SEATTLE – Jaden Schwartz scored his fifth career hat trick and the fourth hat trick in Seattle Kraken history in a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.

Joey Daccord made 17 of his 28 saves in the third period, and Schwartz scored on an empty net with 1:10 left to play to clinch the victory for the Kraken. Schwartz joins Jordan Eberle (11/14/21 vs. Buffalo), Jared McCann (1/14/23 at Chicago), and Brandon Montour (10/29/24 at Montreal) as players with hat tricks for the Kraken. 

It was the fifth regular season hat trick of Schwartz’s career, along with two playoff hat tricks, all while playing with the St. Louis Blues.

The first line of Schwartz, Matty Beniers and Kaapo Kakko continue to rack up points together. The trio combined for seven points on the night as all three players had a significant hand in the victory.

“Great to see Jaden get the hat trick,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “And it can’t be understated, the line of Matty Beniers and Jaden and Kakko, what they keep doing for us, night in and night out. They get the first two goals, but good to see Schwartzy get the hat trick there at the end.”

Just 28 seconds into the game, Schwartz got Seattle on the board. The Kings couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone as it fell onto the stick of Kakko. Schwartz slipped the puck inside the right post by the pad of a sliding Darcy Kuemper for a 1-0 lead.

A high-stick penalty to Beniers minutes later allowed the Kings to answer back on the power play. Right off the offensive zone face-off, the Kings won the puck as Adrian Kempe found space on the back post to finish a pass from Anže Kopitar for the tying goal.

But the line of Schwartz, Beniers and Kakko continued to dominate play over the opening 10 minutes.

A massive hit from Joshua Mahura against Warren Foegele at the Seattle blue line sent play into chaos. It also launched the Kraken on a rush chance as Schwartz scored his second goal of the period off a pass from Beniers on a 2-on-1 break for a 2-1 Kraken lead. The Kings got caught trying to engage Mahura for the hit on Foegele and left defenseman Brandt Clarke and Kuemper hung out to dry.

“We wouldn’t have scored if he didn’t do that,” Schwartz said of Mahura’s hit. “

Said Bylsma: “I thought the hit by Josh was, you don’t want to say it’s a turning point in the game, but it was, I think, a huge statement hit and getting the goal right after it, you know, was a sign to everybody we were in the match.”

Seattle was unable to escape the period with the lead, however. Defenseman Brandon Montour shoved Trevor Moore into Daccord, who flailed in vain to make a stop on Jordan Spence’s shot from distance. The Kraken bench appeared to consider challenging the play for goaltender interference, but elected against it as the contact was due to Montour’s actions. 

Seattle re-gained the lead less than two minutes into the second period. Chandler Stephenson flashed across the front of the net to chip an Oliver Bjorkstrand shot-pass by Kuemper for a 3-2 Kraken advantage.

The lead held despite a heavy push from the Kings in the final period due to the play of Daccord.

Daccord denied Foegele on a short-handed 2-on-0 breakaway chance early in the third period to keep the one-goal advantage. The Kings had a 17-1 advantage in shots on goal in the third, with Schwartz’s empty-net tally serving as the only shot Seattle managed in the period.

“Every time we get a power play, I’m just like, ‘hey, just be ready in case they get a chance.’ Because every once in a while, you know, get a bad bounce, bad luck, someone makes a mistake, and, you know, it’s hockey, it’s going to happen, and sometimes you’re going to get a chance against and I just try to be ready for them,” Daccord said. “And you know, it’s my job to make big saves for the team when the team needs it. So when I get the opportunity, and then I’m able to follow through and execute it, it feels really good. Honestly, I was fired up after that save. And, yeah, just feels really good to get a big win at home.”

Schwartz had two chances at the empty net, with the first hitting the left post and staying out. Kakko then managed to win a loose puck and toss it ahead to Schwartz for his third of the night.

“After I hit the post we had a couple good blocks, Joey had a couple timely saves,” Schwartz said. “Kaapo made a great play (to get me the puck), so I guess my teammates did a good job of bailing me out for missing that. It was just a team effort all-around. Guys were laying it on the line tonight. It was a fun game.”

Kakko picked up an assist on all three of Schwartz’s goals for Seattle. Kakko now has 13 points in 14 games (four goals, nine assists) played with the Kraken since the trade last month with the New York Rangers.

What’s next:

The Kraken will continue their home stand with a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinée against the Buffalo Sabres at 1 p.m on Monday.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man has been sentenced to life in federal prison after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women in separate instances, including locking one in a cinder block cell.

Negasi Zuberi, 31, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Medford, Portland television station KGW reported. A federal jury convicted him in October on charges of kidnapping, transportation for criminal sexual activity, being a felon in possession of a weapon and attempting to break out of jail when he tried to smash through his cell window in August 2023.

“This is not a man who deserves to be around others,” a victim said at the hearing. “He shows blatant disregard and lack of care for human life.”

The Associated Press does not usually name people who have been sexually assaulted.

“Negasi Zuberi is a serial predator who committed acts of evil. He hunted women,” assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey Sweet said before Zuberi was sentenced.

In July 2023, Zuberi solicited a woman to engage in prostitution along Aurora Avenue in Seattle, authorities said. He told the woman he was an undercover officer, showed her a badge, pointed a Taser at her and placed her in handcuffs and leg irons before putting her in the back of his vehicle.

He then drove hundreds of miles to his home in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and locked the woman in a cinder block cell in his garage, according to the FBI. After the woman escaped after repeatedly banging on the cell door until it broke open, Zuberi fled and was arrested in Reno, Nevada.

Federal authorities later linked him to a second kidnapping in May 2023, in which he was convicted of abducting a woman outside a Klamath Falls bar. Prosecutors said he threatened her with a Taser, handcuffed her in the back of his vehicle and sexually assaulted her.

Zuberi had pleaded not guilty and continued to claim he was innocent during the sentencing hearing.

He waived his right to testify during the 11-day trial. He attempted to testify on the trial’s last day but was denied because he earlier waived that right.