves for Seattle.

Up next

Penguins: At the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.

Kraken: Host the New York Islanders on Wednesday night.

CHICAGO — It wasn’t just the Chicago Bears who had a pattern this season.

The Rams had one too.

Whereas Chicago stacked storybook endings, the Rams failed to finish what they started with disturbing regularity.

Five losses. Five fizzles.

Remember the unsatisfying finale to “The Sopranos”? Swelling crescendo … then abrupt cut to black? That was the Rams. Out of gas. Out of answers.

Said defensive star Jared Verse: “All our losses were self-inflicted.”

Two weeks into the playoffs and the Rams have turned a corner. Suddenly, they close out games.

Sure, there were blemishes to their 20-17 overtime victory at Chicago on Sunday night, just as their three-point win at Carolina had its wild-card warts.

The point is, when the Rams needed to land the knockout blow, they delivered.

That’s just where they want to be heading into the NFC championship game at Seattle, where last month they frittered away a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter and wound up losing in overtime.

Seismologists are at the ready. That’s how loud Lumen Field will be. The ground might be shaking in Seattle, but the Rams won’t be.

“We don’t think about that last game too much,” Rams safety Kam Curl said. “[Seattle] got lucky and won it in the end. I feel like we’re the better team.”

He then conceded, “It’s going to be a dogfight.”

In football vernacular, Curl was a dawg Sunday night, coming up with a huge interception of Caleb Williams in overtime and setting up the winning field-goal drive.

That turned back the almost-supernatural heroics of the Bears, who won games with fourth-quarter comebacks seven times this season, more than any other team. And the touchdown by Williams at the end of regulation, when he dropped back from the 14 to the 40 — the forty! — and somehow found Cole Kmet in the end zone will live in Chicago sports lore.

Yet on a frigid night, in the swirling snow, these Rams told fate to take a hike.

Rams safety Quentin Lake said the down times this season, the frustration of losing those close games, “gave us the experience and confidence” to turn on the afterburners now.

“We know what it takes to not feel that feeling again,” he said. “The only team that’s beaten the Rams is the Rams, just put it like that.”

Among the cold and imposing bodies in Chicago on Sunday: Lake Michigan and Lake, Quentin.

In the fourth quarter, with the Bears two yards from scoring, Lake caught leaping running back D’Andre Swift in the air and planted him into the turf for no gain. It was a key play in a goal-line stand that stole all the oxygen from the crowd.

“I had to channel my inner Carnell Lake on that one,” he said of his father, the legendary UCLA and Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back.

That wasn’t the only channeling the Rams did. They converted a fourth and one in the fourth quarter by handing the ball to receiver Puka Nacua, a play reminiscent of a jet sweep to Cooper Kupp in a similar situation in the Super Bowl.

Rams linebacker Byron Young, left, and defensive tackle Poona Ford (95) tackle Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams during the third quarter of the Rams’ 20-17 overtime win in the NFC divisional playoffs on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

And their win at Chicago had the feel of their divisional win at Tampa Bay four years ago, when they went on to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. In that 30-27 victory over the Buccaneers, the Rams similarly responded to a gut punch near the end — a Tampa Bay touchdown to tie — then marched 62 yards in the final 42 seconds and won it with a field goal.

Like this season’s Rams, there were all sorts of red flags in the regular season for that team. Those Rams didn’t win a game in November, then got hot.

That path to the Super Bowl is woven into the tapestry of great moments in Los Angeles sports. The Rams beat the Buccaneers, then toppled San Francisco in the conference title game at SoFi Stadium before winning it all against Cincinnati on that same field.

Now, yet another showdown with a division rival for a trip to the Super Bowl.

Speaking of flashbacks, three of the four potential Super Bowl matchups are rematches: Rams-New England, Seattle-New England and Seattle-Denver.

There is a healthy amount of respect between the Rams and Seahawks, and — at least from the Rams in the locker room Sunday night — a feeling that this matchup was fated.

“Something about that moment when we lost that game [in Seattle] that I felt like we’ll be back here again,” defensive lineman Kobie Turner said. “And honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

So after dumping destiny on its head in Chicago, the Rams are cool with it again. They used to freeze under pressure. Sunday, somehow, they thawed.

The Los Angeles Rams are headed to the NFC Championship!

In a back-and-forth game in snowy Chicago, the Rams defeated the Chicago Bears, 20-17 in overtime. Now, Los Angeles will head north to face their division rival in the Seattle Seahawks for the NFC title. The winner of the Seahawks vs. Rams game will head to Super Bowl LX. NFC Championship Game tickets are available now, starting at $959.

Here is everything you need to know to get Los Angeles Rams vs. Seattle Seahawks NFL playoff tickets:

Los Angeles Rams vs. Seattle Seahawks NFC Championship tickets

As of publication, the cheapest available tickets for the Los Angeles Rams vs. Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship game are starting at $959. If you want to get closer to the action, lower-level tickets are starting at $1,274.

When is the NFC Championship game?

The NFC Championship game is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 25, with kickoff set for 6:30 p.m. ET on Fox. The winner will advance to Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif.

More: Rep your favorite NFL playoff team with lululemon x NFL’s collection

Where is the NFC Championship game?

As the No. 1 seed, the Seahawks will host the NFC Championship game at Lumen Field in Seattle.

NFC Championship game information, TV info

• When: Sunday, Jan. 25
• Where: Lumen Field in Seattle
• What time: 6:30 p.m. ET
• TV channel: Fox
• Tickets: $959

When was the last time the Los Angeles Rams were in the NFC Championship?