Lafreniere gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 17:30 of the second period, scoring a backdoor tap-in off a centering pass from Panarin along the left-side boards.
Panarin cut off the Kraken's slow clearing attempt on the wall and sifted a pass through the slot to Lafreniere, who was open at the right post. All Lafreniere had to do was keep his stick down on the ice to redirect the puck past Grubauer.
"That's his game," Laviolette said of Panarin. "He doesn't even have to move much sometimes to get people to back off. He seems to find the time and space he needs to offensively to make things happen."
Brandon Tanev had a breakaway less than two minutes later, but K'Andre Miller came from behind the Kraken forward and made a strong defensive play on the backcheck at 19:20, knocking the puck away before he got a chance to shoot or make a move on Quick.
"I knew I still had him," Miller said. "Obviously it didn't really look like that, but I knew in the back of my head I still had him."
Quick previously kept it 0-0 with a save on Jaden Schwartz's wraparound attempt at 5:01, followed by a right pad stop on Stephenson's shot from the left post off an end-wall rebound at 14:13.